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    Hey Joe
    Hey Joe
    Hey Joe
    Ebook179 pages1 hour

    Hey Joe

    By Marc Shapiro

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    About this ebook

    The song Hey Joe was a momentary blip on the pop music scene in 1965 courtesy of a Southern California band called The Leaves. It would be their only hit. But over the next 50 plus years, the quirky song about premeditated murder went on to become something special, a musical rite of passage for the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Patti Smith, Led Zeppelin and countless others. It was a perennial that any teen band worth their limited chops coveted and recorded and finally it was an entry in The Guinness Book of World Records when thousands of people got together to play the song as the ultimate jam.

    Part, history, part mystery and part memoir, the book Hey Joe: The Unauthorized Biography of a Rock Classic by New York Times bestselling author Marc Shapiro is, through extensive and exhaustive research that included the memories of countless well known musicians who were part of the Hey Joe odyssey, a detailed look at the history of Hey Joe, the song that few have ever thought to think deeply about and the rumors, legends and outlandish tales surrounding the song that ultimately culminate in the ultimate question...

    Hey Joe, where you going with that gun in your hand?

    In Hey Joe: The Unauthorized Biography of a Rock Classic readers will learn...

    The family tree of songs that spanned decades and finally spawned Hey Joe.

    Who actually wrote the song?

    How close Hendrix came to not recording Hey Joe.

    The mystery of who actually recorded the first version of Hey Joe. No it was not The Leaves. Would you believe Kim Fowley? Or The Surfaris?

    What a very young Bruce Springsteen had to do with the song.

    Nearly 3000 versions of Hey Joe, familiar, obscure and, in many cases, downright impossible to find, have been recorded and released.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRiverdale Avenue Books
    Release dateDec 16, 2016
    ISBN9781626013322
    Hey Joe
    Author

    Marc Shapiro

    Marc Shapiro is the author of the New York Times bestselling biography, J.K. Rowling: The Wizard Behind Harry Potter and Stephenie Meyer: The Unauthorized Biography of the Creator of the Twilight Saga. He has been a freelance entertainment journalist for more than twenty-five years, covering film, television and music for a number of national and international newspapers and magazines.

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      Book preview

      Hey Joe - Marc Shapiro

      Hey Joe: The Unauthorized Biography of a Rock Classic© 2016 by Marc Shapiro

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes:

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the publisher.

      For more information contact:

      Riverdale Avenue Books

      5676 Riverdale Avenue

      Riverdale, NY 10471.

      www.riverdaleavebooks.com

      Design by www.formatting4U.com

      Cover by Scott Carpenter

      Digital ISBN: ISBN: 978-1-62601-332-2

      Print ISBN: 978-1-62601-333-9

      First Edition December 2016

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Acknowledgements...Couldn’t Have Done It Without You

      Author’s Notes...Are you Nuts?

      Introduction...Remember The Time?

      Chapter One...Who Wrote Hey Joe?

      Chapter Two...Win Place and Joe

      Chapter Three...Hitting The Strip

      Chapter Four...Hey Jimi Hey Joe

      Chapter Five...The Floodgates Open

      Chapter Six...Joe’s Got The Fever

      Chapter Seven...Patti’s Got a Gun

      Chapter Eight...The 80’S Go Hey

      Chapter Nine...The 90’S Will Do

      Chapter Ten...Reconstructing Hey Joe

      Chapter Eleven...Hey Joe… Mondo Obscure

      Chapter Twelve...Otis Loves Hey Joe Long Time

      Chapter Thirteen...Got Hey Joe If Want It You

      Chapter Fourteen...2001: A Hey Joe Odyssey

      Chapter Fifteen...Class In Session: Your Instructor Vernon Reid

      Chapter Sixteen...Random Stuff…But Hey Joe

      Chapter Seventeen...More Joe To Come

      APPENDIX...Hey Joy Soundtrack Contributions

      SOURCES

      This Book is Dedicated to….

