Immortalised by Hendrix, ‘Hey Joe’ had its roots in 18th century murder ballads, ‘60s folk and rock clubs before the world got to hear it. Jason Schneider unravels its twisted genesis in ‘That Gun In Your Hand’, and talks to us here about the miracles that allowed it to happen and the sad fate of Billy Roberts, the man who claimed he wrote it. Along with …

… “all pop records are built on the back of other pop records”

… the allure of violent songs: “we get our kicks from real-life murder”

… the bit-part players in the story – David Crosby, Dino Valenti, Tim Rose, Cass Elliot, the Byrds, the Leaves, the Creation and Bob Dylan

… the final twist: how Chas Chandler was looking to make Hey Joe a hit when Linda Keith pointed him at Hendrix

… “a song with no chorus and a circle of fifths”: why it was a rock staple alongside Gloria and Louie Louie

… the cruel fate of Billy Roberts who never recorded Hey Joy as couldn’t bear to give away 50 per cent of the royalties

… the girl murders the man? “It’s a song still in evolution”

… how Andy Summers was the first person to hear Hendrix play in the UK

… 1,881 guitarists mass-performed Hey Joe in 2007 but could you even release a version of it now?

You can order ‘That Gun In Your Hand: The Strange Saga of Hey Joe and Popular Music’s History of Violence’ from Anvil Press here: https://www.anvilpress.com/books/that-gun-in-your-hand-the-strange-saga-of-hey-joe-and-popular-musics-history-of-violence

And from the US distributor Asterism here: https://asterismbooks.com/product/that-gun-in-your-hand-the-strange-saga-of-hey-joe-and-popular-musics-history-of-violence-jason-schneider

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Maddy Prior – folk royalty, an absolute hero of ours – is touring with Steeleye Span again this autumn 66 years after they started, a life someone should make into a movie. She talks to us here about her undimmed love of live performance and …

… when the height of your ambition is a £3 ticket to Blackpool Pleasure Beach

… “Rod Argent, the first boy I ever kissed”

… her fox-fur-trimmed Lambretta when a teenage mod

… the night Steeleye Span showered their audience with £4,000

… seeing Acker Bilk, Chris Barber, Josh White and Sony Boy Williamson in St Albans clubs

… driving Rev Gary Davis round Britain in a Triumph Herald: “Miss Maddy, you’d make a great nurse! Was that a compliment or an insult?”

… “Traditional music is great material to work with. It’s like steel – you can bend it but you can’t break it”

… hearing Dylan for the first time (with Donovan) and thinking “this man can’t sing”

… memories of her father who wrote Z Cars

… life with Tim Hart: “Living in sin? No, we’re living in Archway!”

… Tony Secunda, his spray-can and his promotional stunts – “Win 24 hours with a member of Steeleye Span”

… Alan Partridge and the great ‘Gaudete’ moment

… the new Steeleye Span album Conflict “about the rip and tear relationship we have with the planet that hosts us”

… and Singing For The Uncertain, her course for singers who think they can’t

Steeleye Span tour dates here: https://steeleyespan.org.uk/sample-page/tour-dates-2025/

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Our pencil-chewing, critical assessment of this week’s news gets mainly * and *** reviews, among them …

…. Sting v Summers & Copeland over Every Breath You Take, the goose that laid the golden egg

… what John Lennon would have thought about the ‘cancelled’ track on Some Time In New York City

… when did “critically acclaimed” come to mean unpopular?

… the knock-about days when a critic was “a jerk, a crank and a spoilsport”

… Jonny Greenwood’s dad was a bomb disposal expert? Pete Doherty’s mum was a Lance-Corporal in the Royal Army Nursing Corps?

… what matters more, the song or the record?

... Anthony Fantano, Rick Beato and the rise of the YouTube rock review

… “negative comments about a famous act’s new album are like graffiti on the walls of a hallowed institution”

… Bob Dylan’s Self Portrait, Andrew Ridgeley’s Son Of Albert (“half a star”) and the lost age of the crushing review

… and “you never mention Depeche Mode!”

Find out more about how to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.