Mid-Atlantic Spotlight: The Swamp Rats - Louie, Louie/Hey Joe

Mid-Atlantic Battle of the Garage Bands takes us to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Here we find the first release by garage legends, The Swamp Rats. On this first 1966 release, on St. Clair Records, the band was a trio of Dick Newton, Dave Cannon, and Don Schriener. After this first single Bob Hocko would join the band as singer, but here Dick does the heavy lifting.

Obviously both songs are covers of standards of their day. But what covers they are! Louie, Louie is clearly picked up from the version recorded by The Sonics of Tacoma, Washington. It takes The Sonics already rocket-fueled approach and adds a little more kick. Dick Newton strains to keep his voice from cracking and gives us a first class teenage rock-n-roll scream going into the guitar solo.

The Flip-Side of Hey Joe is nearly as insane as the A-Side. Again, Dick Newtown and the band feel like a train that is about to come off the tracks on a curvy descent.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

The Creation - Hey Joe

Today's foray into the world of Hey Joe takes us across the pond for the first time.  Chas Chandler, bassist for The Animals, saw promise in this new song everyone was playing, and he took particular interest in a version by folk artist Tim Rose after seeing him perform in New York. Rose recorded a slower version that went out on the Columbia label in May, 1966, and Chas was looking for someone to take it further. As it happened stars were aligning for Chas when he met a virtually unknown R&B guitarist who had been gigging in the NY scene and they both hustled back to the UK on September 23, 1966. Apparently among the first acts Chas and his find, one Jimi Hendrix, saw was the pop-art band The Creation.

Now, at this point, its pure conjecture what transpired when Hendrix listened to the Creation that night, or whether he had any further interaction with the band, but in late 1966, he went into De Lane Lea studio - the same studio where The Animals House of The Rising Sun was recorded - and laid down his first single for Track Records, Hey Joe backed with Stone Free. This single saw release on December 16, 1966, quickly climbed the charts, and, in so doing, inscribed Hey Joe into the firmament of Rock. We wonder about Hendrix's exposure to The Creation because around this same time The Creation also laid down their exquisite version, today's Hey Joe, replete with the same intro and similar solo and lyrics. But note: Their version was released only on LP in September '67 in the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and France.

Despite the later release, I'm of the mind that Hendrix took cues from The Creation and not the other way around. Why, for example, would The Creation copy a well-known version that soon hit the charts and would stay on for 11 weeks, peaking at number 6? Doesn't seem like them. Why would the innovative and brilliant Eddie Phillips simply copy a lead? (Although I suppose the opposite question should be posed: Why would Hendrix do the same?) Why also, if they were working off the Hendrix version, would The Creation insert the middle monologue section and create the very cool dramatic ending? Those additions seem to me the kind of thing that arise when you aren't even aware of another hit version of a song. One thing seems clear: Both versions are derivative of the Tim Rose Hey Joe with the slower tempo, similar lyrics ("I shot her!") and the moody choral back-up vocals.

Check out a very cool live recording of Tim Rose doing his Hey Joe:



Enjoy and until next time, see you on the Flip-side!

The Shadows of Knight - Hey Joe

I'm probably milking the Hey Joe thing a little too much, but I couldn't overlook one of my favorite versions of the song. Recorded in 1966 by Chicago band, The Shadows of Knight, it's a unique version with Joe Kelly's lead guitar work creating a great raga feel to the extended jam. This appeared on the band's second and final album, Back Door Men, for the famed Dunwich label.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

The Music Machine - Hey Joe

Damn near verything that Sean Bonniwell and his Music Machine touched was brilliant. It should be no surprise then that The Music Machine did a great and unique version of Hey Joe. The band, led by Sean Bonniwell with Ron Edgar, Mark Landon, Keith Olsen and Doug Rhodes, recorded their brooding version of Hey Joe in 1966 for their debut album, Turn On The Music Machine. It was released as a single in 1968 on Original Sound Records after the band lineup had transmogrified and signed to Warner Brothers Records where they were billed as The Bonniwell Music Machine. It was Original Sound Records' last attempt to get blood from a stone.

The Flip-Side of this lovely single, with it's lovely picture sleeve, was the equally lovely original number, Wrong, also recorded in 1966.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

The Pied Pipers - Hey Joe

From Youngstown, Ohio, we have The Pied Pipers with their 1966 release of Hey Joe on the not-so-infamous WAM Records. As with most things Ohio garage rock, the good people at Buckeye Beat have done a nice write up on The Pied Pipers. Check it out if you can.