      First and foremost this book is for my wife Nancy, who thought this was a good idea. To my daughter, Rachael, who probably won’t get this, but eventually she will. To my granddaughter, Lily: Don’t be alarmed, Grandpa is always like this. To Brent, Robert and Layla: You’ll get used to it. Brady and Fitch (RIP) told me it was cool…whatever it is. My agent Lori Perkins, who probably was not quite sure, but had the courage to say yes, anyway. To all the musicians who made this possible, and to those who were willing to talk about it once they stopped laughing. And finally, to all of those who take this stuff seriously and often suffer the slings and arrows because of it. Don’t worry, I have it on good authority that we’ll all win out in the end.

      And a very special thanks to Camilla Saly-Monzingo, my editor, who fact and double-checked my myriad references and kept me out of trouble.

      Acknowledgements

      Couldn’t Have Done It Without You

      Finding musicians who would be willing to talk about Hey Joe in any way, shape or form was always going to be the tough nut to crack. Time, memory and mortality limited the gene pool somewhat as I attempted to connect the Hey Joe dots across the years and decades. And there were those who, for whatever reason, were not interested or did not want to be involved. That’s cool. No arms were twisted in the making of this book. Fortunately, there were some who graciously came forward with their time and memories.

      Keith Olsen (The Music Machine): He was easy. Just give him a time and a phone number and he was there. Gave a good account of himself on the specifics of The Music Machine and the song. A big plus was how a band like The Music Machine functioned in the infancy of the Sunset Strip rock and roll scene. If he didn’t remember something, he would tell me so. But he remembered a lot.

      Rob Landes (Fever Tree): Initially Rob was a bit amused as to why a book on Hey Joe and why him? But he warmed to the idea with an insightful chronology of a band that had been up, down and was suddenly hanging by a thread whose only lifeline appeared in the form of a song, Hey Joe.

      Don Preston (The Mothers of Invention): Easily one of the highlights of my Hey Joe research was when Don, in mid-interview, broke into a version of Hey Joe on his keyboard, complete with what would turn out to be the first time he ever sang the song. Don is a musicians’ musician. That’s his vocabulary and he was quite good at describing how Frank Zappa managed to parody Hey Joe and turn it into a work of art.

      Toody Cole (Death Moon): Calling her cold and making my pitch resulted in sheets of laughter. When she realized I was serious, she proved quite the guide through the regional rock scene of the 80’s and 90’s and how Hey Joe was actually a pivotal point in the band actually making a living. She was still laughing at the end of our conversation.

      Randy Holden (The Fender Four, The Sons of Adam, Blue Cheer): Randy has a kind of water off a duck’s back attitude. He had been through a lot. He could have been a contender if the music biz fates had been kinder in the 60’s, especially as it pertained to The Sons of Adam coming this close to having the first commercial release of Hey Joe. He remembered the 60’s experience as good even when it wasn’t always so. Randy filled in a lot of important spaces in the evolution of Hey Joe. Many thanks and keep rocking.

      John ‘Eddie’ Edwards (The Vibrators): Caught Eddie as The Vibrators were pulling into a San Francisco hotel on yet another US tour from one of the oldest and continuously active punk bands on the planet. In between checking into the hotel and preparing for sound check, Eddie gave an insightful look into how Hey Joe impacted and influenced the music scene in the UK and how The Vibrators were diligent in beating the shit out of their version of the song. Everything in Eddie’s take on Hey Joe seemed covered with irony and humor. But why not? Eddie’s been around almost as long as Hey Joe has and he deserves to tell the tales any way he damned well pleases.

      John Medeski (Medeski, Martin & Wood): John was late to the evolution of Hey Joe. He discovered Hendrix’s version after the fact. But as part of the avant-garde jazz group Medeski, Martin & Wood he would describe his group’s foray like an explorer discovering an out of the way plateau. He described Hey Joe as light years from calculating yet ripe with new opportunities. John describes his group’s journey into Hey Joe in often vague, subtle tones. But his efforts are paving the way for what the future holds for the song.

      Vernon Reid (Living Color): Vernon was calm, intellectual and serious about what Hey Joe has meant on a historical level and what the song portends for the future. It seemed to come by him naturally. He was cerebral in dissecting Hey Joe. And as far from boring as he could possibly be.

