Lubbock<\/a>. Sure, we knew Joe before that. We\u2019d seen him, heard him, and understood he was something special. But that record? That was the moment Joe became ours. He was the prince we selected to represent us during a wild time in music history.<\/p>\nJoe Ely Belonged on the Same Shelf as the Giants<\/p>\n
This was an era when punk was still raging hard, metal was exploding, and new sounds were coming from every direction. And somehow, in West Texas bedrooms and car stereos, Joe Ely fit perfectly alongside Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman by Ozzy, Tattoo You by the Rolling Stones, and Ghost in the Machine by The Police. For us, Joe wasn\u2019t \u201clocal.\u201d He was on the same level as all of them.<\/p>\n
Joe ran with the Clash when they came through town. He sat in with the Eagles during the Hotel California sessions. And when Hi-Res dropped in 1984 \u2014 helped along greatly by our own Eddie Beethoven \u2014 Joe truly blew up around these parts. He anchored Tornado Jam and brought friends like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Linda Ronstadt, and Joan Jett to Lubbock, helping put the city on the national music map in a way few ever had.<\/p>\n
Joe Ely Was A Musician\u2019s Musician \u2014 And Proud of It<\/p>\n
The truth is, no one who ever saw Joe Ely perform walked away unchanged. Somehow, though, he never rose far beyond the \u201cmusician\u2019s musician\u201d label. And honestly? That always felt intentional. Joe embraced the life of a troubadour, switching styles as easily as he changed dirty jeans, chasing songs instead of charts.<\/p>\n
He moved to Austin in the early \u201980s, but the road between there and Lubbock stayed short. Joe never forgot where he came from \u2014 and more importantly, he never let Lubbock forget him. My own good fortune followed his, when he called a bunch of us from the Lubbock squad to appear in his \u201cDon\u2019t Mess With Texas\u201d video. It was a small thing, but that\u2019s who Joe was. He honored Lubbock. He always called on Lubbock.<\/p>\n
Joe Ely is gone now, but legends don\u2019t really leave. They stay in the grooves of old records, the memories of packed rooms, and the pride of a city that knows one of its own helped change the sound of American music forever.<\/p>\n
Joyland Nostalgia: Photos That Bring Back the Best Lubbock Memories<\/p>\n
Joyland was a quirky, vintage treasure that Lubbockites enjoyed for generations. It is deeply missed, but lives on in memories, and in great photos like these. <\/p>\n
Gallery Credit: Renee Raven<\/p>\n
41 Breathtaking Photos From The Tallest Building in Lubbock, Texas<\/p>\n
Lubbock looks amazing from the tallest building in town.<\/p>\n
Gallery Credit: Chrissy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are artists you admire from afar, and then there are artists who belong to a place. Joe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,170,169],"class_list":{"0":"post-90040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lubbock","8":"tag-lubbock","9":"tag-lubbock-headlines","10":"tag-lubbock-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}