Joe South

Welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback!  I'm Bill Price, and in this episode of Rock and Roll Flashback, I will look at the history of Joe South’s music career, a multi-talented artist who was a singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer. 

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Transcript

In this episode of Rock and Roll Flashback, I will look at the history of Joe South’s music career, a multi-talented artist who was a singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer. 

Joseph Alfred Souter, who was known professionally as Joe South was born on February 28th, 1940 in Atlanta, Georgia.  In the 1950's, Joe met Atlanta music publisher and radio personality Bill Lowery who encouraged him to pursue his interest in music.  Joe began his career in music and recording at the National Recording Corporation, as a staff guitarist working with Ray Stevens and Jerry Reed. Joe’s first top 50 hit in 1958 was a cover of  “The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor”, which was the b-side of The Big Bopper’s “ Chantilly Lace’.  After that first hit, Joe then decided to concentrate solely on songwriting. 

In 1959 he wrote two songs that were recorded by Gene Vincent titled  “I Might Have Known” and “Gone Gone Gone”. Later Joe formed a group called Joe South and the Believers, which included his brother Tommy and sister in law Barbara. The group recorded a cover of the Angelos song titled “Backfield in Motion” and  “I’ll Come Back to You”. Later they recorded  “A Fool in Love” with the b-side “The Great Day”.

Joe then became quite well-known as a sideman, playing guitar on numerous records that included Tommy Roe’s “Sheila”, Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools”, Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” album and Bob Dylan’s “Blond on Blond” album.

Billy Joe Royal recorded five Joe South compositions including “Down in the Boondocks” in 1965, which peaked at number nine in the US.  Another composition titled “Hush” became a 1968 number four hit for Deep Purple. Also in 1968 “Rose Garden” was a country and pop hit by Lynn Anderson. The single was a hit in sixteen countries, earning a Grammy Award for Lynn.  Joe received two Grammy nominations for Best Country Song and Song of the Year in the general category. Later on, he would go on to write additional hits for Lynn.

Other artists who have recorded Joe’s compositions include Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, Loretta Lynn, Carol Burnett, Andy Williams, Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, Ike and Tina Turner, Hank Williams Jr, James Taylor and K D Lang.

In response to the issues of the late 1960's, Joe changed his musical style and resumed singing. The change resulted in his biggest hit on both sides of the Atlantic with the 1969 single titled “Games People Play”.  His next release was "Birds of a Feather”, that was later successfully covered by The Raiders in 1971. His next hit was “Walk a Mile in My Shoes” that climbed to number twelve in the US. The single also reached number fifty-six on the Billboard country chart and number three on its Easy Listening chart. In Canada, it peaked at number ten on the RPM singles chart and in Australia it was a top twenty hit. The song touches on the concerns for racial tolerance and the need for perspective and compassion. The song was covered by several artists, which includes Elvis Presley, Harry Belafonte, Ray Stevens and Jerry Lee Lewis and The Kentucky Headhunters.

Here is Joe singing the number twelve US hit from 1970, “Walk a Mile in My Shoes”.

Joe’s first big hit “Games People Play”, reached the number twelve position in the US.  The single earned the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Song, plus the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. The song also appeared on Joe’s debut album titled “Introspect”. The single reached number six in the UK and number four in Ireland.  “Games People Play” was a protest song with lyrics that touched on hatred, hypocrisy, inhumanity, intolerance and social interactions. King Curtis won a Grammy for his 1970 cover version for the Best R & B Instrumental. In 1994, the song was covered by the Jamaican Reggae band The Inner Circle.

In 1971 Joe’s brother Tommy committed suicide. Tommy had been the drummer in Joe’s backing band and also played on several recording sessions that Joe produced for other artists, which included the 1967 number 10 Billboard hit, “Reach out of the Darkness” by Friend and Lover.

Joe was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1979 and became a member of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1981. In 2019 he was in inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum. Joe’s discography includes fourteen albums, eleven singles, and five collaboration albums, two with Aretha Franklin, two with Simon and Garfunkel and one with Bob Dylan. Joe South passed away on September 5th, 2012 at the age of 72.

Here is Joe's hit from 1969, “Games People Play”.

This has been a look back at the multifaceted career of Joe South, on Rock and Roll Flashback. And until next time, I’m your host Bill Price.