Join
now to receive all the new
music
Thomas Truax creates,
including this release
and 9 back-catalog releases,
delivered instantly to you via the Bandcamp app for iOS and Android.
You’ll also get access to
supporter-only
exclusives.
Learn more.
'Joe Meek Warns Buddy Holly' tells the curious story of the late London-based independent record producer Joe Meek, and a warning he reputedly received in 1958 via spirit communication (Meek, an occult enthusiast, participated in biweekly seances) predicting the date of his hero Buddy Holly's death: February 3. A panicked Meek actively sought out Buddy, and personally delivered a note to him backstage when Buddy was on tour in the UK. Holly thanked him politely, and later even laughed about the meeting/warning in a post-tour interview well after February 3. However, exactly one year later, the date proved to be tragically accurate after all when Holly was killed in a plane crash along with Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper, and the pilot.
Originally released on SL Records on February 3, 2009 which was the 50th Anniversary of Holly's Death and also that of Joe Meek, who killed himself on the upper floor of his 304 Holloway Road apartment after shooting his landlady, Violet Shenton, following a heated argument, on the same date (probably not coincidentally) in 1967.
Between those fateful days much happened in the world of Joe Meek, including recording of a 'talking' cat in a cemetery, claimed additional communication with Holly via Ouija Board ("SEE YOU IN THE CHARTS"), the production of a Holly tribute record, legal and financial problems and a gradual descent into drug-addled paranoia and madness. Meek was even convinced that Decca Records and Phil Spector had planted microphones behind his wallpaper in order to steal his recording secrets.
Thomas's song touches on all this and also name checks Meek's most famous number one single 'Telstar' (by The Tornadoes) and incorporates a nod to Meek's third UK #1, The Honeycombs' "Have I The Right?" (1964).
lyrics
Bounced off Telstar
Twice a week
The dead they speak
to Joe Meek
Now Joe's got fears
His walls have ears
It's his hits they're stealin'
He's keepin' a gun
Oija Board says
"See you in the charts"
Saw it in the tarot
Talked to a cat
Got the rent in to
Mrs. Violet Shenton
She's got it in for him
They all do
A written note
From the spirit world
It portends
The grimmest end
It's quite specific
And most horrific
Buddy's bound
For the beyond
Rewind past Holloway hey Buddy Holly
Please watch out carefully on February 3
Maybe we could change the future, take a holiday
But if you cross over you'll come back and talk to me (wont you?)
Come right back, I just can't bear it (X3)
3/2/'58
It came and went
Without event
So it goes
But one year later
Same month same day
Plane went down
No survivors
Eight years later
Same month same day
Up to the studio
Into an argument
A shot rang out
Followed by another
Down went Violet
Followed by Joe
Rewind past Holloway hey Buddy Holly
Please watch out carefully on February 3
Maybe we could change the future, take a holiday
But if you cross over you'll come back and talk to me (wont you?)
Come right back, I just can't bear it
"Thomas Truax crafts rich, poetically evocative songs about insects, trees, technology, and a lifelong obsession with all
things lunar. He travels the world performing with his "band" of bizarre self-made instruments including a motorized drum machine made with bike wheels and a souped-up Gramophone called 'The Hornicator', as well as his venerable guitar 'Hank'.
"Inventive and Romantic" -TimeOut...more