Joe South was a brilliant musician who shunned celebrity-imagine that in this age. He gave us "Rose Garden," a song about a good relationship on a bad day. "Don't It Make You Wanna Go Home?" was a song in the early seventies about going back to a place of beauty and innocense-for those lucky enough to have experienced that.
Deep Purple had a hit with "Hush." Billy Joe Royal had a hit with "Down in the Boondocks." He hated performing live but backed up Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan as a session player.
In every era, in every trend, there are the true believers and the posers. In the sixties and seventies some of us truly believed rock would and should change the world. It did. He was a thoughtful writer, a humanist in the finest sense. I did not not see him mentioned here, so I thought someone should.
Rest in peace good man.