Biography & Autobiography Entertainment & Performing Arts
That Gun In Your Hand
The Strange Saga of 'Hey Joe' and Popular Music's History of Violence
- Publisher
- Anvil Press
- Initial publish date
- May 2025
- Category
- Entertainment & Performing Arts, General, Composers & Musicians
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781772142426
- Publish Date
- May 2025
- List Price
- $22
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Description
This is the story of a song. Yet, it is a song 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 new, original material was scarce, leading other singers to quickly adapt songs of quality 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.
Extensively researched, That Gun In Your Hand also presents previously unpublished information about the life of Billy Roberts, a shadowy figure whose 2017 death went unreported by all news outlets.
About the author
Contributor Notes
Jason Schneider is the author of five books including The Longest Suicide: The Authorized Biography of Art Bergmann and the novel 3,000 Miles. He has also written for Exclaim!, The Globe & Mail, The Toronto Star, Paste, American Songwriter, Relix, Shindig and many other publications. He currently lives in his hometown Kitchener, Ontario.
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The Authorized Biography of Art Bergmann
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