My Name Joe (5:41)

My Name Joe (5:41)

Contact: David Massengill
(212) 533-6297
davidwmassengill@gmail.com

Songwriter: David Massengill
Publishing & PRO: David Massengill Music/Warner/Chappell Music, Inc. (ASCAP)

Release Date: August/September 1986

Produced By: David Massengill and the Fast Folk Band

This is not the studio version of "My Name Joe" produced by Steve Addabbo on my 1992 release Coming Up For Air. This is a live version recorded May 10, 1986 at the Bottom Line in New York City. It was released early that fall in the Fast Folk Musical Magazine as a double lp and is currently still available from Smithsonian Folkways (Vol 3, No. 6) in download and cd form. What's most interesting about this version is I sang the first verse out of order. You can hear me stutter a touch as I sang the second verse first. It got my energy up and I tried to insert the first verse but naturally followed with the third verse second. Finally I composed myself and sang the first verse third. From then on I was free as a bird and this is one of my favorite versions. You may note the musicians are excellent and played on in bands with Bob Dylan and staked out formidable careers of their own. Those were magic times.

“My Name Joe” is a song about standing up for your friends. It also explores the conflict between cultures in an urban melting pot based on my experiences as a dishwasher in an Upper West Side restaurant in NYC. One night a waiter drew an x across a photo of the Thai cook that was on the wall. Joe was angry and yelled "My Name Joe!" over and over while hacking the wall with knife. It took quite a while to calm things down. I was off that night but it helped to write the song as I was told the story by all my fellow kitchen workers the next day and relayed much of it into the song. Kind of like Joni Mitchell writing "Woodstock" because she wasn't there but wanted to be from all the stories. We all want to stand up for our friends. After hearing the song Joan Baez asked if she could join me for a dishwashing shift. She was a welcome guest dishwasher and stayed a full shift. It was a slow night in the kitchen and Joan sang folk songs in the languages of her fellow workers of Thai, Mexican and Caribbean descent. The Thai cooks cried at hearing their songs sung native style. When I came in the next day for another dishwashing shift they told me Johnny Cash was there and he wanted to wash dishes with me. I looked up and down the room three times before I realized they were pulling my leg." ~ David Massengill

Musicians:
David Massengill: Mountain Dulcimer, Lead Vocal
Willie Nininger: Acoustic Guitar
Shawn Colvin and Lucy Kaplanski: Vocals
Mark Dann: Electric Guitar
Jeff Hardy: String Bass
Howie Wyeth: Drums