BED : Tornados - Jungle Fever
Thanks for tuning in to this special edition of the Whig
Out, Joe Meek, an Ichiban Hero. Thanks to Richard and Glynis for their support
and for letting me sit in today and to my friend Kieron for his helpful advice.
I'm going to play some Ichiban favorites that you'll recognize, as well as some
tracks that may be new to you. I don't claim to be an expert on Joe Meek, but
I'll do my best to tell his story in the next hour.
MUSIC : John Leyton - Johnny Remember Me
BED : Moontrekkers - Night of the Vampire
Why is Joe Meek an
Ichiban hero ?
Joe Meek was an English recording engineer and record
producer, mainly active in the early 60s. He was a one-man revolution, an
outsider and innovator, he did everything his own way, refusing to be controlled
by the powerful major labels, producing his own hits and leasing recordings to
the majors on his own terms.
Chapter 1 : Recording
techniques
When Joe arrived on the scene in the late 50s, the
particularly staid British recording establishment, who were still wearing
white lab coats, viewed their job as accurately capturing a live performance.
Joe had a different perspective, fueled by boundless creative talent and
imagination.
He pioneered, in England, techniques literally considered
wrong by major British recording studios.
CLIP : Kerridge Lansdowne
When Meek's innovative ideas were rejected at Lansdowne, he
quit his job and opened his own studio in an apartment above a London
leather-goods shop.
CLIP : Screaming Lord Sutch broom incident
MUSIC : Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages - She's
Fallen In Love With The Monster Man
BED : Cherry Wainer - Cerveza
At 304 Holloway Road, Joe conceived a new way to make hit
records with recordings that jumped out of the speakers on crappy radios and
record players, creating extraordinary, unique pop recordings that would catch
peoples' ears.
CLIP : Jonathan King kick drum recording
Joe Meek was a pioneer in using the recording studio as an
instrument, creating sounds without the restrictions of a live performance.
choosing non-standard microphones
close miking
overloading devices and pushing signals into the red for
distortion
using massive compression and limiting
taking direct input from the bass
natural echo
tape echo
spring reverb
flanging
overdubbing and layering
speeding up vocals or the whole tape
…not to mention wild sound effects, often using unexpected
techniques like repeatedly dropping a toilet chain into an old biscuit tin,
which you can hear in this song.
MUSIC : David John & The Mood - Bring It To Jerome
BED : Freddie Starr and the Midnighters - Peter Gunn
Locomotion
Ironically, by the time of his death, Joe's recording
techniques had become standard for recording rock music. However, his approach
frustrated some performers, who weren't able to get the sound of the records when
they played live. To record Have I the Right by the Honeycombs, he had people
stamp out the beat on the wooden stairs of the studio and recorded that noise
with five microphones he had fixed to the banisters with bicycle clips. It
reached #1 on the British charts in August 1964 and sold over 2 million copies
worldwide.
MUSIC : Honeycombs - Have I the Right
Chapter 2 : Independence,
the outsider
BED : Outlaws - Sioux Serenade
Joe kept his independence and control by making his own
recordings in his own studio and licensing them to the big labels, so that he
profited from their pressing facilities and distribution networks. Because he
was making hits, the majors were obliged to work with him, but the relationship
remained tense and they considered him a threat.
CLIP : Meek watch them like a hawk
There were UK indie labels in this period but not to the vast
extent found in the US at that time. In any case, Joe was targeting the
mainstream, much like the bigger indies in the US.
He even started his own label, Triumph, but lack of access
to big pressing plants meant that his first potential hit could not be produced
rapidly in large quantities, putting the brakes on what might have been a #1 record.
SONG : Michael Cox - Angela Jones
BED : Fabulous Flee-Rakkers - Green Jeans
Johnny Remember Me by John Leyton, which we heard earlier,
was another story of Joe's combat with the establishment. BBC radio blacklisted
the record, but Meek found a way around them, getting the song performed on a
popular TV series. The record hit #1 in the UK in August 1961, sold 500,000
copies and became "Record of the Year".
This made his reputation, as well as Telstar, by the
Tornados, which was the first single by a British band to reach number one on
the U.S. charts in December 1962. It was written and produced by Joe Meek, and
featured his wild production techniques as well as a clavioline, a mutant
keyboard instrument.
In 1963 he produced the film "Live it Up"
featuring many of his top artists in order to promote their records.
Joe was always an outsider, in terms of business and in
terms of production, but also in terms of content. His Tribute To Buddy Holly came
from holding seances, Johnny Remember Me concerns the afterlife and connected
with the trend in death discs. we'll talk shortly about his sexual politics
and in particular the track Do You Come Here Often.
MUSIC : Outlaws - Shake with Me
Chapter 3 : His
unique vision and style
BED : Saints - Wipe Out
Joe had an instinctive, commercial ear.
He also had a vision of a market where teenagers were buying
records made for them, rather than the boring adult records that dominated
sales.
He tried everything, including so-called death discs, poppy
ballads, space age pop, girl group sounds, surf, jazz and country. He had a
roster of bands that he produced and recorded, including Screaming Lord Sutch, and
he did his own A&R.
