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Topic: Jerry Douglas - Hey Joe |
Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 26 Jul 2017 6:42 am |
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https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/07/jerry-douglas-band-hey-joe-cover.html
Hey Joe is part of the long folk tradition of murder ballads in American folk music that includes Tom Dooley, Pretty Poly, etc. Some are from the point of view of the murderer, some from the POV of the victim. People have a hardwired fascination with lurid, domestic crime (or we wouldn't have so many crime TV shows today) and that comes out in music as well as other arts. Jerry has been singing more and more and remarked that he is trying to improve as a vocalist - he sure has nothing left to prove as an instrumentalist. I kind of prefer Tim O'Brien's acoustic version of Hey Joe but that's what makes music (and horse races).
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gary pierce
From:
Rossville TN
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Posted 26 Jul 2017 9:29 am
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| Awesome Andy, thanks. |
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Steve Branscom
From:
Pacific NW
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Posted 26 Jul 2017 9:36 am
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Rob Ickes did a version on one of his earliest cd's. Don't remember the vocalist but did enjoy the version.
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Steve |
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Bob Blair
From:
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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Posted 26 Jul 2017 11:06 am
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| I think it is so great that Jerry is pursuing the singing thing! The guy has never stopped growing as a musician and performer and I find that to be hugely inspiring. |
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David Matzenik
From:
Cairns, on the Coral Sea
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Posted 26 Jul 2017 12:14 pm
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And the bass player isn't too shabby either. 
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C. E. Jackson
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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John Mulligan
From:
Ontario, Canada
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Posted 26 Jul 2017 8:04 pm
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| Doug, I had the same reaction. I thought the song was overplayed.On the other hand, I love Jerry Douglas. I like that he sang the song, even though he's not a singer. He's sometimes guilty of overplaying, but so was Hendrix!I'm glad Jerry is doing what he does, but I don't love every single thing he plays. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 27 Jul 2017 3:04 am
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Even though Mike Auldridge will always have the top spot in my Dobro heart I like and respect a lot of what Jerry does. Like you Doug, my reaction to this performance was lukewarm. I don't particularly dig this song. I like Neil Young's "Down by the River" as far as 60s takes on murder ballads go. Perhaps we should ask ourselves why this vein of misogyny runs so deep in American music and why we so seldom hear "Hey Josephine - where you going' with that gun in your hand?"
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 27 Jul 2017 5:20 am
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| Good question, Andy. The thing I liked about 'Frankie and Johnnie' is I never figured out the gender of the names. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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David Knutson
From:
Cowichan Valley, Canada
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Posted 27 Jul 2017 9:16 am
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Ya, both of those Hey Joe versions are really hot, instrumentally, but it seems to me as well that the song doesn't fit that level of energy. My humble opinion.
While we're on the topic, several years ago, while on a performance tour in England, I came out of a used book shop in Cambridge with a volume called "American Murder Ballads - and Their Stories" by Olive Woolley Burt, first published in 1958 by Oxford University Press, with an American publication in 1964 (Citadel Press). There's probably a few out there and if you can find one, it's a gem. And there are a few female murderers in there.
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David K |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Andy DePaule
From:
Saigon, Viet Nam & Springfield, Oregon
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Posted 27 Jul 2017 12:34 pm Kind of agree
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Kind of agree with Doug about he second version being more like the tune should be, but those people dancing need to get some soul! 
As for that version Andy posted, the guy is real good on dobro, but he didn't really play much that I'd say was the song "Hay Joe", too many musicians seem to forget the song in order to show off hot licks..
The bass player was better, a real joy to hear someone play so well on bass.
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Chris Byars
From:
Denver, CO
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Posted 27 Jul 2017 5:03 pm
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| Bad to the bone |
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Brooks Montgomery
From:
Idaho, USA
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Posted 27 Jul 2017 8:11 pm
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Yeh, that guy's not bad on dobro. 
