Hey joe

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Hey Joe is the title of a frequently interpreted American folk song , which became known in the version of guitarist and singer Jimi Hendrix and is now one of the rock standards . Who originally composed the original is still controversial today.

Authorship

Music historians mostly assume that William Moses "Billy" Roberts jr. Is the composer of the song. He was a Californian folk singer who may have used the baby, Please Don't Go Down Town , written by his girlfriend Niela Miller in 1955, for his composition Hey Joe , which was probably composed in 1961 . Miller's piece has a similar chord progression, but was not registered for US copyright until 1964 . Hey Joe (with text and music by William M. Roberts), however, was already protected by copyright on January 12, 1962 by the music publisher Third Story Music (Los Angeles), so that allegations of plagiarism cannot be legally raised. The music publishing rights are exercised by Third Story Music (today: Third Palm Music ). The publisher has registered the copyright for the composer William "Billy" Roberts with the title Hey Joe (Where You Wanna Go) with BMI .

In the past, Dino Valenti (real name: Chester Arthur Powers) was sometimes named as the composer who was the lead singer of Quicksilver Messenger Service . It is rumored that Roberts ceded the copyright to Valenti as bail so that Valenti could be released from prison; after that, Third Story Music had the song again incorrectly registered for Valenti in October 1965. Other early recordings also have the note “PD” (Public Domain), which is used to identify works that are no longer protected by copyright in publications.

In the specialist literature, Carl Smith's country hit Hey Joe! of July 1953, which took first place for eight weeks. However, it is a completely different composition by Boudleaux Bryant , which apart from the title only has the question-and-answer scheme in common with Hey Joe .

original

Leaves - Hey Joe

Equally controversial is who the original is to be ascribed to. In the case of cover versions , the decisive factor is who was responsible for the earlier studio recording of the title. According to a majority of music historians, the first commercially exploited studio recording came from the garage rock band The Leaves , which even recorded the song three times. Hey Joe was first recorded in October 1965 under the producer Nick Venet , a second version probably in December 1966. In March 1966 the third version was immortalized with the fuzztone sound of guitarist Bobby Arlin by Norm Ratner. The second and third version appeared on the small record label Mira (# 207 in December 1965 and # 222 in April 1966), the second correctly refers to Third Story Music as a music publisher, but names Valenti as the composer. The musicians of the band The Leaves were the first performers to put the title in the US pop charts , where the piece reached number 31 as its highest rating.

However, it is also possible that the surf rock band Surfaris recorded the title first. Some sources date the recording session to March 18, 1966, others to September 1965. The single was released under the title Hey Joe Where Are You Going on Decca # 31954 as the B-side of So Get Out from May to June 1966, The version was produced and arranged by Gary Usher.

Early covers

Tim Rose - Hey Joe

The Californian music scene picked up the song very often. The Byrds recorded it on May 17, 1966 and released their version on July 8, 1966. The band Love released the title on their album Love in April 1966. Folk singer Tim Rose published his interpretation of Hey Joe as the B-side of the April 1966 single King Lonely the Blue . Rose, like Jimi Hendrix, performed at the Wha? on. The Standells took the title for their album Dirty Water , which was released in July 1966. This was followed by the Cryan 'Shames (album Sugar and Spice ; 1966), Shadows of Knight (album Raw' n Alive at the Cellar, Chicago ; December 1966) and Music Machine (album Turn On ; December 1966).

Content and music

Depending on the version, not all of the text of the original composition is reproduced. The story is based on the typical blues concept and is about a jealous man who shoots his unfaithful wife and then tries to go into hiding in Mexico. The text of the piece is designed in such a way that the interpreter takes on the roles of husband and commentator in a question-and-answer game .

The piece is based exclusively on major chords . The sequence is: CGDAEEEE. It is a simple application of the circle of fifths, since the chords form a so-called chord progression according to the relationship between fifths. In this way one reaches one after the other exclusively major chords whose harmonic function can be assigned to different keys; regardless of this, the chord progression is perceived by listeners as harmonious.

