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Jimi Hendrix - Hey Joe - 1965 - All about the song

The pioneer mentioned in the annals who performed this composition for the world for the first time is credited as Tim Rose. The cover of the record "Are You Experienced?" by 60s psychedelic rock band The Jimi Hendrix Experience says it's "a bluesy arrangement of an old cowboy song that's about a hundred years old".

All about the song: Jimi Hendrix - Hey Joe (1965)

It's always been a mystery: why some songs have such a fate, despite the light lyrics and simple melody, they manage to get into the soul of the listener and go with them practically through the whole life, tightly stuck in the head... Other songs, which seemed promising to us, we forget the very next month.

Why is that? I don't know...

But what I do know is that the first category indisputably includes the composition "Hey Joe" by Jimi Hendrix, the greatest electric guitarist of all time!

This song has some kind of magical property! It's brilliantly simple! But at the same time it is impossible to forget it. This song has hundreds of covers, and in so many different styles, that sometimes you wonder how people thought of it!

The most popular version by far remains Jimi's version. Let's hear him play his strat solo with his teeth:

The plot of the song is very simple: the wife has cheated on her husband, and now he has no choice - he has to kill her. And, of course, run away to Mexico. The original text belongs to Billy Roberts, he wrote it in 1962.

Billy Roberts
Billy Roberts

The pioneer mentioned in the annals who performed this composition for the world for the first time is credited as Tim Rose. The record cover of "Are You Experienced?" by 60s psychedelic rock band The Jimi Hendrix Experience states that it is "a bluesy arrangement of an old cowboy song that is about a hundred years old." Many have claimed authorship of the song, but it's actually really a folk song. The fact is that "Hey Joe" was written by Billy Roberts, and he was part of a folk fraternity in Greenwich Village in the early '60s.

In 1965, The Leaves did three versions of the song Hey Joe. One was more nimble than the other two and reached the 31st position on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. At the same time, one of the most iconic meetings in rock music history took place: Chas Chandler saw a young virtuoso playing guitar at the "Wha?" cafe, he also performed the song "Hey, Joe". Chandler eventually became the manager of the successful guitarist who would later turn the course of musical history upside down. Chas convinces Jimi to go to England with him to record a single. What happened next we all know very well....

When music becomes a religion.

The song incorporates many blues elements including the F-C-G-D-A chord progression, the tale of infidelity and murder gives this the very portion of truthfulness needed for the old blues. This led many to believe it was a much older - folk version, but this was a new, original composition.

At the end of the Wild Thing song, Jimi lit his guitar on fire and began to feed off the energy
At the end of the Wild Thing song, Jimi lit his guitar on fire and began to feed off the energy

Hendrix played it for the first time at the 1967 Monterey Festival. It was the first time the band played in America. Jimi then set the guitar on fire at the end of the performance.

Hendrix himself has four versions of this song, one better than the other:

On the third version, a trio called the Breakaways (Jean Hawker, Margot Newman and Vicki Brown) performed female backing vocals. They were recruited by producer Ches Chandler. On this version, Hendrix skips the first verse and then laughs. It's great that they decided to release this version this way.

https://youtu.be/5eJz0kdOrLw

Although Jimi's version is by far the most famous, "Hey Joe" has been recorded by more than 1,000 musicians...

https://youtu.be/HLiUJPrwNn8

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