His innovative recording techniques meant that his records
sounded like no one else's.
MUSIC : Neil Christian and the Crusaders - Big Beat Drum
BED : Original Checkmates - the Spy
Fueled by his vision, plus amphetamines, Joe Meek took a
manic approach to recording and production. From 1960 to 1966 he produced about
700 recordings. He composed and wrote lyrics for about 250 of them. Between 62
and 65, he released 141 records, 24 of which made the British top 40.
But after his death in 1967, 4,000 more hours of music were
salvaged in his studio by Cliff Cooper of the Millionaires, who bought them for
300 pounds sterling.
Joe Meek's records are marked RGM sound recording, for
(Robert George Meek), or Meeksville
Sound after his 1964 split with his financial associate "Major"
Banks.
MUSIC : Glenda Collins - This Little Girl's Gone Rockin
MUSIC : Danny Rivers and the Rivermen - Movin' In
Chapter 4 : Sexual
politics
BED/MUSIC : Tornados - Do You Come Here Often
In the early 60s, homosexuality was still illegal in the UK,
as it was, by the way, in almost every state in the US, and persecution and
criminal prosecution were very real threats to Joe Meek.
CLIP : Goddard arrest
'Have I the Right?' by the Honeycombs, a summer hit in 1964,
can easily be interpreted as a strong statement concerning the suppression of
his right to express his sexuality.
CLIP : Pink pressure
Living daily with this oppression, Joe came up with an even
more remarkable statement of sexual politics on a Tornados B-side from 1966, which
proved that Columbia records literally hadn't listened to what they were
putting out - if they had, it would have been instantly rejected.
After a long stretch of an instrumental track, 'Do You Come
Here Often?' includes a conversation between two men in a gay bar.
John Savage, in an essay in the Guardian, calls a it a true
slice of queer life, and an extraordinary achievement.
Chapter 5 : Emotional
and mental issues, spiritualism and the occult, financial problems, loss of
relevance, increasing use of drugs, paranoia
BED : Spooks - The Spook Walks
Joe had always been spooky: obsessed with other worlds,
graveyards and spiritualism. He claimed to be in regular contact with Buddy
Holly through the spirit world
CLIP : Goddard seance
The forces working against Joe Meek gathered speed. As John
Savage puts it, Jekyll overtook Hyde [sic], as his money troubles and declining fame
caused him to increase his pill intake and to dabble further in the occult. He
was initially slow to recognize the arrival of British beat and the changes in
the music market and had to catch up. He was beaten up and his car was
vandalized. He was threatened by gangsters who wanted to take over the
Tornados' management. His emotional and sexual orientation was illegal. A
copyright dispute froze royalties from Telstar. His paranoia seemed
increasingly justified.
MUSIC : Millionaires - Wishing Well
BED : Packabeats - Theme From The Traitors
Joe bought out his partner, "Major" Banks, and
found himself with huge debts and no financial expertise.
It seems generally agreed that Joe suffered from bipolar
disorder and schizophrenia. He also abused speed, leaving symptoms of
amphetamine psychosis, and took downers as well.
MUSIC : Jason Eddie and The Centremen - Singing The Blues
Joe's long-standing paranoia intensified. He was convinced
that competitors were spying on him, he tore off the wallpaper searching for
hidden microphones.
CLIP : Sutch bug
There are many stories of violent incidents at the studio,
including throwing Tom Jones down the stairs, and I know what you're thinking,
that isn't really a bad idea.
CLIP : Clem Cattini Phil Spector
By mid-1966, Joe's mental state was worsening and he was in
a downward spiral.
Some people say that he had a progressive loss of relevance
with the arrival of British beat, and that he could not adapt to the new bands,
which had their own material and their own sound. However, this next set should
prove that Joe finally picked up on the trends and was perfectly able to make
great beat records while adding his unique touch. We can only guess what he
could have potentially achieved.
MUSIC : Paul & Ritchie & The Crying Shames - Come On
Back
MUSIC : Buzz - You're Holding Me Down
MUSIC : Blue Rondos - Baby I Go For You
MUSIC : Riot Squad - I Take It That We're Through
MUSIC : Syndicats - Crawdaddy Simone
Chapter 6 Death
BED : Joe Meek & The Blue Men ― Love Dance Of The Saroos
On February 2 1967, Joe Meek burst into a friend's house all
dressed in black, saying he was possessed. The next morning, the 18th
anniversary of Buddy Holly's death, he blasted his landlady with a shotgun
before turning it on himself.
CLIP : Pink shooting
Within a few months, the British law on homosexuality had
been struck down and the Telstar copyright trial had finished, releasing most
of the royalties.
---
Thanks for listening to Joe Meek, an Ichiban Hero. I'm Jon. Keep it tuned to WFMU's Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban.
MUSIC : Cryin Shames - Please Stay
ON LINE
BOOKS
Joe Meek's Bold Techniques
The Legendary Joe Meek: The Telstar Man
