Hey Joe: The Unauthorized Biography of a Rock Classic

Marc Shapiro

Dec 2016 · Riverdale Avenue Books LLC

About this ebook

The song Hey Joe was a momentary blip on the pop music scene in 1965 courtesy of a Southern California band called The Leaves. It would be their only hit. But over the next 50 plus years, the quirky song about premeditated murder went on to become something special, a musical rite of passage for the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Patti Smith, Led Zeppelin and countless others. It was a perennial that any teen band worth their limited chops coveted and recorded and finally it was an entry in The Guinness Book of World Records when thousands of people got together to play the song as the ultimate jam.

Part, history, part mystery and part memoir, the book Hey Joe: The Unauthorized Biography of a Rock Classic by New York Times bestselling author Marc Shapiro is, through extensive and exhaustive research that included the memories of countless well known musicians who were part of the Hey Joe odyssey, a detailed look at the history of Hey Joe, the song that few have ever thought to think deeply about and the rumors, legends and outlandish tales surrounding the song that ultimately culminate in the ultimate question…

Hey Joe, where you going with that gun in your hand?

In Hey Joe: The Unauthorized Biography of a Rock Classic readers will learn…

The family tree of songs that spanned decades and finally spawned Hey Joe.

Who actually wrote the song?

How close Hendrix came to not recording Hey Joe.

The mystery of who actually recorded the first version of Hey Joe.  No it was not The Leaves. Would you believe Kim Fowley? Or The Surfaris?

What a very young Bruce Springsteen had to do with the song.

Nearly 3000 versions of Hey Joe, familiar, obscure and, in many cases, downright impossible to find, have been recorded and released.

About the author

New York Times bestselling author Marc Shapiro has written more than 60 nonfiction celebrity biographies, more than two-dozen comic books, numerous short stories and poetry, and three short form screenplays. He is also a veteran freelance entertainment journalist.

His young adult book JK Rowling: The Wizard Behind Harry Potter was on The New York Times bestseller list for four straight weeks. His fact-based book Total Titanic was also on The Los Angeles Times bestseller list for four weeks. Justin Bieber: The Fever was on the nationwide Canadian bestseller list for several weeks.

Shapiro has written books on such personalities as Shonda Rhimes, George Harrison, Carlos Santana, Annette Funicello, Lorde, Lindsay Johan, E.L. James, Jamie Dornan, Dakota Johnson, Adele and countless others. He also co-authored the autobiography of mixed martial arts fighter Tito Ortiz, This Is Gonna Hurt: The Life of a Mixed Martial Arts Champion.

He is currently working on a book on the Canadian rock band, Tragically Hip, as well as updating his biographies of Gillian Anderson and Lucy Lawless for Riverdale Avenue Books.