[frogulis]

Adam Neely released a pretty in-depth video recently with the opinion that Hey Joe is straight-forwardly in the key of E, as long as you don't get stuck trying to fit it into a diatonic, traditional Western framework. It's a good watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVvmALPu5TU

I had an unanswered question after the video -- are there listeners who don't feel that sense of "home" when arriving at the E chord? I certainly do feel "at home" on the E, but I'd be curious to hear others' opinions.

[RHSman2]

I’ve played it a fairly large amount in bands. First time I have heard that it’s in the key of E. Totally makes sense to me especially in the Hendrix version with the semi chromatic bass walk to E.

[lc9er]

I think context is important. If you are talking about guitar based music, then E is a pretty safe bet as home. But what if a group doesn’t use standard tuning? The first two examples that come to mind are Alice In Chains and Tool. They use E flat tuning and drop-d tuning, respectively (mostly). When I listen to them, Eb and D are home.

[coldtea]

The instrument tuning doesn't change the fact that a song has a key/home.

If someone plays it in another key, transposes it etc, it will still have a specific key, just transposed.

In this case of course it's about the Jimi Hendrix recorded cover version, not trying to get some key that would hold across all possible versions.

[ragona]

It feels like home because of the key of the song, not the instrument. Sometimes the guitar is tuned to play a song where the key matches the lowest string, but many songs are of course played in other keys.

[dkdbejwi383]

Jimi played in Eb a lot too. Kurt Cobain and SRV too.

[RHSman2]

That’s cos it sounds heavier but the key is relative.