Pages

Joe Meek and the Blue Men

If you're not familiar with Joe Meek, then you should take a moment to read this well-written capsule.

He was an outsider musical innovator who made some pretty revolutionary advances in FX and recording technique while blazing trails with electronic music in the early 60s in England. He went on to score a big hit with "Telstar", which is in my wife's top 5 or 10 songs of all time, and which is how I first came to know about Meek.



The album that this track "Love Dance of the Saroos" originated from is a concept album, Joe Meek and the Blue Men's I Hear a New World - what Meek thinks music will sound like in space. It ranges from oddball to brilliant.



Its aesthetic definitely went on to inspire stuff like Luke Vibert and BJ Cole's "Fly Hawaii", which sounds like a cross between Meek, exotica, and the opening moments of Pee Wee's Playhouse.



Listen to the first 20 seconds of Pee Wee's opening credits as a point of comparison.



There's a movie about Meek screening at the Savannah Film Festival next week. It's gotten mixed rewiews.

No comments:

Post a Comment