Unafraid you will brand us uncool because of our enthusiasm for country music, today we’re celebrating the legacy of a top-notch songwriter and singer whose short career includes a variety of great songs. Joe South is most known today through the recordings of other artists, if he’s known at all.
Joe South’s songs were recorded by country and rock artists, including “Birds of a Feather” by Paul Revere and the Raiders and Lynn Anderson whose record of “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden” was his biggest seller for another artist. Here’s South performing his song “Hush” followed by the well-known recording by Deep Purple taken from their first album:
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In addition to “Hush”, South wrote and produced several songs for Billy Joe Royal in the late 60s, including “Down in the Boondocks” and “I Knew You When”. He also wrote and sang this novelty song “Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor”:
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Around this time South performed as a session musician with NRC, recording with Ray Stevens and Jerry Reed. A song he wrote for the Tams, “Untie Me”, was one of his first hits. He also recorded this single for Fairbanks, which may be the first release of his own:
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Another song written by South was this Jimmy Elledge track, “Gonna Turn my Voodoo On” on RCA/Victor. Usually more of a country singer, Elledge channels cool rockabilly cat on this single:
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Recording at Muscle Shoals South played on classic sessions by Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and Marty Robbins. He also appeared as a soloist on Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde and his unique guitar style is heard on the electric backing overdubbed onto “The Sound of Silence”. South played a customized Gretsch “Country Gentleman” guitar with a distinctive sound. All the while he was recording his own debut album, Introspect. The electronic experiments and strange backing (Which includes Ravi Shankar and Las Vegas Elvis’ guitarist James Burton) help keep his country-soul debut sounding exciting years later. “Games People Play” became the singer’s first big hit, even more so when it was covered by Freddy Weller in a slick Nashville arrangement.
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I can’t help but to assume that South’s politics kept him back. Lines in “Games People Play” and “Walk A Mile in my Shoes” peg him as a hippy, and guitar jams like “A Million Miles Away” don’t help. Technically less proficient than contemporaries like Glen Campbell, South could jam. “A Million Miles Away” may have been behind the times in technical terms (Electric Ladyland came out two years earlier), but its juxtaposition of Joe’s attempt to call the president with guitar jamming and strange looped drums is far more conceptually interesting than the hammy hippy anti-war anthems of the day.
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This next track is the Paul Revere and the Raiders cover of “Birds of a Feather” I mentioned near the beginning of this post. I think its not as good as the original but its nice to hear some variety.
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Although he was southern white soul’s best songwriter, South was almost entirely snubbed by Elvis (Probably the sideburns). The loss is everyone’s because Las Vegas Elvis probably would have hit a track like “Hush” out of the park. Its hard to imagine how the king overlooked South, half-heartedly adding the concert closer “Walk a Mile in my Shoes” to the middle of his Vegas sets but never another. South’s best rockers (Especially “Hush”) were perfect for Elvis and a track like “Games People Play” could have given him a much-needed post-”Suspicious Minds” hit. Other singers beat Elvis to South’s genius, especially Lynn Anderson.
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Anderson scored South’s biggest hit with “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden” in 1970 while his second album had these two big hits, “Walk A Mile in My Shoes” and “Don’t It Make You Want to Go Home?”:
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Yes, by all accounts he was brash and arrogant and a pretty poor live performer. Clearly he was more comfortable in the studio and his idiosyncratic lyrics suggest an anxious personality. South also wrote one song which was a total rip off (“Masquerade” is undeniably stolen from the Leiber/Spector track “Spanish Harlem”). South’s classic albums continued to be full of interesting surprises, trending more an more towards soul and away from country. Just after South finally had a hit record with Lynn Anderson’s recording of his song at #3 on the pop chart, he abruptly stopped writing and recording after his younger brother Tommy committed suicide. South moved to Maui and lived in the jungle, finally returning with an album on the Island label, Midnight Rainbows that I have never been able to find. A couple other albums were issued the following year, including an album on Capitol of tracks seemingly from the time after his brother’s death. After this he retired at 37.
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Some of his best songs were not, as far as I’ve ever known, covered by other artists. The track above is “Shelter” and this next one is “These Are Not My People”. “Shelter”, like some of his earlier hits, displays the gospel roots of his singing and arranging, complete with a choir and tasteful handclaps. “These Are Not My People” is far from his best arrangement, but has an interesting narrative.
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How awesome is Joe South? He’s playing guitar on this track:
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I was driving home one day and a station played a song “out of the dusty archive in the original 45 format”, Joe South’s “Games People Play.” Never knew what happened to him so I hit the you tube and found out. It is obscene this man is not in the R&R Hall of fame. Heh, my son listened to Lenny Kravitz sing “American Woman” and he wondered what the original sounded like. Then he came home and asked if he could have a few towers of his late fathers’ CD’s. It is hard for a 29 year old to find such well crafted music. And again, Guess Who/Burton Cummings not in R&R Hall of fame-these are two of the finest singer/songwriters alive. Dear God, do they have to get in line behind Britney Spears?
