HÉ, MAGYAR JOE! [HEY, HUNGARIAN JOE!]

October 13, 2019

Main stage

The idea struck me out of the blue. Jimi Hendrix made Hey Joe, a blues song about a murder based on jealousy, into a world-renowned hit, a song which I translated forty years ago and have been playing ever since. For some reason I realized that if I had an American name – “Hobo”, then “Joe” could also be Hungarian, and right there in my seat I wrote the outline of the killer’s life story. 

Joe was born under the name József Magyar in the late 1970s. His father became a banker after the regime change, he beat his son, his mother was an actress, she played any kind of role, except that of a real mother. Jozsi hated school and wanted to be a footballer. He got acquainted with the blues and Hey Joe became his favorite song. He was a midfielder in the junior team of the BKV Előre, and after every goal he shouted a line in the song, “I'm goin' down to shoot my old lady”. That's why they named him Joe.

He did not want to live a large life, he just became a tram driver and married the first woman who ever slept with him. She thought the banker father would provide them with a gilded life, but soon realized that it would never happen and cheated on her husband. Joe caught them in the act and after she humiliated him, he shot her with his father's shotgun. Then he called the cops, gave himself up, confessed to everything. He received a severe sentence, and spent sixteen years in prison, where he struggled daily with feelings of remorse and shame. After he got out he found himself in today’s Hungary, which had nothing remote resembling the country where he grew up. He lived in the street, could not get a job, and eventually became a street musician, where he met a former classmate who gave him a job and a place to live.

This is the story, which I wrote in 27 song lyrics and will be released as a double record in an audiobook in the fall. I showed the material to Attila Vidnyánszky, who had a vision of a two-act performance based on the songs. An actor will play Joe, and I'll be the narrator, the storyteller.

The music was composed by Csaba Pengő, Zoltán Kiss and Csanád Igali.

Well, as a “sensitive author”, that's all I can say for myself.

 

László Földes Hobo