'60s pop

Joe Meek is a genius...even today his music still floats. His music drifts into the general consciousness of humanity, blowing minds away, and gracefully waltzing out as if nothing happened.

I can only name one of Meek’s songs if asked, although I listen to I Hear A New World on a daily basis (“It’s good for the soul,” I tell my mother). The one track I can name is “I Hear a New World” because it is the title track, and the name is repeated over and over again throughout the song. The main reason behind me not being competent enough to name the song would probably be because I view the album as a concept album. Thinking of the album as one huge song enables me to invent my own meaning behind it, without the definitive boxes of song titles.

It’s not really a huge concept album, though. The songs still remain in the average “50’s/60’s Pop” standards never breaking four minutes. So unlike, Roger Waters’ albums for Pink Floyd that bring the listener on an epic journey through the human psyche, Meek takes the listener through space which proves to be about 15 minutes shorter than the average Waters album takes us. Not to say that’s a bad thing because it allows me to listen to it in one sitting (when it comes to music my attention span magically increases).

Meek's songs still shock me. It amazes me to even fathom that an album such as this could have been produced in 1960. The album still makes me think as if I’m on a new planet in another galaxy of space; it utilizes the basic idea of endless possibilities.

Gary Lewis (Jer's greatest kid) and the Playboys, looking  debonair, as usual