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Joe Meek - a Portrait
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A classic story of rise and fall: This is the life of music producer and pop composer Robert George "Joe" Meek (born April 5, 1929 in Newent, Gloucestershire; died February 3, 1967 in London) - a short life somewhere on the fine line between vision and lunacy, always floating forth and back from the one to the other; oversped, funny, sad, euphoric, depressed; a rollercoaster trip with a dramatic showdown. The story of a man who possibly could have been even a genius - if he weren't standing in his own light all over again. But a leopard can't change its spots. It's not only the singer or the song that makes a hit, it's the sound as well. Meek was the first European music producer who got that. He saw his sound recording studio as his musical instrument, and he was a virtuoso playing it. As an extra-ordinary sound tinkerer he can be named in the same breath as Phil Spector, George Martin, Lee Hazlewood, Tom Wilson or the "Motown" or "Stax" studio crews; a Meek production is still easy to identify today. Although Meek didn't like to stand in the spotlight himself, his influence on the pop music scene is still noticeable. Between 1961 and 1964, Meek's production company R.G.M. Sound Ltd was one of the definitive addresses of Britain's pop world. With this company he produced a couple of smash hits that are internationally known till today; all in all 25 Meek productions reached the Top 40. Wannabes were queuing up in front of his door in the north of London; to hear a yes from him, they accepted his outbursts of rage as well as his casting couch. For a couple of years he could be called a celebrity; in Great Britain he's still well known today, "Mojo" magazine mentions him in nearly every edition. His workshop saw pop celebs like Tom Jones (under his then name Tommy Scott), Rod Stewart, Ritchie Blackmore, Jimmy Page or Mitch Mitchell (who later became drummer with Jimi Hendrix); as a member of a band called The Kon-Rads also a saxophone player named Davy Jones entered the studio - today we know him as David Bowie. As it happens to all pop music figures who drifted into legend or myth (or were sent there by their fans), forty years after his death there continues to be lot of nonsense and half-truths circulating about Meek, but not much substance. In the mean time, a lot of what is taken to be true , actually is no more than myths and rumors. Many contemporary witnesses who worked with Meek have passed away or are not willing to talk about him anymore, some others are willing to talk but unfortunately don't remember anything of importance. It's very difficult today to get information straight from the horse's mouth. A theatrical play and a movie have been made about Meek. In them, several events have been sharpened, whisked, ascribed to wrong persons or have been brought into a wrong chronological order for dramaturgical reasons. This is legitimate up to a certain degree but carries the risk that these descriptions will be seen more and more as the truth. Several pieces of information are mentioned in two or more sources, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are correct. Sometimes it is a confirmation indeed, but just too often it simply means that the authors had the same wrong primary source or - even worse - copied from each other. By now, several blogs and other web info as well as magazine articles are showing an increasingly opaque melange created from opinions, myths and rumors. This portrait neither intends to praise Meek to the skies nor to reduce him to sheer curiosity. The intention is to research and evaluate Meek's importance for pop history, his work as a sound engineer and his role as a pioneering independent producer, and at least try to do justice to his personality. Here (as well as in the other chapters of the JOE MEEK PAGE) only information is used which has been researched or at least scrutinized for its probability and plausibility, and if information is unverified, it is named as such. But well, for sure there are still flaws left ...
Currently this Joe Meek portrait is in the process of being translated from German into English. The links below may show you which chapters are available; the missing chapters will follow during the next weeks. Feel free to come back and check out what's available!
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Sources see part 13 [Home] [Joe Meek Portrait] [Complete Recordings] [Meek Compositions] [Goddard Compositions] [Triumph Story] [CD Discography] [Noten/Scores] [Telstar Cover Versions] [Meek in Germany] [Literature, Documentaries etc.] [Miscellaneous] [Links] [About] [Contact] [Sitemap] © 2006 Jan Reetze last update: August 12, 2009
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