Joey

Album

Bloodletting

Label

I.R.S. Records

Genre

Rock

Composer(s)

Johnette Lin Napolitano

Entered Chart

Aug 18, 1990

Peak Date

Nov 10, 1990

Released

Unknown

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

I.R.S. 73014

B-Side

I Want You

This song is about being in love with an alcoholic. Concrete Blonde lead singer Johnette Napolitano wrote it about Marc Moreland of the band Wall Of Voodoo - the bands played many of the same Los Angeles venues in the '80s. Moreland died of liver failure in 2002; Napolitano discussed Moreland and writing the song about him in a concert known as the "D.C. Sessions." >> The lyrics to this song didn't come easy, as they were very personal and intense. In a Songfacts interview with Johnette Napolitano, she told the story: "We did a demo with no lyrics. It was just like scratchy vocals, just me making sounds, basically, where I knew the melody would go. And right away everybody reacted to it. There weren't any lyrics, but there was something about the music that everybody really reacted to. And so we went to England to record the record with Chris Tsangarides, our producer. I knew what I wanted to say, but I wasn't looking forward to saying it. And so it was the last vocal that I recorded. And I remember Chris every day, 'Do we have vocals to 'Joey' yet? Do we have words to 'Joey' yet?' And I'm like, 'Not yet.' So I literally wrote them in a cab. I knew what I was going to say, it's just a matter of like a cloud's forming and then it rains. The lines are forming in my head and they're all in my head, and I know the chorus, and I know what I'm going to say. It's just a matter of fine tuning the details and how I'm going to lug it out. And then it rains. The clouds all formed and it rained. And then it happened. And that was it. And it was just there." This is by far the biggest hit for Concrete Blonde, and their only one to make the Hot 100 (they have placed several songs on the Modern Rock charts). Johnette Napolitano has expressed little interest in hit singles or album sales, which led to tensions with the group's label, I.R.S. Records, which signed them in 1986. After five albums with I.R.S., including the gold-certified Bloodletting, the label offered them a deal where the group was sold to Capitol Records. The group still refused to serve the musical tastes of a wider audience, and they ended up on independent labels. These days, their artistic credibility is unquestioned, but at the time, they took some criticism for daring to have a hit song. Napolitano addressed this in a 1993 interview with Happening when she said: "People call that song a 'sell-out' only because it sold records. If I could intentionally write a Top 40 song, don't you think I would have done it on the first album?" The video drove home the alcoholic theme. It featured Napolitano with the band playing in a small club while one lone patron drinks to excess. It was the only Concrete Blonde song to receive significant airplay on MTV. This was a #1 hit for four weeks on the US Modern Rock charts. It gained popularity as "alternative" music was coming into the mainstream and radio stations were looking for stuff like this to play. Finding female voices was particularly problematic for radio program directors in this era of Pearl Jam, so this song was a welcome addition to many playlists.

Joey, baby - don't get crazy
Detours, fences, I get defensive

I know you've heard it all before
So I don't say it anymore
I just stand by and let you
Fight your secret war
And though I used to wonder why
I used to cry till I was dry
Still sometimes I get a strange pain inside
Oh, Joey, if you're hurting so am I

Joey, honey, I got some money
All is forgiven. Listen, listen

But if I seem to be confused
I didn't mean to be with you
And when you said I scared you
Well I guess you scared me too
But we got lucky once before
And I don't want to close the door
And if you're somewhere out there
Passed out on the floor
Oh Joey, I'm not angry anymore

And if I seem to be confused
I didn't mean to be with you
And when you said I scared you
Well I guess you scared me too
But if it's love you're looking for
Then I can give a little more
And if you're somewhere drunk and
Passed out on the floor
Oh Joey, I'm not angry anymore
Angry anymore, angry anymore