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A banjo, like a pet monkey, seems like a good idea at first. |
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Steve Lipsey
From:
Portland, Oregon, USA
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Posted 27 Jul 2017 9:12 pm
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At this point I think hey Joe isn't about doing "the definitive version"...that's been done, and Hendrix's version probably is it. It is about doing a personal take on the tune, in the genre and with the instrumentation that a person can show mastery of...and there is no doubt that both of those players in this version did exactly that.
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Brooks Montgomery
From:
Idaho, USA
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Posted 28 Jul 2017 7:14 am
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It is hard to beat this Tim O'brien / Jerry Douglas version. Great videography.
https://youtu.be/62db5rMc2ns
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A banjo, like a pet monkey, seems like a good idea at first. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 28 Jul 2017 8:01 am
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"Hey Joe, where you going' with that near mint 1937 GibsonEH-150 with the replaced tuners and one non-original volume knob in your hand?"
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Posted 28 Jul 2017 8:46 am
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Personally, I don't care for any of the fast, "bluegrassy" versions of Hey Joe, regardless of who's playing it. Of course, the fast picking is impressive, but it's the wrong song for that style. In my mind "Hey Joe" is a moderately slow, bluesy song, and it is best expressed that way. Just my opinion. YMMV
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Howard Parker
From:
Maryland
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Posted 28 Jul 2017 8:58 am
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Interesting some are just discovering this. I believe the arrangement first came to light on Jerry's 1992 CD "Slide Rule" with Tim again taking the vocals.
Since this this time it's become wildly popular in the circles I usually travel in. Jerry sings it in just about every performance.
At any rate, the horse has certainly left the barn. I figure with 14 Grammys under his belt Jerry has the freedom to do whatever he wants with his material.
Just a historical perspective. I respect everyone's personal taste when it comes to music.
h
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03\' Carter D-10
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Posted 28 Jul 2017 9:14 am
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Yes, I first heard it in the 1990s, Jerry's version... I didn't like it then and I don't like it now.  The most annoying part is that signature Hendrix guitar/bass run that Jimi played one time in his version. Jerry and others kill that riff by playing it over and over in the song. They really wear it out, in my opinion. Anyway, not my cup of tea, regardless of all the speedpicking, or maybe because of all the speedpicking. I hear no soul whatsoever in these bluegrass versions. I mean, the song is about shooting a woman dead... that should be gritty, bluesy, and soulful.
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Howard Parker
From:
Maryland
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Posted 28 Jul 2017 9:17 am
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Ah well....  |
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Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 28 Jul 2017 9:20 am
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| Doug Beaumier wrote: |
| Personally, I don't care for any of the fast, "bluegrassy" versions of Hey Joe, regardless of who's playing it. Of course, the fast picking is impressive, but it's the wrong song for that style. In my mind "Hey Joe" is a moderately slow, bluesy song, and it is best expressed that way. Just my opinion. YMMV |
As is likely most of America who have been around long enough to have the song ingrained, the Hendrix version is of course my favorite.
But Jimi most likely first heard the song as done by The Leaves around 1965-66. That's the first one I remember as a kid hearing on the radio. The Byrds and Love did a version shortly thereafter.
So in reality, The Leaves version that Jimi made into a more bluesy take, to my ears has a lot in common with how Jerry Douglas handles the tune as did Tim O'Brien on vocals on one of Jerry's solo albums, Slide Rule, from 1992.
Steve Branscom mentioned a version from Rob Ickes. I don't believe Rob has ever recorded, Hey Joe. I'm wondering if you are mixing it up with Rob's version of the Steve Winwood/Blind Faith tune Can't Find My Way Home? That was on one of his earliest solo albums featuring Tim O'Brien on vocals - you could be "transposing" Tim singing with Jerry to Tim singing with Rob on that one.
Hey Joe was apparently a folk song done acoustically before The Leaves and other rockers ever got a hold of it but in my research no one is exactly sure who wrote it.
This is The Leaves version which seems to have more in common with Jerry's take than the Jimi interpretation, so one can like or not like Jerry's version but it isn't necessarily a "wrong" version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWv03Wgz0PQ
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