In this episode of Reading Is Funktamental, we discuss the long history and profound influence of a single song, “Hey Joe,” a tune that binds nearly every strand of 20th-century American popular music.

“Hey Joe” was written sometime in the early 1960s by a man named Billy Roberts, an obscure singer and guitarist from South Carolina who moved to New York City, drawn by the burgeoning folk music scene in Greenwich Village. It was a time when original material was scarce, leading other singers to quickly adapt quality songs in the spirit of folk music’s oral traditions. Thus began the long journey of “Hey Joe” from New York coffeehouses to the bars on L.A.’s Sunset Strip to the ears of a young guitarist named Jimi Hendrix, who launched his career with his radical, electrified interpretation. The story is related by Jason Schneider, author of  ...