"Joe" is a single by British rock band

Inspiral Carpets Inspiral Carpets are an English rock band, part of the late-1980s/early-1990s Madchester movement. Formed in Oldham in 1980, the band's most successful lineup featured frontman Tom Hingley, drummer Craig Gill, guitarist Graham Lambert, bassi ...

, released in 1989. Written in 1985, it was first song recorded on New Year's Eve 1987 as part of the demo album ''

Dung 4 ''Dung 4'' is a demo album by the British indie rock band Inspiral Carpets. It was first released in May 1989 on Inspiral Carpets' own Cow Records and only on cassette. The name refers to the catalogue number. In 2014, it was announced that ''Du ...

'', which was released in May 1989. The original version was written by

Clint Boon Clinton David Boon (born 28 June 1959) is an English musician, DJ and radio presenter. Boon originally rose to fame as the keyboard player (and sometimes vocalist) of Inspiral Carpets. Music career Born in Oldham, Lancashire, Boon joined the Ins ...

and sung by Stephen Holt, but when

Tom Hingley Thomas William Hingley (born 9 July 1965) is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known as the frontman of Inspiral Carpets.Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, , p. 803 Early life Hingley was born i ...

joined the band in 1988, it was modified. The modified version, issued on the "Joe" 12" in 1989 became the standard, and it was still played even after Holt rejoined the band.

Music video

A music video for the song was filmed by an unknown avantgardist in 1990. It features shots of a homeless man and footage of a British cities including London (including

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London ...

and

Christ Church, Spitalfields Christ Church Spitalfields is an Anglican church built between 1714 and 1729 to a design by Nicholas Hawksmoor. On Commercial Street in the East End and in today's Central London it is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, on its western bord ...

) mixed with shots of many-coloured lines running up and down the screen, filmed with a blue filter. The video was typical of many English "Indie" releases of the "

Madchester Madchester was a musical and cultural scene that developed in the English city of Manchester in the late 1980s, closely associated with the indie dance scene. Indie-dance (sometimes referred to as indie-rave) saw artists merging indie music ...

" era. In 1995, to promote the release of '' The Singles'', another video was released, based on footage from ''

21790 Year 179 ( CLXXIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Veru (or, less frequently, year 932 ''Ab urbe condit ...

'' and set to a shortened version of the song. When played live as Hingley's modified version, the intro blast beat was repeated for exactly one minute. This can be heard on the ''21790'' live video. The Inspirals stopped extending the blast beat around 1991. Around the ''

Revenge of the Goldfish ''Revenge of the Goldfish'' is the third studio album by the English band Inspiral Carpets. It was released on 5 October 1992 through Mute Records. The band supported the album by touring with Sunscreem. The album's cover art is a (cropped) 1981 ...

'' era, the song, instead of abruptly ending, would instead have a final guitar strum and a final measure of Clint Boon's keyboards. Recent performances (both with Hingley and Holt) have returned to the studio-style ending.

InfluencesAccording to Clint, the riff is inspired by "New Face In Hell" by "The Fall"

Track list

Original 12"/CD release - Cow (Moo 3)

# "Joe" (3:26) # "Commercial Mix" (4:35) # "Directing Traffik" (2:35) # "Commercial Rain" (4:38)

1995 CD reissue - Cow (Dung 27)

# "Joe" # "Joe" (live) # "Sackville" (live) # "Saviour" (live) # "Seeds of Doubt" # "Whiskey" # "Joe" (acoustic)

References

External links

''Joe''
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...

1989 debut singles British punk rock songs Inspiral Carpets songs 1987 songs {{1980s-single-stub