Flying Saucer Music #4
I Hear A New World by Joe Meek and the Blue Men
From wikipedia:
The album was Meek’s pet project. He was fascinated by the then-new space program, and believed that life existed elsewhere in the solar system. This album was his attempt “to create a picture in music of what could be up there in outer space,” he explained. “At first I was going to record with music that was completely out of this world but realized that it would have very little entertainment value so I kept the construction of the music down to earth.” Meek also wrote sleeve notes for each track, to set the scene for each piece. For instance, the notes for “Magnetic Field” say: “This is a stretch of the Moon where there is a strange lack of gravity forcing everything to float three feet above the crust, which with a different magnetic field from the surface sets any article in some sections in vigorous motion, and at times everything is in rhythm.”
From another report on the record:
Joe assembled a group he christened The Bluemen for the recording of I Hear a New World, insisting that they dress in silver space suits and paint themselves blue. He communicated his ideas for the album through recordings of himself humming the tunes and playing out the rhythms by tapping a spoon on a plate. Unfortunately, Joe was completely tone deaf and blessed with absolutely no music ability to speak of. The incongruity of moronically tuneless humming and randomly spoon-smacked plates has made these tapes legendary.
The basic ingredients for the recording of the album were an Hawaiian guitar (an highly off the wall instrument for a country band at the time), The Bluesmen rhythm section and a deliberately out of tune piano. Meek fleshed out the songs with treatments of the sounds of bubbles blown through drinking straws, his toilet flushing backwards and electrical circuits shorted together.
Apparently, Meek was also a Spiritualist of sorts and regularly conducted seances and tarot-card readings. My kind of guy.
Listen for the ubiquitous “chipmunk” vocals. My chipmunk/ alien conspiracy theory gains creedence.
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Jan 26 2007 
January 27th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
“The incongruity of moronically tuneless humming and randomly spoon-smacked plates has made these tapes legendary.” now that’s what i really want to hear. still and all, very enjoyable stuff.
January 27th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
chaos_engineer,
I really want to hear that stuff too. I have a recording of Meek humming the tune for “Telstar” in a moronic and tuneless way. It’s excellent! I think I got it from the comfortstand website. I oughta’ get crackin’ on trackin’ down these demos for I Hear A New World.
January 27th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Everyone else,
If you haven’t noticed, I am trying to post about one song a week. I’ll probably run out of the “normal” stuff in about 6-8 months, but by then I’ll have found more. Please contact me if you find any old (or new) UFO songs. I really try to stay away from mainstream artists in this category, with the exception of “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft,” originally recorded by the band UFO, then the Carpenters, and a version by an elementary school choir, which is my favorite. Stay tuned!
January 28th, 2007 at 12:22 am
Klatuu recorded the first version of “Calling Occupants” as I recall. Methinks you erred. Tsk, tsk.
January 28th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Adam,
You’re right, except it’s spelled “Klaatu.”