Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.
Johnette Napolitano knew she had something good, but she wasn’t ready to finish it. She had a boyfriend, Wall of Voodoo guitarist Marc Moreland, whose alcoholism made their relationship a trying one. She and her band, Concrete Blonde, had recorded a rough demo and “right away everybody reacted to it,” she later said. “There weren’t any lyrics, but there was something about the music that everybody really reacted to.”
The song was going to have lyrics, though – and they were going to be about Moreland. “I knew what I wanted to say, but I wasn’t looking forward to saying it,” Napolitano said. The music was ready, and the producer kept pushing her for the lyrics. She put him off and put him off until she had no other songs left to record. Finally, in the back of a cab on the way to the studio, she set down the words to “Joey,” which would become the band’s biggest hit.
“I was flooded with mail after ‘Joey,'” Napolitano said, “about everybody who had known that story, lost a buddy, or had a relationship with an alcoholic. It was a big lesson – the closer you get to the truth or are vulnerable with it and express it, the more universal it is.”
A good indicator of how universal a song is lies in its covers. Rather than keep the list down to five, I’ve expanded it to show that there are many ways to hear and play “Joey,” and all of them excel at letting the pain show through. So, enjoy – well, as best you can under the circumstances – these five plus two covers of the song.
The Dead South – Joey (Concrete Blonde cover)
The Dead South is a bit of an ironic name, as the band hails from Saskatchewan. But there’s nothing ironic about their folk-bluegrass treatment of “Joey,” released this past spring. They bring banjo, mandolin, and cello into the mix wonderfully. It softens the song’s bed, but not the pain that lies across it.
Sensity World – Joey (Concrete Blonde cover)
From bluegrass to Eurodance is one hell of a long leap. While you’re recovering from your whiplash, give a listen to how “Joey” comes across as performed by Sensity World, a Spanish ensemble that sounds more interested in beats per minute than plumbing any psychological depths. If nothing else, it shows the song can survive a genre it was never originally designed for.
Shovels & Rope featuring Nicole Atkins – Joey (Concrete Blonde cover)
Shovels & Rope’s Busted Jukebox trilogy (and we’re all hoping for a volume four here at Cover Me) saw the husband & wife team of Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hurst collaborating on cover songs with their musically inclined friends. Most of the covers bent toward the grim side, which meant “Joey” didn’t have too much trouble getting a makeover. Nicole Atkins brings across all the agony of the original with her vocal.
The Horrible Crowes – Joey (Concrete Blonde cover)
The Horrible Crowes was Brian Fallon’s side project from the Gaslight Anthem. Joined by guitar tech Ian Perkins, Fallon set out to unleash his inner Tom Waits, leaning more toward an elegy/requiem aesthetic. They recorded one album, 2011’s Elsie, with Fallon saying, “These songs are very dark; they’re like hymns for lonely people, it’s really a trip through a breakdown and that descent into madness and hopefully redemption.” “Joey” isn’t on the album – it snuck out as a B-side – but it fits that description to a T.
The Sexbots – Joey (Concrete Blonde cover)
Ilina Considine is an artist from Portland, Oregon who performs electronica music under the name The Sexbots. “Their music often explores themes of sexual frustration, loneliness, and emotional fulfillment, often with a melancholic undertone,” A.I. tells me. That’s certainly the case for “Joey.” A Christmas Day 2014 release, on the cover-song EP Trust Games, her take on “Joey” dials down the original’s volume and matches its pain.
Denis Fischer – Joey (Concrete Blonde cover)
Another 2020 cover collection recorded during the COVID lockdown, Stay Home Recordings sees Denis Fischer giving “Joey” the acoustic treatment. It really thrives this way, especially with that little splash of harmonica at the end giving it a Nebraska feel. Denis is a German artist with over a dozen albums to his credit, as well as a theater actor who’s played Andy Warhol and Frank N. Furter.
Sometymes Why – Joey (Concrete Blonde cover)
This is by far the prettiest “Joey” here (much like Katie Holmes in Dawson’s Creek). You can thank the harmonic work of Kristin Andreassen, Aoife O’Donovan, and Ruth Ungar Merenda for that. This was a highlight from Sometymes Why’s 2009 album Your Heart is a Glorious Machine. In the trio’s hands, “Joey” is pure as the driven earth and equally rootsy.
Make it 8 — Local H’s version is extremely worthy as well.