{"id":296394,"date":"2025-11-17T04:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T04:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/296394\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T04:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T04:41:10","slug":"i-get-by-with-a-little-help-from-my-namesake-joe-cocker-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/296394\/","title":{"rendered":"I get by with a little help from my namesake Joe Cocker | Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Your article (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/2025\/nov\/13\/you-get-more-attention-than-you-would-choose-how-an-unusual-name-can-shape-your-life-for-better-or-worse\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018You get more attention than you would choose\u2019: how an unusual name can shape your life \u2013 for better or worse, 13 November<\/a>) resonated with me for obvious reasons, even though 11 years have now elapsed since the death of the singer Joe Cocker.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">He was actually christened John Robert Cocker, and it is not clear where the \u201cJoe\u201d came from. I wrote to Joe before my 70th birthday suggesting that, as I had for most of my adult life \u201csuffered\u201d from having the same name, maybe he could send a message to my party.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A few weeks later, a package arrived from the US with his CD Hymn for My Soul, on which he had written in silver ink, \u201cSmall world \u2013 Joe Cocker to Joe Cocker\u201d. Having the same name often led to conversations that would not otherwise have happened. I once arrived in Peru and an airport official told me that he had not heard of Joe Cocker but people kept asking him \u201cIs he really coming?\u201d (Someone must have seen the incoming passenger list.) Before anyone asked, I would say to them that, generally speaking, people were prepared to pay me not to sing.<br \/>Joe Cocker<br \/>Leominster, Herefordshire <\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"> Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2025\/nov\/16\/mailto:guardian.letters@theguardian.com?body=Please%20include%20your%20name,%20full%20postal%20address%20and%20phone%20number%20with%20your%20letter%20below.%20Letters%20are%20usually%20published%20with%20the%20author%27s%20name%20and%20city\/town\/village.%20The%20rest%20of%20the%20information%20is%20for%20verification%20only%20and%20to%20contact%20you%20where%20necessary.\" data-link-name=\"in body link \" https:=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tone\/letters\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your article (\u2018You get more attention than you would choose\u2019: how an unusual name can shape your life&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-296394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}