The Earth Reinherits Joe Meek

As if that weren't enough, Meek was taking drugs, dabbling in black magic and hearing not-so-friendly voices in his head.

"During Joe's last recording session, he was so paranoid that his studio was being bugged and people were stealing his ideas, he wouldn't talk. He just kept writing notes to his assistant Patrick Pink and then burning them in the wastebasket," says Diken, laughing. "He told Pink, who he was recording, 'Don't even sing, just mime the lyrics into the mike.' He was fucking losing his brains. It's tragic, but it's pretty funny."

Despite the tragedy, It's Hard to Believe It ends optimistically with the heavenly title track--Meek's attempt at "Eve of Destruction"-styled social criticism. Where Barry McGuire angrily railed, "You may leave here for four days in space, but when you return, it's the same old place," Meek can't seem to condemn space exploration completely. Glenda Collins, one of Meek's last discoveries, warns us warmongering earthlings with a righteous mixture of awe and disgust, "We're all in for a shock and soon, we'll find living creatures on the moon!" But anybody who'd read Meek's liner notes to IHear a New World, which foretold the existence of such curious lunar life forms as Saroos, Dribcots and Globbots, already knew that.

As Killer Joe's legend grows, so does the talk of bringing his tragic tale to the big screen. Certainly, it has enough lurid elements--great rock 'n' roll, homosexuality, swinging Sixties London, space travel, the occult and plenty o' violence--to make any Hollywood exec palpitate. Until then, Diken plans to take Meek's music to the public in other media, including live performance.

"We did a release party for the record, with an all-star band that included Marshall Crenshaw, myself and Richard Barone of the Bongos performing many tracks from the album. It was just a private thing. Now we've been asked to do a gig for the public in New York. Without knowing it, the date they offered us was February 3! Pretty wild, eh?"

Whatever you do, Dennis, don't fly to the show. Take the bus with the broken heater to New York if you must! And for Meek's sake, how about a volume two?