A Joe Meek Anthology Focuses on 1962 Recordings
Most music producers remain relatively unknown and must content themselves with credit lines on the CDs they oversee. A few, though, develop styles so distinctive and results so impressive that they become as famous as the performers they record. As a result, their work is collected in multi-artist anthologies.
In America, an obvious example is Phil Spector, whose recordings with artists such as the Ronettes and the Crystals have been gathered several times, most notably in 1991’s Back to Mono. In the U.K., there’s Joe Meek, whose pop/rock creations have been the subject of many compendiums, such as Let’s Go: Joe Meek’s Girls!, Joe Meek: The Alchemist of Pop, Joe Meek: Telstar/Anthology, and the recent Do the Strum: Girl Groups and Pop Chanteuses (1960–1966).
The latest Meek collection is the clamshell-boxed, three-disc From Taboo to Telstar—1962: A Year in the Life of 304 Holloway Road, which comes with an illustrated 16-page booklet. The title references the address of the producer’s home studio and, as it suggests, the album focuses on the work he produced there in a single year. According to Cherry Red, the British label that issued the anthology, it is the first in a series of sets, each devoted to Meek’s work in one 12-month period.
The current box contains 93 tracks, all of which were culled from the original tapes, restored, and remastered. Unreleased songs, demos, previously unheard stereo versions, and alternate takes and mixes fill more than half the program.
Keep in mind that this music dates from 1962 when popular music on both sides of the Atlantic bore little resemblance to the sounds and styles that appeared during the Beatles era. Mainstream pop ballads by the likes of Frankie Avalon and Bobby Vinton were hits in the States, and similar music gained favor in the U.K., as did light instrumentals and assorted novelties. You’ll find such music here, and some of it now sounds fluffy and anachronistic. But Meek’s artists were talented, and his wildly diverse recordings consistently evidenced his penchant for experimenting and pushing the envelope.
As such, there’s a lot that’s worth hearing in this collection, starting with the Meek-penned “Telstar,” which not only topped the charts in the U.K. but was the only British song to reach No. 1 in America before the Fab Four arrived on the scene. An alternate version of the Tornados’ instrumental hit is here, as is Meek’s original demo of the song.
Most of the other tracks on From Taboo to Telstar failed to chart on either side of the Atlantic, and many of them are obscure. (One example is “Say Baby,” whose composer and performer are both listed as “unknown.”) Obscurity isn’t always synonymous with mediocrity, however, and it certainly isn’t here. “Time to Go,” by a singer billed only as Jackie, is a beautifully sung ballad, as is “Walk with Me My Angel,” a minor British hit by Don Charles, who additionally delivers the excellent rockabilly-inspired “Crazy Man Crazy.”
Also notable in the program are “It’s Just a Matter of Time” and “Don’t You Think It’s Time,” two Buddy Holly–influenced ballads by Mike Berry, who had a U.K. hit in 1961 with “Tribute to Buddy Holly.” Other standouts include the Dowlands’ “Don’t Ever Change,” which conjures up the Everly Brothers; Neil Christian’s “I Feel in a Mood,” which evokes Cliff Richard and Elvis Presley; and Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers’ sax-spiced “I Get Up in the Morning,” a scorching garage rocker.
Like Phil Spector, who died in prison after a murder conviction, Meek came to a sad end: in 1967, while suffering from depression and financial problems, he killed his landlady and then committed suicide. He was only 37 when he died, but he packed a lot of notable music into his too-short life.
On the Bookshelf: A Biography of Arthur Lee & Love
For a brief period in the mid-1960s in Southern California, Love was the rock band to beat. In John Einarson’s recently updated and reissued book, Forever Changes: The Authorized Biography of Arthur Lee and Love, Jim Morrison is quoted as telling fellow Doors member Ray Manzarek around 1966, “You know, Ray, if we could be as big as Love, man, my life would be complete.” Obviously, the Doors achieved that goal and then some while Love, one of the most talented and influential bands of the 1960s, never enjoyed nationwide commercial success.
Einarson’s book explains the reasons for that, the most important of which appears to have been the stubbornness, quirkiness, and bad luck of band leader Arthur Lee. He often refused to perform Love’s most popular material, and he didn’t like to tour. He even turned down an offer to appear at the hugely significant Monterey Pop Festival and nixed an invitation to perform at a 1969 New York event because he didn’t want to bother flying east for just one show – a show that turned out to be the Woodstock festival. Then, in 1996, a trio of relatively minor arrests in California led to a 12-year prison sentence, thanks to the state’s three-strikes-and-you’re-out law.
Lee did wind up being released from jail after serving slightly less than half of that sentence, after which he toured Europe with a new band, performing Love’s songbook – and especially its masterful third album, Forever Changes – to adoring audiences. Around the same time, though, he was diagnosed with the leukemia that killed him in 2006, at age 61.
Einarson’s book vividly details the ups and downs of Lee’s career and the milieu in which he and his band operated. It also offers smart commentary on the albums and singles in their discography and includes lots of insights into the group’s frequently abstruse lyrics. To cite one of many examples, a line in the group’s “Stephanie Knows Who” finds Lee singing “A my love, B my love, so hard to choose.” Turns out Lee and the group’s Bryan McLean were vying for the love of a woman named Stephanie Buffington. In the song, “A” stands for Arthur and “B” for Bryan.
The book could have benefited from a discography and a more complete index, and it includes somewhat more typos and grammatical errors than one might expect, especially in a second edition. But these are quibbles. The biography is even-handed and exhaustively researched and reveals as much as we’re ever likely to know about the brilliant and enigmatic Arthur Lee and his extraordinary band.
A Double Dose of Michael McDermott
Chicago-based singer, songwriter, guitarist, and pianist Michael McDermott shows off two sides of his musical personality in a 20-track, two-CD set that contains albums dubbed Lighthouse on the Shore andEast Jesus.
Like “Paris,” the final number on his 2022 album, St. Paul’s Boulevard, the songs on the Lighthouse disc are reflective, acoustic-leaning ballads. The other record, East Jesus, is dominated by anthemic heartland rockers that should appeal to fans of artists like John Mellencamp and Bob Seger. Expect a bit of overlap, though: the rock CD embraces some relatively soft and sentimental material while the other record features a few tunes that flirt with rock.
The Lighthouse album finds the singer backed by a band that adds fiddle, guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, banjo, mandola, and cello. Highlights include the passion-infused title cut and the midtempo “Bradbury Daydream,” an apocalyptic love song about “dancing with you at the end of the world.”
East Jesus, which features the same instruments as Lighthouse except cello, sometimes sounds redolent of Billy Joel. It offers such standouts as the infectious “A Head Full of Rain,” where the gruff-voiced singer proclaims, “It’s sunny every day / It’s just sometimes the clouds get in the way.” Also memorable is the introspective “Whose Life I’m Living,” where McDermott proclaims that “I don’t know whose life I’m living / All I know is it don’t feel like mine.”
Jeff Burger’s website, byjeffburger.com, contains five decades’ worth of music reviews, interviews, and commentary. His books include Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters, Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters, and Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters.