Due to the specific chord progression, the successive chords each have the same distance from one another. In addition, the following chord can be interpreted as the dominant of the preceding one: For example, G major would be the dominant of the preceding C major chord and at the same time G major is also the tonic of the following D major chord, which in turn is the dominant can be understood in relation to G major. In addition, you can read three consecutive chords functionally harmonious as a sequence of subdominant, tonic and dominant (e.g. C, G, D). Accordingly, the piece then changed from the key of G major to D major to A major and ended on its dominant E major (which can then be understood as the tonic of E major). The fact that Hey Joe is in E major cannot be justified harmonically; This view can only be explained by the fact that the chord progression ends in E major and this chord is then played four times as long as the others. The chord progression can also be understood as based on G major, because the vocal melody - just like the famous guitar solo in Jimi Hendrix's version - is predominantly based on the notes of G major or the G major pentatonic (or E. Minor pentatonic scale).

Jimi Hendrix's version

On August 3, 1966, Chas Chandler , formerly bassist for Animals , attended a concert by the then unknown Jimi Hendrix, who was performing with his group Jimmy James & The Flames , in the bohemian neighborhood of Greenwich Village . The band leader and guitarist has performed there regularly since June 1966 in the Club Cafe Wha? on. Here he was already playing Hey Joe , as Chandler remembered. He brought Hendrix to London on September 21, 1966 without a work permit with a five-day visa. Hendrix was in the US since October 15, 1965 under contract as the musical accompaniment of Curtis Knight. This confirmed that Hendrix did not know the title Hey Joe from Tim Rose, but from the band The Leaves. On October 12, 1966, the Jimi Hendrix Experience was put together with Mitch Mitchell (drums) and Noel Redding (bass) and was already touring clubs in London three days later.

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Hey Joe

Hendrix also takes on the two narrative roles of the text in his singing, on the one hand Joe with the gun and on the other hand the commentator. Hey Joe had been in the band's repertoire since at least October 18, 1966, when they played it live at the Paris Olympia . The Jimi Hendrix Experience rehearsed with Chandler one after the other in three London recording studios because they were not satisfied with the result. After the second recording session at Olympic Studios , the band moved to De Lane Lea Studios . The recordings there on October 23, 1966 were finally used for the single version. It was a slowed-down version compared to the earlier recordings in order to convey the subliminal violence artistically.

But Track Records was just as uninterested in the recordings as Dick Rowe from Decca , who was basically not impressed by Hendrix (he had already turned down the Beatles). Only Polydor offered a record deal. Hey Joe / Stone Free (B-side recorded November 2, 1966) was published on December 16, 1966 on Polydor # 56139. On January 5, 1967, the single hit the British charts, where it reached sixth place as the highest ranking. Hey Joe sold more than 200,000 copies, but it wasn't one of the big hits of 1967.

Hey Joe was Hendrix's first single and became its signature tune. He also presented it on August 18, 1969 as an encore and the final piece of the Woodstock Festival .

Other versions

The Hendrix version ( overdubbed on the studio recording ) was the most successful version to date and triggered a wave of further versions. Cher (November 1967) picked up the song as well as The Mothers of Invention (parody Flower Punk ; March 1968), Deep Purple (September 1968), King Curtis (1968), The Marmalade (1969), Wilson Pickett (March 1969) and, unusually harsh, Wonderlick (1973).

In 1980 the song was covered by the Hungarian blues band Hobo Blues Band for their album Középeurópai Hobo Blues with Hungarian vocals. In 1988 Dead Moon played the song on their debut album. In 1992 a cover version of the American rock and blues musician Willy DeVille appeared for his album Backstreets of Desire . In 1994, the American crossover band Body Count released a cover version of the song on their second studio album Born Dead and as a single. In 1997 (for his album Haunted ), Tim Rose recorded Hey Joe again under the title Blue Steel 44 , which is borrowed from the lyrics ("I'm gonna buy me a new blue steel 44").

