HEY JOE
Created on 13/07/2007Latest update on 20/04/2022
Artist: Billy Roberts
Author: William Roberts
Label: demo
Year: 1962
Demo. Much longer version than all the others.
Covers:
- 1965:
Leaves [garageband from L.A.; first recording (for Mira), fully titled Hey Joe, Where You Gonna Go, learned from Love guitarist John Echols; version without fuzz guitar; the one that charted followed Love's version]
- 1966:
Surfaris [recorded in September '65 but shelved until way after the Byrds' version]
- 1966:
- 1966:
- 1966:
Love [based upon the Byrds version and no wonder: Love member and Byrds manager Bryan MacLean learned the song from David Crosby; Love started playing it live in April '65]
- 1966:
Tim Rose [one month before the Leaves' hit version entered the charts; arrangement (he changed the key from A to E) inspiring Jimi Hendrix]
- 1966:
Rogues [answer song as Wanted Dead Or Alive]
- 1966:
Jimi Hendrix Experience [hit in Europe; was already familiar with the song through his friendship with Arthur Lee (Love)]
- 1966:
- 1966:
- 1966:
Warlocks [pre Grateful Dead]
- 1966:
- 1966:
Kenny Bernard [as Hey Woman]
- 1967:
Mothers Of Invention [as Flower Punk]
- 1967:
- 1967:
Johnny Hallyday [had Jimi as his guitar player for four dates earlier that year]
- 1967:
- 1968:
- 1968:
- 1968:
Mad Sound [Danish group; as To Masturbate]
- 1968:
- 1968:
- 1968:
- 1969:
- 1969:
- 1971:
- 1973:
- 1974:
- 1978:
- 1986:
- 1990:
- 1991:
- 1992:
- 1992:
Willy DeVille [goes latin version]
- 1992:
- 1993:
- 1993:
- 1994:
Mathilde Santing [as Hey Joan]
- 1995:
- 1995:
- 1995:
Bassholes [as Hey O.J.; "Where you're going with that knife in your hand"]
- 1995:
Sunset Heights [in medley with Third Stone From The Sun]
- 2000:
- 2001:
- 2002:
- 2005:
- 2008:
- 2014:
Charlotte Gainsbourg [in film Nymphomaniac]
Unclear origin. Sometimes mentioned as an old Appalachian song. Hey Joe is mostly credited to Chester Powers (alias for Dino Valenti from Quicksilver Messenger Service), in one case to Jimi Hendrix sidekick Billy Cox. Hendrix and also The Leaves credit William (Billy) Roberts, obscure folkie who vanished in the purple haze. He secured the song in 1962, won his case when his authorship was questioned but badly invested his royalties. In '86, out of the blue, he showed up along with members of Quicksilver Messenger Service at a San Francisco club singing and playing his own song. Niela Halleck Miller, Billy Roberts' ex girlfriend, claims he stole the melody and the general idea from one of her own songs: Baby Don't Go To Town (1962). Check it out for yourself since Niela's got her own cd out: Songs Of Leaving (Variety Recording Service - '09).
