The same Joe?

Twenty plus years ago I got hold of a book called Suspects, by the film writer David Thomson.  The conceit was that Jeff Bailey – the Jimmy Stewart character in It’s a Wonderful Life and George Bailey – Robert Mitchum in Out of the Past (amazing film noir) – were brothers.

Well, what if “Joe” were the same guy in a bunch of songs?

Yeah, I know, it’s piss weak, but the oxygen deprivation was kicking in as I yomped around Unley Oval with by backpack half-full-of-bricks.

There’s Old Black Joe from Cohen’s Everybody Knows.  The guy who is still picking cotton for your ribbons and bows….

There’s Joe from Hanging on to Heaven by Randy Vanwarmer who got laid off last week because the cars he made don’t sell – so now he’s printing paper money for the government to shell out…

And then there is the entirely awful anger-management-issues Joe from the Jimi Hendrix song (fun fact – it was Aussie politician Bob Brown – then a junior quack in the NHS – who declared Mr Hendrix dead).

I am sure there are others. As I said, oxygen deprivation….