riffs Morten; Harket on Jimi Hendrix's Hey Joe
I first heard it at school when I was 16. Until that point I had heard virtually no music. I just belonged to a completely different world where I was off chasing butterflies. I grew up in very rural terrain just outside Oslo, and although there was music around, the things they played on the radio were of no interest to me.
When I was 16, music started coming over from England. Somebody was playing "Hey Joe" in the classroom, on an old banger of a turntable, and the music blew me away. I stole the record - I remember the tattered old sleeve - and took it home and didn't touch it or play it for a very long time. That might sound religious but it was more sexual. The song is very primal - very real. And that's an unusual thing, because most rock music is hairspray.
My classmates liked it too, but they didn't understand it the way I did. To say it "appeals" to me isn't strong enough - it touches me, it's like returning to a primitive state. We've been taught that we should only use our brains but there are actually a lot more answers to life if you look down there. Music like this - wild, pulsating music - scares a lot of people, because it's out of control. I just like anything which gets my senses going, anything which doesn't feel conscious, it can be light or dark. It's all about being alive.
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