      Otis Taylor: One gets the feeling that Otis Taylor is an artist masquerading as a veteran blues man. Especially when it comes to Hey Joe. He talks calmly, almost matter of factly about the love affair he’s had with the song over the course of several albums and a myriad of styles. He was easy to talk to. And, perhaps more importantly, to listen to. Because he saw a future for the song and he was glad to be along for the ride.

      Addendum

      And although they will be thanked by name later in the book, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the non-musicians, the producers, family members, managers and those unknowns who were an important cog in the Hey Joe pipeline. The people behind the scenes who patiently received and considered my emails and finally agreed to answer my questions and to help push the story of Hey Joe further down the road. This is a story that I felt passionate enough about to undertake. I could not have done it without you.

      Thanks for all your help. Marc out.

      Author’s Notes

      Are You Nuts?

      Before we get started I have a confession to make. I am an addict.

      No it’s not drugs, alcohol, gambling, or most aspects of daily life that give me the shakes and drive me to distraction. What sets me to Jonesing is the obscure, the fringe stuff, the little known facts that keep me awake nights.

      I haven’t fallen prey to the stuff that baffles and defines most fanatics. Things like calculating sports statistics bore me to death. And don’t try to bend my ears with the latest gluten/vegan concoction guaranteed to make me painlessly lose a ton. Do I live and die by computer games? No. I don’t play games. Am I hip to every facet of modern technology? I know just enough to create an international incident.

      This is how I roll when it comes to obsession.

      I can tell you how many cigarettes actor Forrest Tucker’s character smoked in the movie The Crawling Eye. Two classic television shows that are most likely classic only to me are T.H.E. Cat and Manimal. Jewish rock stars? The greatest hit of The Bubble Puppy? Hell, on a good day I can even recite chapter and verse on who really killed Lincoln and Kennedy. And yes, it was the same person. If it rates at some importance to me, I’m there. And I can mentally picture most of the civilized world running the other way.

      I have the most wonderful wife on the planet, but if I had a dollar for every time a long-winded explanation of mine caused her eyes to glaze over, I’d be a very rich man. The same tolerance or inattention extends to my daughter, who chalks up my blathering to old age and more old age. Hell, even my granddaughter and dog have been known to give me funny looks when I’ve been on a rant. Bottom line, my insanity or eccentricity has never been in doubt.

      Expounding on all things obscure is not for polite society. It is for the denizens of science fiction and horror conventions and for those who find meaning and psychological purpose in the most ‘out there’ images and topics that populate the dark corners of life.

      But my case is a bit different.

      I write for a living, which tends to lend itself to some contrary thoughts and attitudes. I once turned a buck by convincing a magazine that they could not continue as a viable literary entity if they did not have a story about rock stars who died on stage while performing. I once turned a couple of side questions to a roadie who used to work for Led Zeppelin into a conversation about the time he worked for Apple Records, and the result was cash on the barrelhead, his eyewitness account of John Lennon and Yoko Ono fighting, and his divulgence of heretofore unknown details about the tour Lennon was planning when he was shot and killed.

      But those were small potatoes. It would take my mania for all things Hey Joe to expand my tolerance for obscurity and turn it into this real live book. The reasoning behind this sudden mania for a song that is essentially about premeditated murder came late into my world. I grew up with the song as presented on 93 KHJ and 1110 KRLA by The Leaves. The song was mildly gnarly, and, by the standards of most teenage sensibilities, it registered as both cool and dangerous. For a long time that was pretty much the extent of my attraction and obsession.

      That was until not too long ago, when I came across a website devoted entirely to the song Hey Joe. It was a revelation. There were others out there like me, and they had not been locked up. And boy this was the beginning of a brave new world. It turns out that close to 1800 covers of the titular song existed, and a lot of them were by pretty big names, many of whom had experienced Hey Joe in their misspent youth, and survived the encounter on the road to stardom. And those were only the versions that received marginal release. There’s this guy in France

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