Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Department of Old News Department

From 1967 and his eponymous debut album, please enjoy bluesguy and folkie Tim Rose and the version of "Hey Joe" that may or may not have inspired Jimi Hendrix to glom the arrangement and thus garner his first English chart hit.




I am embarrassed to admit that although I had heard of this, I had never actually heard it until yesterday. In any case, it's pretty good, I think, and if this is in fact the record that inspired Jimi, you can certainly hear why. On the other hand, he may have poached his version from The Creation, who were reportedly playing an almost identical arrangement in Brit clubs for months before the Experience single.



As you can hear, The Creation's album version is indeed the Hendrix record almost note for note, but it wasn't actually released until much later.

Jeebus, I'm exhausted just thinking about this stuff. And don't even get me started on the song's tangled authorship....

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Would the Creation's version been a hit if released first? I thinks so, though it would not been nearly as big a hit. Uncle Jimi's version is still the best of the three.

ROT(Plumber)

Faze said...

Without the energy and authority of Jimi's guitar to whip them along, Hardin's and the Creation's are murder to listen to. It's clear Hendrix stole his arrangement from Creation (and wisely left out the spoken word break). The Hardin/Creation dirge makes the Leaves' sprightly, suburban-basement version a fresh and welcome relief.

FD13NYC said...

Jimi's version is still the topper, hands down. Interesting other versions though. Best 3 rock guitarists of all time: Hendrix, Page and Beck.

Anonymous said...

Tim Rose's version was a regional hit in Orlando in the mid-60's. Took me a long time to get used to other versions, tho the Leaves were good for a laugh.

TMink said...

Very similar arrangement, but Jimi's performance is outstanding.

For some strange reason it reminds me of the Statler Brothers complaining to the people at RCA because the A&R folks would not let them put Achey Breaky Heart on their album. They reasoned that it would have been the huge hit for them that it later was for Billie Ray.

Nah.

Trey

TMink said...

Very similar arrangement, but Jimi's performance is outstanding.

For some strange reason it reminds me of the Statler Brothers complaining to the people at RCA because the A&R folks would not let them put Achey Breaky Heart on their album. They reasoned that it would have been the huge hit for them that it later was for Billie Ray.

Nah.

Trey

Anonymous said...

First, let me disclose I'm not a Hendrix fan. Not yet anyway. There's still time, I suppose.

I love that lead acoustic 12-string on the Tim Rose version. That alone really distinguishes it. Plus, it's just acoustic guitar, drums, bass, and echoey oohs/ahs. Very efficient.

As far as the various plugged-in/turned-on versions, I'm sticking with the Leaves!

AP