They Were Wrong (Joe's Boys Vol.1)

In the early to mid-'60s, Joe Meek recorded teen-oriented pop/rock with literally dozens of young British male singers. A few hit singles and many flops resulted. No less than 62 such songs that didn't become hits are on this two-CD set -- in fact, eleven of them are previously unreleased cuts and alternate takes -- and although a few artists who did have hits are here (John Leyton, Heinz, and Gene Vincent), the specific tracks representing them are not well known. The material on this compilation might not, in fact, be well known even if you have a bunch of Meek collections, as 22 of the tracks made their CD debuts here. Since many Meek sides were weak, innocuous teen idol fare, you'd have reason to be wary of an anthology assembled along this theme, even if you're a Meek fan in general. As it turns out, however, this is a surprisingly listenable and likable compilation, even if many of the singers are no great shakes in the vocal department. The main reason is that Meek's production is quirkily intriguing even on the less interesting songs (and many of the songs, to be fair, aren't all that good). His usual bag of tricks -- manic crunching drums, oddly treated pianos, weird backup voices, peculiar echo/reverb, zany sound effects, soaring orchestration, and so forth -- are almost always in force, often succeeding in making even the meager songs and singers fun to some extent. Also, you can hear specific echoes of (and attempts to imitate) several of the early major American rock stars Meek obviously admired, and while they're no match for the real thing, there are some pretty grin-raising, respectable emulations of Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley, and Roy Orbison. And of course there's an actual American rock & roll great here in Gene Vincent, whose "Temptation Baby" (recorded for the British film Live It Up) isn't the most typical Vincent fare, but works fairly well as rockabilly-pop with a distinctive Meek sonic stamp. Traces of Merseybeat and even a little folk-pop make themselves known in some of the later recordings, and some of the songs -- John Leyton's "Voodoo Woman," Chad Carson's credible Presley imitation "They Were Wrong," Billy Dean's equally haunting and cheesy "Ridin' the Rails," and Freddie Starr's "Just Keep on Dreaming" (which sounds like a gutsy Gerry & the Pacemakers) -- are pretty good tracks on any level, not just from historical/novelty angles. For aficionados of the truly strange, there are a couple previously unissued (shakily) Meek-sung demos, and the Checkmates' odd satirical song "You've Got to Have a Gimmick Today," which pokes instantly dated fun at a few vocal styles on early-'60s hits. David Wells' detailed liner notes give plenty of background info on all of the tracks, a welcome feature as so many of these will be unfamiliar even to collectors. ~ Richie Unterberger|