There are many compilations of Joe Meek's recordings or productions, especially in the CD format. Still, on vinyl, this album is my favorite of the lot. It's not extensive but put together with great taste and intelligence. I suspect that this is a bootleg, so I'm not sure if the editing of this compilation was one because they had no choice, or by design, an excellent representation of Joe Meek's music.
"The Emotional, Cosmic & Occult World of Joe Meek" (great title, by the way) covers a lot of ground within its 12 cuts. The most well-known 'hit' song here is John Leyton's classic "Johnny Remember Me." The others are obscure to everyone except for the hardcore Meek fan. The album opens up with The Blue Rondos' "Little Baby," in which Ricky Nelson meets Roy Orbison and is a great song/recording. The drums' thump-thump sound is here, which is very much a Meek trademark, but also the echo on the vocalist's voice, which sounds like it is coming from a world beyond us. It's eerie, beautiful, and sexy.
Speaking of thump-thump drums, we have The Outlaws' "Crazy Drums," a fantastic percussion workout edited by Meek and played by Meek's guitar great Ritchie Blackmore. The Moontrrekkers' "Night of the Vampire" has a galloping beat with horror sound effects. One of the remarkable instrumentals that seem so right and is the definition of perfection at work. Meek worked a lot with Glenda Collins, and here we have a great tune, "It's Hard To Believe It," that confronts the optimism of the space age in the early 1960s. There are also two songs from the Meek masterpiece "I Hear A New World," The Blue Men's "The Bublight" and "Valley of the Saros." On one level, it is kitsch, but Meek took space travel, aliens, and the after-life very seriously. For one who wants to put one foot forward into the Joe Meek world, I strongly recommend "The Emotional, Cosmic & Occult World of Joe Meek."
THE VELVET MAFIA: The Gay Men Who Ran The Swinging Sixties” by Darryl W. Bullock (Omnibus Press) 2021
If I had my own record shop, I would name the shop after Darryl W. Bullock’s book “The Velvet Mafia.” In my shop, instead of having sections or categories on artists, I would have Larry Parnes, Brian Epstein, Joe Meek, Robert Stigwood, Simon Napier-Bell, and Andrew Loog Oldham sections. Since these gentlemen are not recording artists but managers and producers, it will focus on their pop music view. Mostly gay, when being gay was illegal in England up until 1967, these figures articulate and sold generations music that was essential and sometimes bad. Here, bad is a sign of genius. All above are strong visionaries in how they sold a product - usually good-looking males, with occasionally questionable music talents, and artists of great importance and brilliance.
Due to the laws and the straight world, LGBT professionals had to work publicly and secretively. Managers like Larry Parents and Brian Epstein came from Jewish working-class families who had retail shops. Both tried to enter the show biz world as entertainers or actors but realized that they could go into showbiz through promoter and manager. For Parnes, his ‘yes’ moment was seeing the teenage Tommy Steele in a Solo coffee house and Epstein visiting the Liverpool Cavern to see the future Fab Four. Both saw the future, and especially Parnes invented homegrown British orientated rock n’ roll. The Beatles, of course, became a planet to themselves.
The book covers many grounds, but the focus is on Parnes, Epstein, Meek, Stigwood, and songwriter Lionel Bart. Each figure has other personalities circling them, and eventually, they mixed with the others. There are other managers/visionaries such as Andrew Loog Oldham and Simon Napier-Bell. Still, they will get their own book, or there will be a sequel to this perfect volume. I love pop music because it must be part of a more extensive culture or society. The Gay world so secretive, even with their own language at times, Polari, which is traced back to the 19th-century, and possibly to the 16th. It is a form of can’t slang that only insiders can understand. Here the Managers/Promoters made marketing decisions to create a product that appeals to the Gay’s sensibility and the screaming female fan market. Parnes is not a music person, but he realized that Rock n’ Roll needed its own platform in England and not shared with clowns, jugglers, and comedians. The roots of music hall culture will not disappear but transform into British rock n’ roll packaged tours. At times even great American artists such as Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, and Buddy Holly would be part of the big show. This cross-continental programming fueled the imagination and desires of British youth. Many of the musicians from the British Invasion have seen Buddy, Eddie, and Gene.
At the beginning of his career, who would have thought Robert Stigwood would end up being the king of showbiz. Managing Cream and Bee Gees, or the talented Lionel Bart, would lose all his dough. Parnes rarely made financial mistakes, and at times Epstein was overwhelmed with problems of narcotics, a hard love life, and finances that went totally out of his control. The 1960s was in consistent motion. I think this was the force that led these gentlemen to use their desires to make money (always the concern) and forge a new liberating culture.