The Pied Pipers hailed from Cardinal Mooney High School and were founded by Les Moro, Pete Pompura, Lenny Krispinsky, and singer Dennis Sesonsky. Not sure why he gets "vocal" billing where the writer credits should go on this disc. The Pied Pipers' version, like the Hazards' version yesterday, clearly owes a lot to The Leaves seminal third recording of the number.

Check out the pics of Sesonsky on stage. Seems to be of a different time and place than anyone else in those pictures. All photos were lifted from the Buckeye Beat site. It would seem these photos were taken in '68 with a slightly modified line-up.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

The Stillroven - Hey Joe

Rolling out a ton more of Hey Joe in the next couple of days so we are doubling, even tripling up on our daily posts. How cool is that?

The Stillroven hailed from the Minneapolis suburb of Robbinsdale, Minnesota where they all attended Robbinsdale High School. The teen band was Phil Berdahl, Rock Peterson, John Howarth, Dave Dean and Danny Kane. They released their version of Hey Joe on local label, Falcon Records in May of 1967. It was subsequently picked up for national distribution by Roulette Records a month later.

The Hazards - Hey Joe

From Richmond, Virginia, home to Nitro-Retro Blog, comes The Hazards with their take on Hey Joe. This version is clearly inspired by The Leaves' third version of Hey Joe, right down to the bridge and the misattribution of writing credit for the song. 

According to the music site, Garage Hangover, The Hazards were Andy Hrabovsky, Sonny Salisbury, Alan, Sidenburg and Greg Ellerson of John Randolph Tucker High School. As well as Stanley Bernstein and David Moore of Thomas Jefferson High School.

The kids released their take on Hey Joe in 1967 for the local label, Groove Records.

The Swamp Rats - Hey Joe!

More Hey Joe today. This time from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where the meanest, nastiest, dirtiest, loudest garage band to ever walk the Earth released their take on Hey Joe in 1966 on the local label, St. Clair Records.

By the way, the Flip-Side of this single was featured in our Louie Louie love fest back in 2012. Check it out here.

The Leaves: Hey Joe, Where Are You Gonna Go?

First Version

Second Version

Third Version

I think we have a fun one for you today. The Leaves scored the first hit of the oft-covered Hey Joe in April of 1966. But it wasn't the band's first release of Hey Joe that was the hit. It wasn't even the second. It was their third attempt!

The Leaves allegedly picked up the Billy Roberts composed folk song, Hey Joe, Where You Gonna Go?, from seeing the two titans of Sunset Strip, The Byrds and Love perform the song. The Leaves smelled a hit and rushed to the studio to record the number before either The Byrds or Love could do so. Sometime in the early Autumn of 1965, Jim Pons, Robert Lee Reiner, John Beck, Bill Rinehart and Tom Ray recorded the number.

Mira Records issued that recording as a White Label Promo with the catalogue number 207 in November of 1965. This first release was a loose, fast-paced attack on the song. The sound quality is iffy at best. The drums smash away with high hats ringing endlessly. At about the 2:19 point Jim Pons' and John Beck's vocals become so off-sync that one of them reverts to laughter. The recording feels like the quick, live-in-studio take that it apparently was. Quite frankly, it is amazing it ever got pressed. The single was never released to the record stores as someone, somewhere rightly deemed this unfit for public release.

The band then went back into the studio and recorded a second version of Hey Joe, Where Are You Gonna Go?. A cleaner approach, this version is most obviously distinguished by periodic whistles throughout the song. John Beck's and Jim Pons' vocals are far more clear and the performance is more steady. This was released to the public as a stock copy (still with catalogue number 207) sometime in very early 1966. Note that neither the first while label promo version or the stock black label version of Hey Joe, Where You Gonna Go? cites a composer of the song. Both versions have the Pons-Rinehart composed Be With You as the Flip-Side. Rinheart's name misspelled on both versions.

About this time, guitarist Bill Rinehart split from the band. Maybe he was pissed that his name was misspelled. The Leaves brought in guitarist Bobby Arlin and rearranged the song replete with a fuzz lead guitar laying down the ascending guitar riff that is now a trademark of the song and a distinctive IV-I-IV-II-V bridge (at the 1:21 mark). The band went into the studio and re-recorded the song and Mira Records released the number for the third time in April, 1966 with catalogue number 222 first as a white label promo and then, two weeks later, as a stock copy. This version took off and reached number 31 on the Billboard charts. The song title was shortened to the radio friendly Hey Joe and writing credit was wrongly given to Dino Valenti. The Flip-Side of the Mira Records #222 release was the Bobby Arlin composed, Funny Little World. To further confuse the matter, Mira Records then ran a second pressing of the record with a red label and a different Flip-Side of Girl From The East. In between, they released a totally different Leaves single (Funny Little World/Girl From The East) with the same friggin' catalogue number! Clear as mud, right?

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!