On their album Sitzpinkler (April 2004) the Austro-Metal-Band Drahdiwaberl released a version in the Austrian dialect with the title Heast Franz auf, which is about a gunman ("I have a long list, all the assholes are on it") ). The 2015 Otis Taylor album Hey Joe Opus: Read Meat contains two longer versions of this song.

Coverinfo lists 123 other cover versions of Hey Joe , Jan Marius Franzen even inventories more than 1800 performers.

World Guitar Record

Since 2003 the “Thanks Jimi Festival” has been held in Wroclaw every year in May. Here, Hey Joe played together in the Wroclaw downtown as many people, with the aim to surpass again the "Guinness Guitar Record." The event took place virtually on May 1st, 2020: 7998 guitarists were involved in the “Online Guitar World Record”.

interpretation

What the song meant for Jimi Hendrix can only be deduced from his presentation of the song, which was exciting and wild, if Hendrix did not make any direct statements. When Jimi Hendrix played the piece, there was no sympathy for the woman who was shot, but he emphasized the passage in the text “Shoot her one more time!” From today's perspective, the text appears misogynistic; “This is a male-oriented sexist song”, interpreted a participant in an interpretation workshop.

The piece is a ballad, a morality (Murder Ballad), but without evaluation or morality. The text begins with a teaser in which a lyric self asks the protagonist the question, “Hey Joe, where you goin 'with that gun in your hand?” (Hey Joe, where are you going with the gun in your hand?) The Use of a lyrical self creates a scenic atmosphere. The ballad is about murder for base motives. Joe wants to flee to Mexico at the end of the song to avoid justice.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Original lead sheet and lyrics. In: Hey Joe Versions. January 16, 2011, accessed June 29, 2020 .
  2. ↑ repertoire.bmi.com: HEY JOE WHERE YOU GONNA GO (Legal Title) ( Memento from February 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Michael Hicks, Sixties Rock Garage: Psychedelic, and Other Satisfactions , 2000, p. 44.
  4. ↑ Michael Hicks, Sixties Rock Garage: Psychedelic, and Other Satisfactions , 2000, p. 45. He assumes that the Surfaris were the first group to include Hey Joe . As a result, their version was created in September 1965, but was not released on their November 1965 folk-rock album It Ain't Me, Babe .
  5. ↑ He performed this slow version in 1969 in the Beat Club , where an English overlay incorrectly attributed the original to him.
  6. ^ During the Animals' last US tour, which began on July 27, 1966, before they broke up. Chandler left the group to manage and manufacture Hendrix.
  7. ↑ a b 'Hey, Man, Can You Play This?' , The Independent dated Nov. 7, 2003.
  8. ^ David Henderson, The Life of Jimi Hendrix: 'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky , 1990, p. 64.
  9. ^ Dave Marsh, The Heart of Rock and Soul , 1989, p. 336.
  10. ^ David Henderson, The Life of Jimi Hendrix: 'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky , 1990, p. 72.
  11. ^ Wieland Harms: The Unplugged Guitar Book. 20 of the most beautiful songs for acoustic guitar. Gerig Music, ISBN 3-87252-249-3 , pp. 28-33 ( Jimi Hendrix: Hey Joe ).
  12. ↑ youtube.com: Wonderlick - Hey Joe
  13. ↑ Coverinfo.de Hey Joe
  14. ↑ heyjoeversions.wordpress.com: Hey Joe Versions
  15. ↑ WELT online, May 2, 2016: "Together we can astonish the world"
  16. ↑ World Guitar Record (English)
  17. ↑ a b Hey Joe - a song with murky origins gave rise to one of the great cover versions , Ian Gittins, Financial Times, 2018,
  18. ↑ [ https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/18285 ] Commentators at songmeanings.com
  19. ^ [1] Commentators at Lyricinterpretations.com
  20. ↑ a b Hey Joe. In: Song Lexicon. Encyclopedia of Songs. June 14, 2018, accessed June 29, 2020 (German).