Song Origins
Old Joe
"I just heard the story of 'Old Joe' from... Old Joe."
I had a buddy over and he sees a panic poster hanging on the wall. Asks me if I like them... I say yes. Asks me if I've ever heard the song 'Old Joe' before. Tells me he doesn't know any Panic or the song but his friend is Old Joe who has tons of cool stories (like Joe playing chess with John Lennon and Salvador Dali when he was a kid in Florida).
I say let me play the song for ya... and before I turn the song on, he calls Joe on the phone and tells him what's going on. Hands me the phone and Joe says "hi", and goes into the story of how he was a concert promoter in Florida, along with his friend. His friend calls him up and tells him to hurry up and come check out this band; Widespread Panic. He heads down and is sitting backstage listening and they drop some L.
Little while later the walls start melting along with the ceiling, so Joe bolts outside before it can. As he's sitting out there, Schools comes out in a hurry and all panicked. Joe asks if the ceiling is melting on him too... Dave says, "you saw it as well?" They get to talking after the show about life, music, and so on... Houser comes out and introduces himself. Joe says he can tell him who his influences are; Santana and Duane Allman. Houser says "yeah." Joe says he saw Santana and Duane play before Duane's death. Houser is amazed. When the band is leaving, Joe offers Dave a ride in his car. When they get in, Dave looks at his radio that has been painted, and asks if he painted his radio, and why? Joe tells him "it makes the songs look better". Joe goes on to tell him of a family he knows, and how everyone in the family has been struck by lightening. Whenever Joe and some of the boys from the family would go canoeing and a storm would roll in, the boys would go running for cover, while Joe would stand in the middle of the river and yell at the sky; "hit me, hit me." He tells Dave that "some things get hit, some don't."
Joe tells another story about hiking with his sister's kids - they would be gone for 3 hours but only go a short distance. The sister would ask the kids what took so long and they would answer "Joe likes to move slow and look at all the flowers."
Well, time passes and next time Panic comes to town, Joe heads down to check them out. Dave gets off the bus and sees Joe and gives him a copy of 'Don't Tell The Band' and tells Joe they wrote a song about him. Dave asks for Joe to play the disc and Joe says he'll listen to it later. During the show, Joe is in front of Houser, cause he likes his sound... and they go into 'Old Joe'. JB and Dave come over and all 3 are playing in front of Joe. Joe hasn't heard the song before, then starts hearing the lyrics and yells out "where are my royalties!" The band and Joe start laughing. Someone next to him asks who he is; "I'm old Joe!" he says.
Later, backstage when they are hanging out, Joe asks about the album title and the song and puts 2 and 2 together. Houser tells him he is sick, and the title of the album, and the song 'Old Joe'' were fitting for the timing of everything.
Joe says there are other parts of the song he can't remember. When you've seen as many shows as he has, things get mixed up.
-Ben Lovejoy
# of times played: 81
First time played: 04/03/00
Frequency: 1 in every 11.33 Shows
Longest drought: 38 shows (11/08/08 > 11/24/09)
Most common lead in: One Arm Steve, Action Man, C. Brown, Imitation Leather Shoes, Pickin' Up The Pieces (2 times)
Most common lead out: Ain’t Life Grand, Porch Song (5 times)
Most common set position: Encore, song 1 (37 times)
Notes: Appears on 'Don’t Tell The Band’, performed at Michael Houser’s funeral
Burnthday's Picks:
11/24/00 Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, TN
04/27/02 Oak Mountain Amphitheater, Pelham, AL