By Alan Fairley: 2024

Here’s a bit of trivia for you.

What’s the connection between recently reinstated US President Donald Trump and the Jimi Hendrix song Hey Joe?

Answer – they’re both half Scottish.

It’s a well documented fact that Mary Anne McLeod-Trump, a native of the village of Tong on the Isle of Lewis, gave birth to her second son, Donald, the future president, in June 1946, sixteen years after she had emigrated to the States but what is less commonly known is that Hendrix’ highly successful debut single  was conceived in an Edinburgh cafe ten years later in a bizarre collaboration between a Scottish guitarist and an American songwriter.

I first became aware of this while performing at an Open Mic session in Edinburgh’s legendary music venue, the Captain’s Bar, a few years ago.
Hey Joe was one of my go-to crowd pleasers and after bashing out the highly recognisable five chord structure, the pub manageress came over and asked me if I realised that the song had been written approximately 100 yards from where I was sitting.

At first I thought this was the opening salvo to a joke and I sat there patiently awaiting the humorous punchline.
There was, however, no punchline and she went on to tell me that Hey Joe, a song which describes how an American man planned to kill his unfaithful wife before escaping to Mexico to avoid justice, had been written in a cafe know as Bungies, situated in Old Fishmarket Close just off the Royal Mile in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town.

Intrigued as to how the genesis of a such an iconic American song, recorded and made famous by one of the world’s most iconic guitarists, could possibly have originated in an unremarkable cobbled alleyway in Scotland’s capital, I carried out some extensive research, ie a quick swatch at Google, to find out more.

It turns out that a chance meeting between Dunkeld-born guitar player Len Partridge and South Carolina songwriter Billy Roberts spawned the song in Bungie’s, a small coffee house which doubled as a folk music venue  and which is nowadays a chicken restaurant imaginatively known as Wings.

The song has since been recorded by many artists including the Byrds and Robert Plant but was made famous by Hendrix as he released it as his first single in 1966, reaching No 6 in the UK charts.

Just to add to the Scottish connection, chart topping Glasgow band The Marmalade, recorded the song as the B-Side to their highly successful single Lovin’ Things single which also charted at No 6 two years later.

So, if you’re visiting Edinburgh any time soon, forget the Castle, forget Holyrood, get yourself down to Wings and sit in the place where one of the greatest rock songs of all time was written.