Elvis Presley with The Jordanaires - "It's Now or Never" b/w "A Mess of Blues" 45 rpm Single, 1960 (RCA)

"It's Now or Never" is one of my favorite records.  It's not just the song, but the arrangement and the tension between Elvis and rest of the instrumentation and voices by The Jordanaires.  Operatic, and I believe the song is based on an Italian pop song, it's interesting to hear a European melody attached to a solid American aesthetic such as Elvis.  The songwriters Aaron Schroeder and Wally Gold also wrote Elvis' "Good Luck Charm."   To me, this is a sound that is separate from his work in the 1950s. It has a dramatic flair, that is cinematic, and the cha-cha rhythm slowed down and then speeded up is a remarkable work of tension.  "A Mess of Blues" the b-side is written by Doc Pomus and the always fascinating Mort Schuman, who later had recordings in France, and became associated with the songs of Jacques Brel.  It's a strange world, and Elvis has always struck me as a man from another world - like his fellow label mate, David Bowie.  

Joe Meek and The Blue Men - "I Hear A New World" LP, Album, Reissue, Italy, 1991/1960 (RPM Vinyl)

"I Hear A New World" is a masterpiece.  When I first heard the album, around 1989, I was living in Japan, which at the time, was indeed living in a world that seemed so familiar to me through films and books, yet a new world.  Not saying that Japan is another version of outer space, but to my sensibility and aesthetic, it indeed was an out-of-space and mental landscape.   Joe Meek's half-exotica (or the space-age) and Musique Concrete, with a touch of pop melodies, is a strange hybrid of science and the imagination.

Meek made this album after his odd career as an engineer for a large recording company, which mentally and aesthetically he didn't fit in.  He wrote and recorded "I Hear A New World" in a London apartment (Flat) in 1960.  Mostly made of tape reels and experimentation with speed, both slowing and speeding up the tape, as well as recording odd effects such as the toilet being flushed and so forth.   The Blue Men were a Rhythm and Blues outfit that had strange instrumentation when they added a Hawaiian steel guitar to their mix.  A weird mixture of Western and R n B and Meek had the genius even to advance that sound to another galaxy.   The leader of the band, Rod Freeman, helped Meek with his compositions by transforming it into 'songs.'  The Meek method was him humming the melody either in person or on a tape.  The fact that Meek was tone-deaf added more work for Freeman as the music arranger.  After that, it's Joe Meek 100%.

When I first heard these recordings in 1989, I thought it was music made by a madman.  Re-listening to the album very recently, I conclude that it's a remarkable piece of work.  Composition wise as well as how he brilliantly uses sound and shapes the aural like a magnificent sculpture in front of clay or steel.  The thing with Meek, since he did work independently by choice, away from the mainstream recording industry, he truly wanted to have hits and be commercial. He succeeds it at times, but he lived the life of an outside artist, due to his homosexuality (illegal in the UK during his lifetime) and temperament, which was on the violent side.  He eventually had no separation of home life and studio work, since he lived and worked in the same space.   The Meek world is one of a small apartment in Northern London.   The compressed sound he makes is not really of a world that is open, but in actuality very closed and almost locked up in a mixture of security concerns and paranoia.  "I Hear A New World" is although about outer-space, it is more in tune with Meek's life in London at the time.  Closed off from the mainstream culture, he invented a workspace where he can fully expose his demons, dreams, and sensuality.

"I Hear A New Year" if you were not aware that Meek did it, one would easily think it was a Pierre Henry piece of music in parts.  Total "Musique Concrete" that is both experimental and expressing a mood of otherness.  It is only when the melodies kick in that you realize it's a work by Meek, but still, the album is more avant-garde than a pop release. Especially for the year of its partly release in 1960.   Meek only released vol 1 on a 7" 45 rpm disc during his lifetime.

The one album that comes to mind while listening to this Meek album is Brian Eno's "Another Green World."  Both artists use the studio as a recording instrument, and both, I think could visualize another world through their sounds.  Eno's album was made in 1975, and although he never credits Joe Meek, I find it difficult to believe that he wasn't aware of "I Hear A New World."  Listening to both albums - side-by-side, "Another Green World" is the brother or sister (nephew or Niece) to "I Hear A New World."   Eno's world is more inner, and Meek's sounds are approaching the sky above and beyond, but still, both are a very contained and cut-off world of sorts. "Another Green World," I think is Eno's best album of 'pop' songs, and Meek's album is another masterpiece of its time and place.  For me, "I Hear A New World" due to the optimism of the space age, it's a painful work to look back on, considering Meek's suicide and murdering (or shooting accident) his landlady in his studio/living space.  

