Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / The Reason Why Jimi Hendrix Recorded 'Hey Joe' [Highlight From Episode 303]

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The Reason Why Jimi Hendrix Recorded 'Hey Joe' [Highlight From Episode 303] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Here's a highlight from a recent episode of Booked on Rock.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Jason Schneider is the author of That Gun in Your Hand,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: The strange song of Hey Joe in Popular Music's History
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  Speaker 1: of Violence, The story of how Hey Joe lands on
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  Speaker 1: Hendrix's radar. Okay, this is a great story. So he
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  Speaker 1: heard the nineteen sixty sixth version by singer songwriter Tim Rose,
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  Speaker 1: but I think he also had heard the Leaves version
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  Speaker 1: at some point, but the tim Rose version is the one.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's where the story gets really complicated, because yes.
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  Speaker 1: This is the amazing case of serendipity.
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  Speaker 2: Even before that, so we have the West Coast version
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  Speaker 2: of Hey Joe, which is popular. But then you've got
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  Speaker 2: this guy on the East Coast named Tim Rose, struggling
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  Speaker 2: singer songwriter, and he hears a version of Hey Joe
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  Speaker 2: played by another Greenwich village artists.
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  Speaker 1: And this is just crazy, how many people were playing
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  Speaker 1: that song?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. So tim Rose hears the song and he
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  Speaker 2: claimed throughout his life that he never heard the song
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  Speaker 2: before until he'd heard this other guy, Vince Martin play
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  Speaker 2: it for him. So he said, so where to get
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  Speaker 2: this song? Vince Martin couldn't tell him, so tim Rose
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  Speaker 2: just kind of took it up. He created his own
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  Speaker 2: arrangement of it, which was a little bit more slowed down,
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  Speaker 2: a little bit more bluesy, and he ended up signing
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  Speaker 2: a record deal with Columbia as well and recorded his
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  Speaker 2: version of Hey Joe, which didn't really become a hit,
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  Speaker 2: but it was just such a special according that even
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  Speaker 2: the record label like, they pull out all the stops
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  Speaker 2: to make it a hit, but they just couldn't make
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  Speaker 2: it happen. So anyway, fast forward to the summer of
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  Speaker 2: nineteen sixty six, Jimmy Hendrix is playing around Greenwich Village
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  Speaker 2: with pickup bands. He's decided to turn his back on
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  Speaker 2: being an R and B side man. He wants to
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  Speaker 2: do his own thing. He's kind of struggling, and just
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  Speaker 2: by happenstance, one night, the girlfriend of Keith Richards, a
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  Speaker 2: woman named Linda Keith. She pops into a club where
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  Speaker 2: Jimmy's playing, and just like anyone would be, she immediately
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  Speaker 2: falls in love with him and they begin this really
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  Speaker 2: kind of short intense relationship where Linda is firmly committed
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  Speaker 2: that she needs to make Jimmy a star one way
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  Speaker 2: or another. At this time the Rolling Stones are on tour,
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  Speaker 2: so Keith Richards is kind of safely out of the picture.
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  Speaker 2: One night in New York, Linda runs into the Animals
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  Speaker 2: basis Chas Chandler, who tells her that he's about to
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  Speaker 2: leave the band. He wants to move into record production
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  Speaker 2: and management, and Linda says, well, if that's your plan,
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  Speaker 2: you got to check out this guy, Jimmy Hendrix. He's
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  Speaker 2: going to blow your mind. So part of Chad Chandler's
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  Speaker 2: plan as well is that he's a fan of Tim
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  Speaker 2: Rose's version of Hey Joe, and he wants to find
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  Speaker 2: someone to record it so it could become a big
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  Speaker 2: hit England. He's convinced it will. So Linda Keith has
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: absorbed all this information. She goes back to Jimmy and says, look,
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  Speaker 2: I've invited Chaz Chandler to come see you, but something
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  Speaker 2: you gotta do. You gotta play this song Hey Joe
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  Speaker 2: for him. Chances are I'm almost certain Jimmy had no
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  Speaker 2: idea what the song was, so he had to quickly
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  Speaker 2: learn it. The next day, of course, Chas Chandler walks
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  Speaker 2: into the club, Jimmy's up on stage. He starts playing
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  Speaker 2: Hey Joe and the stars aligned