Joe Meek Presents...The Beatles!

[borehamwood]

As the title would suggest...What if The Beatles had been produced by Joe Meek instead of George Martin?

I found myself wondering about this after reading the following online:

"More than once Joe Meek showed potential hit bands the door. The example Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich has been mentioned before, and as far as we know, Meek also rejected The Beatles. By stressing this point again and again and mentioning it in biographies and blog entries, it's probably intended to demonstrate Meek's confused state of mind or to display him as a sort of moronic unicum.​

But there's no reason for that. Decisions of this kind are nothing special. Misjudgments were and are a daily occurrence in every record company or publishing house. The reason is plain simple: Nobody, neither producers nor A&R people, has other standards than his own subjective feeling. There is no recipe to cook a hit. ​

Even the legendary producer Sam Phillips who really was a gifted talent scout had no real clue what to do with the talents of Roy Orbison or Johnny Cash, and so their Sun recordings are not really convincing. And when Meek rejected the Beatles, we should remember that in the light of the demo tapes Brian Epstein played to him, he by far wasn't the only one rejecting them. In fact, The Beatles had been rejected where ever he had asked; probably Meek was more or less Epstein's final try. Even Bert Kaempfert, who had produced their first recordings in Hamburg's Polydor Studios, stated: "It was obvious that they were enormously talented, but nobody, not even themselves, knew what to do with it and where they were possibly heading" - and so he had let them go. The experienced Decca A&R man Dick Rowe rejected the Beatles too (at least he signed the Rolling Stones to the company later). Even George Martin waited several months until he invited the band for an audition, and the Beatles (who at that time were known mainly as a cover band) didn't pique his interest until they played a couple of their own compositions to him - obviously that gave him a flash of intuition that this might be their real talent." ​

The first thought that occurs is no Ringo, as I recall his being brought in to replace Pete Best only after George Martin condemned Best's drumming ability.

 

[borehamwood]

Wow, nearly 100 views and no one seems remotely interes-zzzzzzzzzzzz

I suppose folks today are about as interested in Joe Meek's work as they were when he lived...

 

[Emperor Norton I]

Is this about the whole Decca audition and this would be the guy to produce them if Decca had picked them up?

 

[Il buono il brutto]

First of all, Joe Meek was tone deaf therefore it's not surprising he didn't like the Beatles

Without George Martin:


- Since George was crucial in orchestral arrangements and instrumentation - most of the songs would sound differently.

For example:
* "Please Please Me" would have been different because he was the one to speed it up; it was initially a very slow ballad.
* Even though, the song "Yesterday" was written by Paul Mccartney (he heard it in his dream, I think?), the string quarter in the background that makes the song a lot better was George Martin's idea.
* "I'm the Walrus" and "Day in The Life" would be a lot different and "In My Life" would be slightly different.

- There'd most likely be no "Yellow Submarine" (that silly movie) either

 

[borehamwood]

Is this about the whole Decca audition and this would be the guy to produce them if Decca had picked them up?

No, Joe Meek was a bit of an eccentric English song writer and producer - probably his best known production is an instrumental song called Telstar but he made this incredible album in the late fifties called "I Hear A New World", sort of a concept album about outer space.

He later killed his landlord and then himself.

 

[Emperor Norton I]

I think this is in a lot of Beatles fans blind spots. I personally don't know anything of Meek except for some little research I did for the purpose of this thread to see if I could say anything.

 

[timotastic]

With Joe Meek or even without The Beatles

I like The Beatles, especially the early days with Pete Best. I also like Joe Meek's music a lot. I have thought many times if there wouldn't have been beatlemania or The Beatles at all. How the music back then would have evolved without them and if the Merseybeat scene wouldn't become a major thing with The Beatles or there wouldn't ahve been the whole group at all? How The Beatles would have been if they succeed the Decca audition and they would kept Pete Best as drummer?

Would the British Invasion had been at all or would Joe Meek's music and South-England's R&B-groups like The Rolling Stones the invasion? Maby Heinz would have become a bigger name, maby The Tornados would have had more hits, propably The Rolling Stones wouldn't have had long hairs. The Stones with similar acts like Screaming Lord Sutch would have been the most important import from UK along with Billy Fury, Cliff Richard, The Shadows and the magnificant new sound of Joe Meek with Heinz and other acts? I believe the R&B and Joe Meek would have become the major thing in music-biz.

If, if, if... It would be interesting to know how things would have been evolved. I have noticed that not many are making same questions, like The Beatles is a holy cow.