Joe Meek

Actor and sometime evil scientist Kevin Spacey recently announced that he is working with Nick Moran on the film ‘Telstar,’ based on his UK play of the same name chronicling life and times of the mad 60’s record producer, Joe Meek.

For those of you not in the know, Joe Meek is recognized as the most imaginative independent producers to come out of England’s 1960’s scene.

His most successful album is probably The Tornados’ ‘Telstar’ in 1961, a love song to the communications satellite of the same name. Telstar was the first record by a British group to hit #1 in the US Hot 100. Telstar also earned producer Meek the Ivor Novello Award for this production as the “Best-Selling A-Side” by staying on the UK single chart for five weeks in 1962.

A great lover of the Theramin and other odd sounds, his concept album ‘I Hear A New World’ is regarded as the maverick modern music album for electronica for its innovative use of electronic sounds.

Here is a trailer for another documentary on his life.

“Something I’ve Got To Tell You” Trailer

A vanguard of the independent music scene, Meek’s recording studio that launched many a pop group to the major labels was located above a leather goods shop on London’s Holloway road, the signature ‘echo room’ was actually a tiled bathroom.

Like many giants of the music world, Meek’s success was short-lived and ended sadly. At the age of 37, depressed and heavily in debt, he shot his landlady with a shotgun before killing himself. His suicide did not ring true with many close to him, creating a world of controversy and suspicion that remains to this day. In any event, his amazing music remains. Often hypnotic, odd and strangely alien, Joe Meek struggled to present the music he heard deep in his head for others to enjoy.

I’m hoping the Nick Moran film does him justice.

“If it sounds right, it is right.” – Joe Meek

Suggested listening:

The Alchemist of Pop: Home Made Hits and Rarities 1959-1966
I Hear a New World: An Outer Space Music Fantasy
The Joe Meek EP Collection Box
Joe Meek’s Freakbeat: 30 Freakbeat, Mod and R&B Nuggets

Paul is Dead-Rotten Apple

Rumors and conspiracies have been an active part of rock ‘n’ roll for ages and continue to mystify and confound those looking for clues. This year a filmmaker, imaphoney, decided to start a series that analyzed the data available with his ‘Rotten Apple’ shorts. While the films are not always convincing, they are always entertaining in one way or another.

As for the story behind Paul McCartney being dead goes all the way back to October 12, 1969, when someone called Detroit DJ Russ Gibb urging him to play “Revolution 9″ backwards. It was then that the first ‘clue’ was found as Gibb heard the phrase “Turn me on, dead man.”

Rumor is that McCartney stormed out of the recording studio while the Beatles were working on Sgt. Pepper in 1966 and was killed in a terrible car wreck.

Many have claimed that the clues are in many of the Beatles lyrics, such as “He didn’t notice that the lights had changed” (“A Day in the Life”) because he was busy watching the pretty girl on the pavement (“Lovely Rita”) after narrowly missing her dressed in blue (she’s the blur on the back of Abbey Road) jaywalking (‘Blue Jay Way’). He then crashed into a light pole (a car crash sound is heard in “Revolution 9″). He was pronounced dead on a “Wednesday morning at 5 o’clock as the day begins” (‘She’s Leaving Home’), and nobody found out this because the news was withheld: “Wednesday morning papers didn’t come” (‘Lady Madonna’). A funeral procession was held days later (as implied in the Abbey Road album cover).
Rotten Apple No.37

While there is no documented evidence of the alleged car crash, McCartney’s custom-made Mini Cooper was wrecked by a friend on the M1 Motorway outside London some time in January 1967.

Eagle-eyed viewers may notice that Paul’s boyish face was scarred in the promotional videos for the ‘Paperback Writer’/'Rain.’ This on account of a moped accident that scarred Paul’s lips. Self-consciously, he grew a mustache to cover the scar and the rest of the band joined in as well.
Rotten Apple No.15

As for the ‘look-a-like’ that allegedly replaced Paul, the story is that he is actually William Shears (yes, that Billy Shears), a Canadian born winner of the look-a-like Paul McCartney contest. Shears supposedly appears for the first time as Paul in the video for ‘Strawberry Fields Forever.’

Rotten Apple No.20

While the search for clues still continues, it’s unclear if the strange pointers in lyrics, backwards masked recording and bizarre album cover art is intentional or if it’s just some joke played on fans. As the rumors of Paul’s death grew, many of the Beatles, John Lennon included, claimed people heard what they wanted to hear.

References to Paul’s death cover-up can be found in numerous media, from film to TV, but the strangest is a 1970 issue of Batman called “Dead…Till Proven Alive” in which it is rumored that “Saul” from the band the Oliver Twists was deceased and replaced with a double.

On the cover of the issue, you can see that Robin is holding a ‘clue’ in the case, an album that looks very much like “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

What’s really weird is that my fave writer of offbeat Batman stories, Bob Haney, did not write this one. How is that possible?

That, to me, is the bigger mystery.