Song · Inspiral Carpets
“Joe” by Inspiral Carpets
From the EP Cool as **** EP (1990)
“Joe” by Inspiral Carpets appears on 1 radio countdown from 1 station in 1989. It was first released in 1990 on the EP Cool as **** EP. Its best result is #9 on the John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1989. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #79 alternative song of 1989.
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Video from YouTube (Inspiral Carpets). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Joe" had been kicking around the Inspiral Carpets camp for years before it became a single in 1989. Clint Boon wrote it back in 1985, and it was the first thing the band recorded on New Year's Eve 1987 for the Dung 4 demo, with Stephen Holt singing. When Tom Hingley joined in 1988 the song got reworked, and the version on the 1989 "Joe" twelve-inch became the one that stuck, so much so that it stayed in the set even after Holt came back.
Onstage they'd stretch the opening blast beat to a full minute. The 1990 video, shot by an unknown avant-gardist, is pure Madchester indie: a homeless man, London streets, St Paul's Cathedral, colored lines streaking up and down the screen, all bathed in blue.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 9 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1989 | 50 |
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