It's O.K. John Joe

Album: One Day I'm Going to Soar (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • Vocalist Kevin Rowland told The Guardian the story of this song. "I'd met this girl called Johanna in Sweden and she emailed me, asking: 'Do you believe in love?' I replied: 'I do believe in love, Johanna. I don't know anything about it. I know about depending on people …' And then when I read it back, I thought you could put that to music."

    "I'd been working with this guy called Ben Brierley with a view to writing songs for other people. He came up with that riff, and that was it, really."

    "When we recorded it with Jim (Paterson) on trombone, I changed the name to John Joe. It's personal, but the song changed, and I became someone singing it to someone else."
  • A demo of this song titled "It's O.K. Johanna" featured on the Kevin Rowland My Space webpage in 2006.
  • This quotes Marvin Gaye's 1973 recording "If I Should Die Tonight."

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