Reposted from @thelegendsofmusic The Jimi Hendrix playing “Hey Joe” Live on the Beat Club in 1967 Remembering the almighty Jimi Hendrix who passed away #OTD in music history in 1970. In 1966, Jimi Hendrix was a frequent performer on the Greenwich Village music scene and it was during this time that he witnessed a singer named Billy Roberts play a song called “Hey Joe”. Now while the origins of this song are unknown, the earliest known copyright of this song dates back to 1962, which was registered by Billy himself, but he never commercially released a recording of the song. Before Hendrix recorded his own version of the song, various musicians across America recorded covers of it including Love & The Byrds in California. In fact, Love included a version of the song on their debut album in January of 1966, and Love's Bryan MacLean was introduced to the song by David Crosby in 1965, while MacLean had been a roadie for the Byrds. From there, Love's lead vocalist, Arthur Lee, claimed in later years that it was Love's version that turned Jimi Hendrix on to the song. Nonetheless, “Hey Joe” was the song that Jimi performed regularly during his time in New York City in 1966 as part of the new rock-oriented sound he was exploring at that time with his group Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. His arrangement of the song used a slower tempo, which was reminiscent of folk singer Tim Rose's (Another person active in the Greenwich music scene) rendition of the song. By chance, this was the song Jimi was performing at the Greenwich Village club Cafe Wha? when Chas Chandler of The Animals was in the audience. Instantly he decided to take a chance on him and asked him to join him in London. iiii]; )'