Joe Meek - A Strange Story

Going through a little phase of watching a new feature movie and a 1991 documentary on strange and troubled genius Joe Meek.

The movie, "Telstar" is a pretty good summation of Joe's chaotic and troubled life as an eccentric record producer. Credited with virtually kick starting the British singles music industry and creating some innovative studio tricks Joe eventually was outpaced by more talented studio technicians and eventually swamped by the wave started by the Beatles and Stones.

The actor playing Joe really nails his personality and manner and even looks a lot like him.

The film is fascinating in its depiction of Joe's cramped and chaotic studio situated in tiny rooms above a luggage shop. Its amazing how many famous artists recored with Joe but his main hits were with the Tornados and his bleached fancy, Heinz.

After being sued by somebody claiming to have written Telstar before Joe and hounded by a homosexual criminal charge Joe eventually succumbed to addiction and mental illness culminating in him shooting his downstairs co-tenant and himself with a gun ironically owned by Heinz.

The documentary is even better and really shows the sides of Joe's eccentric genius and features an interview with Joe's two brothers who seem a little bemused by Joe's lifestyle.

The Strange Story of Joe Meek (BBC documentary)

Telstar (the movie)

Joe Meek - I Hear a New World (album of his studio techniques and tricks)

Joe Meek the Amazing World of (album of his main hits)

The rest of the 'A's

I've had a few requests for the rest of the 'A's so here they are. Personally I think they are both better than the other two albums. I've got a feeling the above album had something to do with a Datsun promotion judging by the cover.

Arakawa Yasuo & Shiji Shiroo - Breaking Pop Hit News 1972 Link

Alex Scorier - Scores Link

Out Islanders - Polynesian Fantasy

This is a request. Thanks to Basichip for his usual fine rip.

@320kps Link

When I'm 64 - was the wait worth it?

The miracle of the internet I've already found the complete box sets for the mono and stereo versions of the new remastered Beatles official catalog even though they haven't been officially released yet.

The mono is at 320kps and the stereo is at 220kps. I've also downloaded a couple of albums in flac format to see if there's much difference. The answer is very little if any. These will tide me over until my order arrives.

That could be a while as Amazon has completely sold out the first allocation. Just shows the demise of music sales by people sharing music on the internet has been grossly exaggerated and if anything it creates more interest in my view.

So was the wait worth it the short answer is a resounding yes. There's so many things that could have been done better and not putting each short album on a separate disc to milk as much money from the punters as possible is one of them. But the main issue is the sound and these simply are the best sounding discs so far even making the many Ebbetts versions unnecessary and in fact Dr Ebbetts has officially retired.

So are both the mono and stereo versions essential? Again a resounding yes. The supply of an entire mono version of the albums is an inspired master stroke and they sound deep and transparent and so much better than the thin sounding 80s released mono albums ( a big thumbs down to George Martin who rightly said the mono versions of the early albums were better but then made no effort to remaster them properly).

The mono versions are so good at first its almost impossible to tell if they are mono the sound is so clear and strong. But in a lot of cases they actually sound more detailed and punchy than the stereo versions. This may be because the early albums were made to be released in mono and the stereo versions were hastily made to cash in on the coming stereo boom. Also you haven't heard Sgt Peppers until you hear the mono version its almost a different album.

Of course I can't share the links but seek and ye shall find but be quick as its a constant battle to download them before the net police delete the links. I have no compunction about downloading them as these should have been properly remastered and released at least 20 or 30 years ago before the internet was even invented.

So there you have it the musical event of the year and probably the decade if not the century. And its all happened before I turned 64 (just).

So what now, well if you can grab a copy of the Yellow Submarine songs only album from 1999 you can get a hint of what the Beatles catalog might sound like with new stereo mixes. Well let's hope it doesn't take another 40 years for that to happen. (check comments for a little present)

Billy Strange - Goldfinger

What's strange about Billy? Well nothing really here he's doing the Bond Goldfinger theme and other soundtrack tunes of the period.

There's even Steve Martin's The Jerk now maybe that is a bit strange after all. That's where Steve tried to be the new Jerry Lewis and didn't really succeed but there again much funnier than anything he's done lately. To see Steve at his funniest and best see Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid his tribute to film noir and it gets better every time you see it. Its also the inspiration for Dr Forrest's Cheese Factory blog which is a mad and sometimes inspired melange of weird and wonderful stuff.

So for all the Friend's of Carlotta here it is, its my rip and its been languishing in my Rapidshare folder for ages and now it finally sees the light of day. Its a mono 96kps rip equivalent to 192kps stereo.

Link