Thelonious Monk Trio - "Bemsha Swing" Vinyl, 7", EP, 45 RPM, France, 1960 (Barclay)

I found this slightly battered copy of this French 7" EP at Rockaway Records this evening.   These are four songs that were selected from his 1952 recording with the great drummer Max Roach and bassist Gary Mapp.   This is 7" of magic.  Offhand, I'm having dirty sexual thoughts tying this, but alas, I'm talking about the aural pleasure that comes with the name Thelonious Monk.  

There are four songs on this EP, and they are "Bemsha Swing," Reflections" and then go to side two, for "Trinkle Tinkle" and classic beautiful "These Foolish Things" written by Strackey and Link.  Monk wrote the other three and they are brilliant.   There are three great pianists that I'm aware of, one is Glenn Gould, the other is Ron Mael from Sparks, and then there is Monk.   This is an artist who sees music as a piece of sculpture, and what he does is gently trace the melody as if it was on thin rice paper.   I never heard another pianist who had this approach to melody and treating it like a beautiful lover.   

I'm imaging that this EP was once owned by someone like Juliette Gréco, who played it while drinking wine in a juice glass and looking outside her window and watching the leaves fall from trees.  I imagine a lot of things, but I always have a soundtrack to my fantasies.  Here's one of many. 

Duane Eddy His 'Twangy' Guitar and the Rebels - "Peter Gunn" b/w "Along the Navajo Trail" 7" 45 rpm vinyl, 1960 (Jamie)

The killer riff of all riffs of all time.  Henry Mancini's recording of "Peter Gunn" is just as fantastic, to be honest, but of course, for that sound that breaks doors and a few windows, Duane Eddy's great recording of this song is essential.   I purchased this 45 rpm single about a month ago, and when I put it on my hi-fi system, it was like unleashing a powerful presence in the room.   Even on a piece of vinyl that is 57 years old, it still a shock of a listening experience. 

The honkin' sax that floats over the guitar riff, the relentless rhythm section, and the magic touch of just hearing the guitar by itself, and then the bass comes on, and the whole band joins in.  The record is architecture.  It has a foundation that the sounds are built on, and it's perfection.  Lee Hazelwood and Lester Sill made a mountain of sound for this recording. 

It's a shock to flip to the b-side of "Along the Navajo Trail" which is classic pre-rock pop, with backup vocals, that for me, makes me focus on than Eddy's guitar.  A cool recording, but by no means is it "Peter Gunn."  In fact, nothing in this world comes close to "Peter Gunn."  

The Viscounts' "Harlem Nocturne" (Amy Records, recorded in 1960, released in 1965)

The Viscounts, from New Jersey, where they started in 1958, made this album "Harlem Nocturne" in 1960, and somehow it sounds like the father of the first Lounge Lizards' album and the first solo Andy Mackay (from Roxy Music).   The basic sound is a great beautiful melodic saxophone, echo electric guitar, electric organ, and of course drums.  They have two sounds on this album.  Upbeat rock n' roll, and then dreamy.  The slow and dramatic ballads like "Harlem Nocturne, "I Cover the Waterfront," "September Song," and the great theme song to the French gangster flick Le Grisbi" are soaked in blue mood, that reeks of stale smoke and strong whiskey.   

I mentioned the early Lounge Lizards, because there is something sophisticated about how they approach their material, as well as The Viscounts.  The creepy organ sneaks between the guitarist and sax player, and it sits there in a very solid fashion.   The John Lurie melodic sense is also here.  With respect to Andy Mackay, the sax player's method is very similar to the Roxy Music member.  The glistering guitar is consistently in dialogue with the sax, and it's an orchestration that serves the song.   "Harlem Nocturne" is an exciting discovery for me.  God knows what one will find at their local record store - in this case, Mono Records on Glendale Blvd. 

DIANA DORS - "Swinging Dors" (Columbia) Vinyl, 1960

It took me forever to locate a copy of this album.   To be precise, Diana Dors herself is more important to me than, say, her music.  She was a magnificent figure in London culture circa pre-swinging 1960s.  If one just has to compare her to someone, I guess it would be Jayne Mansfield.  Busty, hour-glass figure, with a sexuality that is both enticing and alarming at the same time.  My type of gal.  A pal of the Kray twins, and other dark figures that made an appearance in London showbiz and gangster life, she strikes me as someone who liked to live life at its most bizarre and fullest.

With respect to this album, it's pretty good.  She can sing, and the beauty of her voice, is actually the character behind the vocals.  The Dors magic or personality comes through in these set of swing/pop classics.  The opening track "The Gentleman is a Dope" is very much the iconic Dors touch.   If nothing else, the title alone is a work of genius.  "Swinging Dors" is a time capsule, but not always filled with goodies.  Like all of life, there is the darkness - and it is there, if you give yourself time to swim into her 'darkness. '  For instance, Wally Stott did the arrangements and orchestration.  He worked with Scott Walker on his first three solo albums.  Doors can swing in both directions.