Hey Joe

Patty Hearst in front of SLA flag, 1974

“Honey, the way you play guitar makes me feel so… makes me feel so masochistic.  The way you go down low deep into the neck, and I would do anything…  and I would do anything.  And Patty Hearst, you standing there in front of the Symbionese Liberation Army flag with your legs spread.  I was wondering; were you gettin' it every night from a black revolutionary man and his women or were you really dead?  And now that you're on the run what goes on in your mind?

“Your sisters, they sit by the window and all your mama does is sit and cry.  And your daddy, well you know what your daddy said Patty…  you know what your daddy said Patty?  He said…  he said…  he said, “Well, sixty days ago she was such a lovely child.  Now here she is with a gun in her hand.”

Introduction to Patti Smith’s version of Hey Joe, 1974

 

Last fall, I did a special, two-hour set of just Patti Smith.  I recall sharing with everyone that I started with a play list that was over two hours long and needed to make some tough decisions in weeding out some songs to get it down to the allotted time.  One of the songs I cut was her version of Hey Joe, complete with the introduction I’ve reproduced above.

Today, I find myself in a similar situation.  I typed “Hey Joe” into the search field of my music database, expecting to find a handful of entries.  I was shocked when they filled the page!  So, I created a playlist of Hey Joe, without duplicates or live versions, like Hendrix’s Woodstock performance, and found that even then, I still had an hour and seventeen minutes of Hey Joe.

What this hour and seventeen minutes list soon showed me is that these are not just copies of an original and most are unique and interesting in some way, like the Smith version.  Once again, I’m going to face some hard choices, but the Patti Smith version will not be cut again.  I’ll revisit the Patti Smith version later in this post.

This post is the result of a discussion at AWT about the origins of this song and its interesting history.  What followed was not only the idea for this post but for it to be the first in a series.  Each would feature a song with a rather interesting history.

So, what is the origin of the song, Hey Joe?

The first recording was in 1962 by folk singer, Billy Roberts.  Roberts also copyrighted the song, listing himself as the composer.  With most any song, that is where it would end, and I would not be writing this post.

Billy Roberts

In 1963, Dino Valenti copyrighted Hey Joe in Los Angeles, listing himself as the composer.  Valenti is most famous for composing the much covered Let’s Get Together (often covered as “Get Together”) for the Kingston Trio in 1963 (eventually released in 1964).  Roberts and Valenti were actually friends and there is a story circulating that he gave the rights to Valenti since he was in jail at the time and he thought the income would be useful when he was released.  Valenti was serving a one-to-ten-year sentence at Folsom State Prison for possession of marijuana.  Upon his release, he became a member of the Quicksilver Messenger Service, singing and writing some of the biggest hits, including Fresh Air.

Eventually, despite the copyright dispute, all the writing credits were eventually changed to show Billy Roberts as the composer, but did he write it?  It doesn’t end there and gets even more complicated.  When Folk legend, Pete Seeger heard Roberts’ recording and learned of the copyright, he became infuriated.  He had heard a demo tape by Niela Miller, which he felt was close enough to Hey Joe to infringe on her copyright, filed earlier the same year as Roberts did.  Miller’s song, Baby, Please Don’t Go to Town, existed only as a demo and was likely heard by Roberts, who was dating Miller at the time.  Miller never pushed the issue despite Seeger even offering to testify on her behalf.  The demo was never released until 2009 and I’ll play it Tuesday night so you can decide if Roberts ripped it off.

So, could it get more complex?  Of course, it can.  Scottish folk singer, Len Partridge, claims he and Roberts would perform the song together as early as 1956 while playing the clubs in Edinburgh, Scotland.  He even claims that they both wrote Hey Joe.  If the song existed back in 1956, maybe that is why Miller never pursued the issue.  Who ripped off whom?

Other songs have been suggested as the “inspiration” for Hey Joe.  These include the traditional southern folk song, Little Sadie.  Country music artist, Carl Smith, came out with his own song, Hey Joe!, in 1953.  Both share some elements with Roberts’ song and probably did inspire him to some degree.

Regardless of what happened or which bits are true, there is no doubt that since 1962, Hey Joe has been evolving and taking on a life of its own.  The first band to release a rock version of it was the Leaves in 1966.  I have versions by twenty different artists in my music library and that is probably not even close to an exhaustive list.  The song has invited each artist to make it their own with variations on the music and lyrics.

Also, in 1966, Tim Rose released a version of Hey Joe that has no writing credit and attributes it to a “traditional” folk tune, meaning one that has its beginnings lost somewhere back in time.  He claimed to have heard it as a child in Florida.

In 1967, on his debut album, Jimi Hendrix released what is probably the most famous cover of the tune.  It is interesting that so many people just assume Hendrix wrote it.

In 1968, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, released a parody of Hey Joe called “Flower Punk,” on their album, We’re Only in It for the Money.

Also, in 1968, Deep Purple released a cover of Hey Joe on their debut album, Shades of Deep Purple. This was a very unique one as it started with an over two-minute organ intro that sounded like it was from a spaghetti western.  The entire song is over 7 minutes long and I will use it to end my set on Tuesday.

Back to the Patti Smith version…

On 4 February 1974, 19-year-old Patty Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst was kidnapped, and the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) claimed responsibility.  The news followed the story as the Hearst family cooperated with the SLA in hopes they would release Patty unharmed.  After several tapes by Patty were released to her family, it became clear that she had become indoctrinated and now embraced the SLA cause.  It was soon after, that the picture of Hearst at the top of this post, standing in front of the SLA flag, surfaced.  We started to hear about something called the “Stockholm Syndrome,” where captives become sympathetic to their captors.

A couple months later, in June 1974, Patty Smith recorded her very first single, Hey Joe, with the intro quoted above.  It was released the following November.  The quote that Smith attributes to Hearst’s father is fairly accurate to what he said after he saw that picture of his daughter.

Here is a list of the versions I have in my music library, in as best a chronological order as I can get.  The ones in bold will be part of my set on Tuesday. (Listing only one version by each artist though there might be several.)

Billy Roberts, (demo recording), 1962

The Leaves, (single), November 1965

Tim Rose, (single), 1966

The Surfaris, (single), 1966

Love, Love, March 1966

The Standells, Dirty Water, May 1966

The Byrds, Fifth Dimension, July 1966

The Tangents, (single), 1966

The Litter, Distortions, 1 May 1967

The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced, 12 May 1967

The Creation, We Are Paintermen, June 1967

Cher, With Love, Cher, November 1967

Deep Purple, Shades of Deep Purple, July 1968

The Music Machine, (single), 1968

Wilson Pickett, Right On, 1970

Fever Tree, (single), 1970

Patti Smith, (single), November 1974

Body Count, Born Dead, September 1994

Popa Chubby, Flashed Back, 2001

Charlotte Gainsbourg, (single), April 2014

I’ll play any of the others by request at Tuesday’s set or any other set (where appropriate).  So, load up your blue steel .44 and head on down to AWT This Tuesday night (April 6), from 7-9 pm as we salute Hey Joe.