An entire CD of Heinz tunes might just drive you up the wall, but to repeat myself, his best records are great, pop, throwaway trash with a real rock’n’roll feel buried under the layers of Meekdom. Many of his effects boxes were self made (he began his career as a radio repair man), in fact today you can buy several types of Joe Meek Compressors. Meek was fond of all sorts of extreme compression, gigantic echo, bubbling reverb and all manner of strange guitar sounds and outer space effects, all used to good purpose. If you can get by that, or if that sorta thing doesn’t bother you, his records were almost always interesting. But then again, Meek, at least for American ears may be something of an acquired taste (or lack there of), he was fond of goofy girlie choruses and syrupy strings, and most of his tunes have a definite show tune (or dance hall) feel to them. Heinz wasn’t the most savage of rockers, he was no Kid Thomas or Andy Starr, but at his best (and Joe Meek must be given much of the credit) he did wax a few genuine classics, along with some very enjoyable if light weight rockers (and some truly dismal drivel), you can put him in my “guilty pleasures” category, but when I hear Questions I Can’t Answer or Big Fat Spider, I don’t feel guilty at all, they’re just great discs. I think it is, along with Questions I Can’t Answer, Heinz’s greatest moment. With a fat, reverb laden Duane Eddy type guitar riff riding over a refrain of clavolin and backing vocals, the guitar solo, short, nasty and distorted seems to come out of nowhere and slice the song in half. Two months later Meek released Heinz doing a rather tepid reading of Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice, but the flipside– Big Fat Spider, is a killer in the style that is now known as Freakbeat (I kinda hate that term, but I’m also lazy so I’ll use it, just this once). He also had two tracks on Decca’s under rated Live At The Cavern LP, I Got A Woman and Somebody To Love, both are credible rockers. His next single, issued in early ’65, a version Washboard Sam’s (better known in the UK from Lonnie Donnegan’s hit rendition) Diggin’ My Potatoes given the full Joe Meek treatment, including a twangy 12 string guitar solo from Jimmy Page, at #49 it was his last chart entry. Questions peaked at #39 on the NME charts and was forgotten within two weeks. Questions… is based around the classic Louie Louie I-IV-V chord progression and sports a twangy guitar solo by Barry Tomilson, the often brilliant leader of Heinz’ new backing band– The Wild Boys. ’64 saw a new Heinz single on a new label– Questions I Can’t Answer on Columbia, probably his best record. He was also astute enough to know that Meek was his best shot a stardom, and was soon living with Meek at his flat in Hollaway Road which doubled as a recording studio. Heinz didn’t have the greatest voice in the world, but he could deliver a rock’n’roll song convincingly enough. Unfortunately, Heinz was straight, and therefore had to do a delicate dance, keeping Meek interested in producing his records and pushing his career while saving wear and tear on his sphincter. star who was another of Meek’s obsessions. Meek pulled Heinz out of the Tornadoes and launched him on a solo career, originally grooming him as a British answer to Eddie Cochran, the late U.S. With his Nordic good looks and blond brush cut, he quickly became the obsession of his gay mentor– Joe Meek, who liked to get behind young talent, so to speak. Heinz looked like he stepped out of a Leni Riefenstahl Nazi propaganda movie if Kenneth Anger had been put in charge of casting (Meek had him dye his hair platinum blonde after seeing Village Of The Damned).
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