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Hey Joe
"Hey Joe" is an American popular song from the 1960s that has become a rock standard, and as such has been performed in a multitude of musical styles. Diverse credits and claims have led to confusion as to its authorship and genesis. It tells the story of a man on the run after shooting his wife. The earliest known commercial recording, and the first hit version, is the late 1965 recording by the Los Angeles garage band, The Leaves, although currently the best-known version is the The Jimi Hendrix Experience's 1966 recording, their debut single. The song title is sometimes given as "Hey Joe, Where You Gonna Go?" or similar variations.[1]
AuthorshipWhile claimed by some to be a traditional song, or often erroneously attributed to the pen of American musician Dino Valente (who also went by the names Chester or Chet Powers, and Jesse Farrow), "Hey Joe" was registered for copyright in the US in 1962 by Billy Roberts.[2]. Roberts is the author, and the song may have been written by him earlier. Scottish folk singer Len Partridge has claimed that he helped write the song with Roberts when they both performed in clubs in Edinburgh in 1956.[3] Another source (singer Pat Craig), claims[2] that Roberts assigned the rights to the song to his friend Valente while Valente was in jail, in order to give him some income upon release. Roberts was a relatively obscure California-based folk singer, guitarist and harmonica player who performed on the West Coast coffee-house circuit. He later recorded the country rock album Thoughts of California with the band Grits in San Francisco in 1975, produced by Hillel Resner. Resner has stated that a live recording of Roberts performing "Hey Joe" dates from 1961.[4] Roberts possibly drew inspiration for "Hey Joe" from three earlier works: his girlfriend Niela Miller's 1955 song "Baby, Please Don?t Go To Town"[5] (which uses a similar chord progression based on the "cycle of fifths"); Carl Smith's 1953 US country hit "Hey Joe!" (written by Boudleaux Bryant), which shared the title and the "question and answer" format; and the early 20th century traditional ballad "Little Sadie", which tells of a man on the run after he has shot his wife.[6]. The lyrics to "Little Sadie" often locate the events in Thomasville, North Carolina, and Jericho, (near Hollywood, South Carolina). Roberts was himself born in South Carolina. Under various titles (including "Bad Lee Brown", "Penitentiary Blues", "Cocaine Blues", "Whiskey Blues") variations of "Little Sadie" have been recorded by many artists, including Clarence Ashley (1930), Johnny Cash (1960 & 1968), Slim Dusty (1961), and Bob Dylan (1970). Despite extensive archives of US folk and blues music, and studies of the same, in the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, and other bodies, no documentary evidence has been provided to support the claim, by the late Tim Rose and others, that "Hey Joe" is a wholly traditional work. (see also the article on "Morning Dew" regarding Rose and song copyrights). Rights to the song were administered by the music publisher Third Story Music from 1966 into the 2000s, they list the author as Billy Roberts. In recent years the publisher has changed to Third Palm Music.[7]. First recordingsRoberts? song gained many fans in the Los Angeles music scene, which led to fast-paced recordings in 1965 and 1966 by The Leaves, The Surfaris, Love and The Byrds, swiftly becoming a garage rock classic. Both Dino Valente and The Byrds' David Crosby have been reported as helping to popularize the song before it was recorded by The Leaves in December 1965. "Hey Joe" has been recorded by hundreds of artists since. The Leaves recorded and released three versions of "Hey Joe": the first version was released in November/December 1965; the third version was their hit in May/June 1966 (Billboard #31). The Surfaris version was released in June 1966, but some sources claim it was recorded in September 1965, before The Leaves' first version. Rose, Hendrix and other recordingsFolk rock singer Tim Rose?s slow version, (recorded in 1966 and claimed to be Rose's arrangement of a wholly traditional song) inspired the first single by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. One documentary shows interviews with Chas Chandler, who, having just left The Animals, and was focusing on managing other acts. He had been seeking out an artist to record a full-on rock version of "Hey Joe", and Hendrix fit the bill. Chandler had seen Rose performing at the Cafe Wha? in New York City (Hendrix himself had recently played a few times in the same venue). Some accounts credit the slower version of the song by the British band The Creation as being the inspiration for Hendrix's version; Chandler and Hendrix eventually saw them perform the song after Jimi finally arrived in the UK along with Chandler although their version was not released until after Hendrix's. It is unclear if the members of the Creation had heard Rose's version. Released in December 1966, Hendrix's version became a worldwide hit, entering the UK top ten within the month in January 1967 and remains the best known recording of the song.[8] The single was released in the United States on May 1, 1967 with the B-side "51st Anniversary". It is #198 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[9] Garage rock band The Music Machine recorded a slow, gothic, fuzz-laden version of the song in late 1966 which bears a strong resemblance to Hendrix's version. Arthur Lee of Love claimed it was their version that turned Hendrix onto the song as well as most of the other Los Angeles acts (See Mojo Heroes - Arthur Lee biography). According to guitarist Junior Campbell, quoted in the notes of their CD I See The Rain: The CBS Years, Marmalade recorded the song in 1968 as they needed a B-side to their single "Lovin' Things" in a hurry, and they did their arrangement of "Hey Joe" because they thought it was a traditional song and they would get the royalties. "Jimi Hendrix's version had already sold about 200,000 copies and then we sold about 300,000 on the flip of 'Lovin' Things'. But then the following year, the bloke who'd written the bloody song suddenly turned up out of the woodwork!". Patti Smith released a cover of the song as the A-side of her first single, "Hey Joe/Piss Factory," in 1974. The arrangement of Smith's version is based on a recording by blues guitarist Roy Buchanan that was released the previous year (and dedicated to Hendrix). Smith's version is unique in that she includes a brief and salacious—some would say tasteless—monologue about fugitive heiress Patty Hearst and her kidnapping and participation with the Symbionese Liberation Army. Smith's version portrays Patty Hearst as Joe with a "gun in her hand." Tim Rose re-recorded "Hey Joe" in the 1990s, re-titling it "Blue Steel .44" and again falsely claiming it as his own work. This track was covered by the Les Humphries Singers in 1971. Selected list of recorded versionsA long list of versions of Hey Joe can be found at Hey Joe Versions) The following versions of "Hey Joe" made the pop charts in the US or UK:
Other recorded versions of "Hey Joe" include:
Miscellaneous
In the mediaThe Hendrix version appears in the following films:
A version sung by Michael Pitt with the band The Twins of Evil features in the film The Dreamers. The Deep Purple version appears in Vietcong computer game. "Hey Joe" appears in the Deep Space Nine episode "Future Tense". Samples and quotes
References
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