Darryl W. Bullock’s “The Velvet Mafia” is a well-documented look at that decade. With the skill of a historian/journalist, he captures these figures in motion and all the byproducts of that landscape. Here you get the Kray Twins and the voices of the young British artists as their lives being changed by these business and social visionaries. Joe Meek’s sad narration is told here as well. It’s a fantastic story of a man struggling with his place in society and being a genius in his field of record production. Kimley and I discuss and interview Bullock on his book on our podcast Book Musik. It will be up on March 15, 2021.
Of all the mediums, besides the music, of course, a theatrical play would be best to tell the narrative of Joe Meek. For one, I can't picture him being outside of his apartment/flat/studio. I think at least 90% of the photos I have seen of Meek's in the studio working or posing in front of his recording equipment, which also has tons of reel-to-reel tapes thrown on the floor. In a manner, he reminds me of looking at photos of the painter Francis Bacon in his tiny and messy studio. Meek and Bacon share a sexual orientation as well as a love for being in their studios making art/commerce. Their work is enormous and went beyond their studios. Still, in an everyday life situation, both were chained to their work and studio.
Nick Moran with James Hicks (that's the billing on the book cover) is a very accurate and crystal clear series of Meek snapshots at work. Dealing with the issues of rent with his understanding landlady, who he eventually murders in the act of insanity, as well as with his love/artist Heinz, and the various and somewhat dedicated musicians who worked with Joe. In a way, the Meek narrative works itself as a play. Joe Meek being in the studio was a total theater experience. It seems he was always on the brink of complete disaster, but on the other hand, he was a genius. Not the greatest songwriter, but truly a master of sound and how it conveys emotions and sexuality to the listener. Although I suspect he wasn't aware of France's Musique-Concrete composers, he did use similar techniques of using noise. Such as throwing pebbles into a toilet. Also capturing the pounding foot-stomping from his staircase for the amazing "Have I The Right" by The Honeycombs.
This is a somber narration, but putting together such a fascinating group of people in the Meek studio, therefore his world, is an excellent read. The chances for me to see this play on stage are probably non-existent; still, I get the show after reading the play.
1992 I was pretty much busy working in the Beyond Baroque world as its Director and Curator. I had a craving for music but it got very unimportant to me at this time. Looking through the releases there are only two albums that made an impression on me, and they are albums by well-known, yet controversial artists. Yoko Ono and Morrissey. Beyond that, on a music level, I must have been focused on buying old Serge Gainsbourg and Joe Meek related music. French Pop made an impression on me, due to my visits to Japanese record stores. The Ono Box was a retrospective of Yoko's recordings, and it is probably the best set exploring her music. The Morrissey "Your Arsenal" was his 'rock' recording, produced by the great Mick Ronson. At this time, I felt Morrissey was at his height as an artist and 'public figure.' At the time, I thought his approach to the Right-Wing was as in a fictional character. Nevertheless, I have always preferred the solo Morrissey to The Smiths. Not a popular opinion by the way! -Tosh Berman
1991 was a mega-year for me. I worked at Book Soup and worked at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Venice, California. We also moved from a crummy apartment in Hollywood to Silver Lake in one of those dreamy Walt Disney Snow White architectural wonders. While living in Japan, I did a book of poetry, and everything seemed right to me. And we were still going to Japan, at least once a year. The amazing thing about that year is I had no interest in any music released that year. It was a big year and iconic, due to Seattle bands' resurgence like Nirvana making it big. I admired Kurt and company, but the music meant nothing to me. What impressed me, and was totally new to me at that time was Pixies's "Trompe le Monde." I have heard of them but never their music, until a visit at Tower Sunset, and out of curiosity, listened to this album. By the time I heard the third track, "Alec Eiffel," I was hooked. To this day, I love "Alec Eiffel." I then purchased their past albums, and although I wasn't a fanatic fan, I really love "Trompe le Monde." While visiting Tokyo that year, I picked up on a compilation of Joe Meek's productions/songs as well as his odd masterpiece "I Hear a New World." In 1991, I became a Meek obsessive. Also, I started to listen to Serge Gainsbourg. He died that year, and again, being in Japan, it's easy to be exposed to French pop music. Every music store in Japan had a sizable French Pop section. So, yes, French pop culture made an appearance, which leads to my TamTam Books.
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