Telstar - The Mad Genius Of Joe Meek

Introduction

Apparently, the first song that I ever liked according to my uncle Trevor was "Hound Dog" by Elvis Presley, I was three at the time and a picture was taken of me with curly blonde hair but I have not been able to track it down, though my sister Yvonne has all our old photographs which I have scanned, but that one is sadly missing.

The film "Telstar" is brilliant and gets a more than decent score on Rotten Tomatoes and hopefully, this playlist will make you want to discover more of this amazing genius.

The Amazon blurb describes him thus:

Joe Meek, the flamboyantly gay, tone-deaf, songwriter-producer behind the '60s hits "Have I the Right," "Just Like Eddie," "Johnny, Remember Me" and "Telstar."

The Wikipedia intro says this about him:

Robert George "Joe" Meek (5 April 1929 – 3 February 1967) was an English record producer, sound engineer and songwriter who pioneered space age and experimental pop music. He also assisted in the development of recording practices like overdubbing, sampling and reverberation. Meek is considered one of the most influential sound engineers of all time, being one of the first to develop ideas such as the recording studio as an instrument, and becoming one of the first producers to be recognised for his individual identity as an artist.

At the time of his death, Meek possessed thousands of unreleased recordings later dubbed "The Tea Chest Tapes". His commercial success as a producer was short-lived, and he gradually sank into debt and depression. On 3 February 1967, using a shotgun owned by musician Heinz Burt, Meek killed his landlady, Violet Shenton, and then shot himself.

His reputation for experiments in recording music was acknowledged by the Music Producers Guild who in 2009 created "The Joe Meek Award for Innovation in Production" as a "homage to [the] remarkable producer's pioneering spirit".In 2014, Meek was ranked the greatest producer of all time by NME, elaborating: "Meek was a complete trailblazer, attempting endless new ideas in his search for the perfect sound. ... The legacy of his endless experimentation is writ large over most of your favourite music today."

The full article is below

These songs make a short playlist and I have included a couple of links to CD collections at the end of this piece. His music is worth exploring.

"Telstar" by The Tornadoes

All these songs were made without the aid of computers that we have these days. In this one, I loved the harp sweeps and it was probably the first Joe Meek produced song that I had heard. I was five when this came out in 1962 so there was the space and satellite connection but the noises that came out of this amazed and attracted me, much like the Dr Who theme by Delia Derbyshire.

The small Telstar satellite was launched in 1962.So much advancement in space exploration has taken place since. The Tornados had a huge hit with this instrumental smash,created,packaged and produced by the late great Joe Meek

"Just Like Eddie" by Heinz

A brilliant tribute to Eddie Cochran from the former Tornados member Heinz Burt with his distinctive white haircut. I don't know if it was dyed or not, but I heard this before I became an Eddie Cochran fan and just loved it, but I was far too young to be buying records so I just had to wait for it to come on the radio. This was way before cassette recorders although around 1968 a reel-to-reel tape recorder appeared in our house.

"Have I The Right?" by The Honeycombs

Probably unusual in a sixties song where no assumption is made that the girl belongs to the guy. The other thing is the band's drummer was female, and despite what some people might say, a bad drummer will destroy a band, a good drummer will make a band.

Just listen to the instrumental sounds that come from this 1964 single.

"Johnny Remember Me" by Johnny Leyton

Of course, as a kid, I loved anything that had mystery and I loved the ghostly sound of this amazing record and still think it sounds amazing today almost sixty years on.