The Legendary Joe Meek by John Repsch

I can’t remember the exact reason I bought this book, but I’m sure it had something to do with the fact I’d recently decided to become obsessed with recording techniques of the 50s and 60s.

Joe Meek was one of the pioneers in engineering and production. He did much to advance the techniques used by studios the world over, and many wanted to copy his sound. This is the fellow who wrote one of the great instrumental pop records of all time: Telstar.

Rock and roll…

He also did much to piss other people off and by all accounts could be a very tricky fellow to work and get along with.

And that’s why this book is so fascinating. Joe Meek threw his toys out of the pram so regularly that I suspect he’d put any modern day rock star to shame. TVs out of windows or not. Other than Phil Spector maybe, I can’t think of any other producers who’d point a gun at an artist in order to bully a better performance out of them.

… but a pioneer

And that’s an even more compelling reason to pick this book up. There are many stories of his “weird” techniques (close-micing drums and strings), his home made studio gear, which paved the way for the Joe Meek line of equipment, put together by Joe’s suffering assistant (whose name escapes me). He setup his own studio at 304 Holloway Road which is described in the book in much detail. Wires everywhere, unsafe power sources, tapes scattered, recording brass on the stairs… sounds awesome! There’s an plaque on the building now, I must go and visit that some time.

Something to chew

But back to the book. It’s a decent read, took me a while to get through it on my various tube journeys here in London, but I was always looking forward to picking up where I left off. There are many many names involved, and my tendancy to forget names the moment there are read/spoken didn’t do me any favours, but it didn’t matter too much.

Many legendary artists get a mention, David Bowie, The Beatles and Phil Spector to name a few, the list is long. Buddy Holly fans may find an additional interest in that Joe Meek was a massive fan of his. He even conducted scéances in order to “contact” the departed Buddy Holly. As you do.

The book left me feeling more relaxed about how I go about recording in my little studio, and that there are no rules. Well, a number of books have contributed to that, but this one certainly rammed it home.

I definitely found a huge new interest in the sort of vintage equipment Joe was using and building. I also bought a CD of Joe’s “I Hear A New World” concept LP, which frankly, is weird as, but its a marvel to hear and remember it was released in 1960. Techniques like flicking the teeth on a comb are described in the book, and its wonderful to listen to the album whilst flicking through the pages, trying to pick out what’s been described.

And here’s a link to the book on Amazon, no affiliation here as usual. I’m writing this review because I want to.