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To: Derrick Phillips: Hi, Derrick! I’m always glad to discuss Joe South’s music! In may of 2010 Raven Records released a double album cd that contained Joe’s albums “So The Seeds Are Growing” and “A Look Inside.” It also included the bonus tracks “Why Does A Man Do What He Has To Do?”, “River Dog” and “Be A Believer.” The very last track is “Oprah Cried” a wonderful loping song that tells the story of a musician being a guest on Oprah’s talk show! Joe’s voice still has that warm, down-home sound and he still knows how to lyrically draw you into the songs story! I have every album Joe South put out digitally transfered to CD. If you’re interested in any of them, e-mail me and i’ll send ya a complete listing and a price list. My e-mail address is: bud.fuller@yahoo.com By the way i’ll also make a custom compilation of just the songs you want. I look forward to hearing from you! Thanks, Bud
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I have all of Joe South’s albums on vinyl and still listen to them. Introspect is a groundbreaking classic. Games People Play recycles 3 songs from Introspect(a Capitol record exec’s idea,no doubt) but contains other great songs like the marvelous “Party People”. So the Seeds Are Growing contains only 5 South originals(although he also took credit for the traditional folk song “Motherless Children”).The title song is one of his best and most overlooked compositions and the cover tunes reveal him as a superb interpretive singer. A Look Inside is one of the most nakedly honest albums since John Lennon’s !st solo album,candidly addressing his drug problems and the down side of fame. Midnight Rainbows is an overlooked gem. By the way,that guitar lick on Aretha Franklin’s chain of Fools,I always assumed it was Steve Cropper. It was Joe South. His first recording since 1975′s Midnight Fainbows is a 2009 song called “Oprah Cried” which I’d love to hear.
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Trackback from Cool Cat Bully 2 on January 28, 2011 at 7:36 am
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To the gentleman at Hymies Records, Hi. terribly sorry it’s taken so long to get back with you. I sent this page to my favorites and just got back to it today. I’m glad you’d like a copy of “Midnight Rainbows.” If you’re a big Joe South fan, as i am and you’re interested, i have his complete album catalog on CD including the ones you posted to this page, “Joe South’s Greatest Hits Vol 1″ which to my knowledge has never been released on CD, “Introspect” and “Don’t It Make You Want To Go Home?” I’d be more than happy to send them all to you complete with jewel cases and original album artwork. Let me know if you’re interested. By the way my e-mail address is: bud.fuller@yahoo.com If you’d like to contact me you can also call: (567) 230-2350 and leave a message. I’m looking forward to hearing from you. Have a great day! Bud
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thanks for all that information on South! I discovered that guy thanks to the amazing cover of Billy Joe Royal’s Leaning On You by some obscure 60s band from Memphis, the Yo-Yo’s. Then I realized I already knew “hush” -the BJ Royal’s version- and then I found out the Deep Purple’s version + some french adaptation (Johnny Hallyday, Jenny Rock). Still I didn’t understand when you wrote about “the sound of silence” after “Blonde on Blonde”… Ok, he played guitar on Blonde on Blonde, but he also plays guitar on some Simon&Garfunkel’s songs??? thanks.
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Bud – I’d love to hear that Joe South album but I don’t have an email to write to – Send your email address to Dave@hymiesrecords.com. We’d gladly cover the shipping for the disc!
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Hey, Bud here again. To let ya know, yes, quite a few of Joe South’s songs were covered by other artists. Brook Benton did “Don’t It Make You Want To Go Home?” about a year or so after Joe. “These Are Not My People” was covered by Freddy Weller, “Shelter” was done by The Tams, “Birds Of A Feather and “Redneck” were both done by Swamp Dogg, Lynn Anderson also recorded two other South penned songs “Fool Me” and “How Can I Unlove You” and Ray Stevens did a great cover version of “Walk A Mile In My Shoes.”
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Hey there! Awesome tribute page to Joe South! I’ve been a huge fan of his since the first time i heard him sing “Don’t It Make You Want To Go Home” while coming home from Grandpa’s house in my mom’s plymouth fury in January of 1968! After that i bought every Joe South record that came out or i could find. By the way, i do have a copy of the “Midnight Rainbows” album that i’ve transfered to CD. It’s a great album! If you’d like a copy send me an e-mail and i’ll send ya one if you can cover the freight. Let me know. Thanks, Bud
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