Joe Knows How to Live
"Joe Knows How to Live" | ||||
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Single by Eddy Raven | ||||
from the album The Best of Eddy Raven | ||||
B-side | "Looking for Ways" | |||
Released | May 1988 | |||
Genre | Country | |||
Length | 3:54 | |||
Label | RCA Records | |||
Songwriter(s) | Troy Seals Max D. Barnes Graham Lyle | |||
Producer(s) | Barry Beckett | |||
Eddy Raven singles chronology | ||||
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"Joe Knows How to Live" is a song written by Troy Seals, Max D. Barnes and Graham Lyle, and recorded by American country music artist Eddy Raven. It was released in May 1988 as the second single from his compilation album The Best of Eddy Raven. The song was Raven's fourth number one on the country chart. The single went to number one for one week and spent a total of fifteen weeks on the country chart.[1]
The song was previously recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their 1987 album Hold On.
Content
The song is told from the point of view of a blue collar worker envious of one of his co-workers, Joe.[2] Joe's free-spirited ways are evidenced by Raven singing "Well I hate to admit it, but Joe sure knows how to live". Joe tells his linemates of a trip to Mexico he is taking with Betty, a waitress at a diner that all are familiar with. He later returns with photos and a hat he purchased in Mexico.
The trip Joe has taken was presumably done with ill-used sick days, as Raven says in the spoken-word fading end of the song, "well, they would have fired me if I'd have done something like that". It also suggests that Joe is married, as Raven asks rhetorically "you think Joe's wife knows about that yet?" before the song completely fades.
Billy Warden of the Newport News Daily Press reviewed the song favorably, noting the "countrified Caribbean sway" and Raven's vocal tone.[2]
Charts
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
References
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 281.
- ^ a b Billy Warden (July 22, 1988). "Eddy and 'Joe' live it up". Daily Press. p. 14. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
- ^ "Eddy Raven Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.
- ^ "Top 100 Country Singles of '88" (PDF). RPM. December 24, 1988. p. 15.
- ^ "Hot Country Songs – Year-End 1988". Billboard. Retrieved July 10, 2021.
- v
- t
- e
- The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
- Ricochet
- Rare Junk
- Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy
- All the Good Times
- Stars & Stripes Forever
- Symphonion Dream
- The Dirt Band
- An American Dream
- Make a Little Magic
- Jealousy
- Let's Go
- Plain Dirt Fashion
- Partners, Brothers and Friends
- Hold On
- Workin' Band
- The Rest of the Dream
- Not Fade Away
- Acoustic
- The Christmas Album
- Bang, Bang, Bang
- Welcome to Woody Creek
- Speed of Life
- Will the Circle Be Unbroken
- Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two
- Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Volume III
- Alive
- Live Two Five
- "Mr. Bojangles"
- "House at Pooh Corner"
- "I Saw the Light"
- "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)"
- "The Battle of New Orleans"
- "All I Have to Do Is Dream"
- "An American Dream"
- "Dance Little Jean"
- "Long Hard Road (The Sharecropper's Dream)"
- "I Love Only You"
- "High Horse"
- "Modern Day Romance"
- "Home Again in My Heart"
- "Partners, Brothers and Friends"
- "Fire in the Sky"
- "Baby's Got a Hold on Me"
- "Fishin' in the Dark"
- "Oh What a Love"
- "Workin' Man (Nowhere to Go)"
- "I've Been Lookin'"
- "Down That Road Tonight"
- "Turn of the Century"
- "And So It Goes"
- "When It's Gone"
- "From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)"
- "I Fought the Law"
- "King Tut"
- "Joe Knows How to Live"
- "Bless the Broken Road"
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