Chords for Joe Meek's Bold Techniques, 2nd Edition by Barry Cleveland — Book Promo

[Gm] Hello everyone, my name is Joe [N] Meek.
On February 3rd, 1967, British recording [Eb] iconoclast Joe Meek [Ab] inexplicably murdered his landlady
with a shotgun before turning the weapon on himself, ending a career that led from precocious
beginnings to international fame and ultimately to [Bbm] oblivion.
Along the [Ab] way, Meek profoundly influenced the way records were made in England and around
the world, an influence still being [Bbm] felt today.
[Ab] _
_ _ _ [Fm] _ Meek routinely violated the rules of microphone selection and placement, intentionally overloaded
microphone preamps and pushed record levels into the red, mercilessly squashed signals
with compressors and [Abm] limiters, and added excessive [Db] amounts of [Ab] tape echo, [Bbm] echo [Ab] chamber, and spring
reverb [Bbm] to his tracks [Ab] and mixes.
[Db] _ _
Meek also pioneered sound-on-sound recording in England beginning [Ab] in the mid-1950s and
flanging as early as 1957.
Although [Db] commonplace now, nearly all these techniques were typically [F] considered radical
and wrong by the British [Ebm] recording industry [G] at the time.
Joe Meek's bold techniques now in its second edition chronicles the career of this fascinating
figure detailing his revolutionary approach to recording and the gear he employed to achieve
his singular sounds.
It includes two chapters [F] focusing on Meek's often-overlooked 50s period, when he was an
in-demand [C] engineer in London's top studios, [F] tracking scores of [Gb] hit records by major British artists.
[Ebm] Many of those [A] records became hits as a [Ab] result of Meek's innovative touches, such as the
pumped [E]-up hi-hats and piano bass on Humphrey Littleton's Bad Penny Blues, [F] and the hunchy
[E] rhythm section and fat clarinet sound on Chris Barber's Petite Fleur.
[Am] Meek also crafted catchy sound effects, such as an [N] arrow hitting a target, a storm at sea,
a [D] thunderclap, and the sound of [Eb] marching [Gbm] soldiers, the latter created by [D] shaking a box of rocks.
[Bb] _ [F] _ [Bb] _ Joe Meek also wrote many songs, including a ditty called Put a Ring on My [F] Finger, which
American recording stars Les Paul and Mary Ford had a minor hit with in [Bb] 1958.
_ Les Paul had been one of Meek's heroes for many years, [Eb] and there are striking parallels
between [F] the two, for Paul remained unaware of Meek until he was interviewed for Joe Meek's [Bb] Bold Techniques.
_ [F]
I know nothing [Bb] about [F] Joe Meek.
Yeah, I didn't [Bb] even know he wrote a song called Ring on My Finger.
None of it.
[Cm] [Eb] That shows [D] you how close someone can be, and yet so far away.
[N] And speaking of far away, in 1959 Joe Meek recorded what he called an outer space music
fantasy about life on the moon.
[D] Chaka block with quirky tunes and spacey effects, I Hear a New [E] World was produced in stereo,
[Gbm] though just how remains a mystery, as Meek possessed no stereo gear.
I've [D] tried, and I've had to do it rather carefully, to create [A] the [D] impression of space,
of things moving in front of you, [Gbm] of a picture [D] of parts of the moon.
[E] An entire chapter is devoted to this extraordinary recording, [Gbm] and a link is provided to streaming
tracks that present the album as Meek intended it to be [Gm] heard, newly restored for the second
edition of the book.
_ _ _ _ [C] In [G] 1960, Meek [C] set up shop for himself in a [G] third floor walk-up flat [C] at 304 [Db] Holloway Road
in London, where he produced a string of [G] hits and hundreds [C] of less successful records, most
boasting his trademark [A] track layering, tape echo, spring reverb, and over-the-top [F] compression,
with his earliest [Gb] efforts also featuring [C] sugary string arrangements, [F] wacky special effects,
and [C] maukish heavenly choir backing [F] vocals.
_ [C] _ _ _ [Cm] Meek's major hits included John Layton's [Gm] ghostly death disc Johnny Remember Me and
[E] his [A] masterpiece Telstar, [Gbm] performed by the Tornadoes, which topped the [D] charts across
Europe and the United [E] States and beyond in 1962.
[A] Telstar also [Gbm] gets its own chapter.
[E] _ _ _ _
[Gbm] But Meek didn't just [Dbm] record sappy ballads, [D] spooky death discs, and bouncy space-age pop
in [E] his home [A] studio.
[Ab] Surfy guitar anthems, shock [G] rock, strange takes on jazz and [Eb] country, efforts by Buddy
[Bbm] Holly, Eddie Cochran, and [Abm] Elvis impersonators, and even [F] psychedelia were just some of the
other sounds that poured forth from 304 Holloway Road. _
_ In making these records, Meek employed top studio musicians, including Richie Blackmore,
later a [Bb] Deep Purple fan, who [Ebm] played on dozens of tracks.
In his [Ab] interview for the book, Blackmore [Bb] described how Meek coaxed a particularly brilliant
solo from him while recording the outlaws version of Shake With Me.
_ [E] _ [Ebm] _ _ [N] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Bb] Future _ _ Yes [F] guitarist Steve [Bb] Howe, too, shared tales of recording at [Eb] 304 while still a teenager.
[Bb] The first track he recorded with his band, The Syndicats, was Chuck Berry's Maybelline.
[F] The great thing [Bb] was he did with me was that was the first record that made me put delay
[Eb] repeat on the guitar solo.
You know, [Bb] it made it sound pretty zany.
[F] I got really interested in that.
I thought, [Eb] wow, [Bb] is it, you know, anything's possible.
But Howe was considerably less inspired by Meek's fondness for his tight [Eb]-fitting trousers.
And I couldn't really connect the [Bb] two things.
You know, I was working with a producer who kept me plucking my trousers.
Not [D] everyone Meek fancied was as diplomatic as [A] Howe, including another future celebrity,
as recalled by [Dm] regular backup vocalist Ted Fletcher.
[Bb] One day we arrived for a session [A] there, and [G] there was a terrible row going on up [Dm] in the studio.
And suddenly a bloke came flying down the [A] stairs, having been ejected from the studio,
[G] and told never to darken my doors, never [Dm] to come back again.
And it was Tom Jones.
_ [A] Led Zeppelin's [Dm] Jimmy Page also played on numerous sessions at 304 Holloway Road
and cites Meek as a [Am] major influence on his own production [Dm] style. _
Joe Meek's last [Dm] major hit was Have I the Right by [A] the Honeycombs in 1964,
and it is commonly held that he was a casualty of the British invasion,
[Dm] becoming increasingly [Gm] out of touch as the 60s progressed.
[D] Meek [E] also suffered from what was likely [A] paranoid schizophrenia,
routinely abused [D] stimulants, and was continually stressed
due to personal [F] and professional [Bbm] problems. _
[Ab] _ _ Nonetheless, Meek [Bbm] made some [Ab] extraordinary recordings in 1965 and [Fm] 1966,
[Db] and by [Ab] the time he pulled the trigger in early [Gb] 1967,
many of the [Ab] once radical recording techniques he [Gb] pioneered
were [Db] being used daily in studios around the [Bb] world. _
[Fm] _ Joe Meek's Bold Techniques is available in a limited edition hardcover [F] print version
and as an e-book in all formats. _ _ _ _ _