Hey Joe
By: Billy Roberts

Original Performance: Jimi Hendrix
Written by: Billy Roberts

Versions:
  1. Hey Joe
    Available on Hey Joe.
    Credits
    Justin Meldal-Johnsen: Bass
    Joey Waronker: Drums
    Chris Steffen: Engineer
    Darrell Thorp: Engineer, Mix
    David Greenbaum: Engineer
    Beck Hansen: Guitar (Electric), Producer, Vocals (Background)
    Jason Falkner: Guitar (Electric), Vocals (Background)
    Roger Joseph Manning Jr.: keyboards, Vocals
    Charlotte Gainsbourg: Vocals
 
Lyrics:
Hey Joe [Version (a)]:

Hey Joe, where you going with that gun in your hand?
Hey Joe, I said where you going with that gun in your hand?
I came down to shoot my old lady
You know I caught her messing around with another man
I came down to shoot my old lady
You know I caught her messing around with another man
And that ain't too cool

Hey Joe, I heard you shot your woman down, you shot her down now
Hey Joe, I heard you shot your lady down, you shot her down to the ground
Yes I did, I shot her, you know I caught her messing around town
Yes I did, I shot her, you know I caught my old lady messing around town
And I gave her the gun - I shot her

Hey Joe, where are you going to run to now?
Hey Joe, said where are you going to run to now?
I'm going way down South, way way down to Mexico way
I'm going way down South, way down where I can be free
Ain't no hangman gonna, he ain't gonna put a rope around me
Hey Joe, you better run on down
Goodbye everybody
 
The Song:

"Hey Joe" is a famous folk song, even more famously covered by Jimi Hendrix.

Beck produced a version of the song for Charlotte Gainsbourg, to appear on the soundtrack of a film she stars in called Nymphomaniac. Beck uses his live band behind Charlotte, who purrs the vocals. They play a slightly trippy, laidback take of the song -- especially compared with the sharper dynamics of Jimi Hendrix's version.

A few years after this came out, Charlotte reminisced slightly about it. The director of the film, Lars Von Trier, asked her to do the song. He also wanted her to have Beck help. She said she wasn't sure if Beck would accept, but "he was really up for it." They didn't really work together on it, like they had on IRM; instead, Beck and his band made the music, "heavily influenced by" her father, Serge Gainsbourg. She then sang her parts alone in a different studio.