‘JoJo’s Bizarre Musical Adventure’: Come Together, Joseph Joestar

As one Act ends, the next one begins. The JoJo torch is passed down from Jonathan to his grandson- Joseph Joestar.

So, who is Joseph and what is his musical reference?

Joseph is the main protagonist of Part 2: Battle Tendency and like his grandparents Jonathan and Erina, his character reference alludes to The Beatles song “Come Together,” besides of course, “Get Back.” He’s the first JoJo to be featured in more than one part and longest living member of the Joestar clan to date. He is also the only JoJo to use both Ripple and possess Stand Power.

Now for some song history.

“Come Together” written by John Lennon, was originally intended to be a campaign song for Timothy Leary. Timothy Leary was an American psychologist and an advocate of LSD, who Lennon met during his Montreal Bed-In for Peace in 1969. Leary was intending to run for Governor of California in the following election and asked Lennon to write him a campaign song. Of course, the campaign never took off because Leary was arrested before that. Leary’s campaign slogan was ‘Come Together- Join the Party!’ which was how “Come Together,” came together.

John Lennon in All We Are Saying (David Sheff, 1980) explained, ‘‘The thing was created in the studio. It’s gobbledygook; ‘Come Together’ was an expression that Leary had come up with for his attempt at being president or whatever he wanted to be, and he asked me to write a campaign song. I tried and tried, but I couldn’t come up with one. But I came up with this, ‘Come Together,’ which would’ve been no good to him – you couldn’t have a campaign song like that, right?

And so, it was cannibalized into the song we know and love today.

“Come Together” took a cue from Chuck Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me,” which was the reason McCartney suggested they slow down the tempo of the song to make it different.

 “Come Together” has the line: “Here come ol’ flattop, he come groovin’ up slowly.”

 “You Can’t Catch Me” has “Here come a flattop, he was movin’ up with me.“

 Thus, “Come Together” came with a lawsuit issued by Chuck Berry’s publisher Morris Levy.

While it has been hypothesized that the song is a reflection of each of the Beatles (or just Lennon himself), there’s been no confirmation of the same. However, while the protagonist of the song may not be the Beatles or Lennon or Leary, Joseph Joestar has been modeled after the song itself.

We first encounter him groovin’ up slowly down the streets of New York with his pal Smokey Brown (a reference to musicians Smokey Robinson and James Brown) where lurks enemies ranging from the police to the mafia.

Got to be a joker, he just do what he please

Joseph is in many ways his predecessor Jonathan’s direct foil. Where Jonathan, ever the gentleman is a kind, selfless and morally upstanding citizen, Joseph isn’t. He’s clever, calculating and does whatever it takes to get what he wants. Joseph tends to joke around both on and off the battlefield. He gleefully taunts and aggravates his opponents and spends quite a lot of the fight being the goofball that he is, albeit a very smart one.

He say, “I know you, you know me”

One thing I can tell you is you got to be free

One thing that has to be said about all of Joseph Joestar’s battles is that they are as entertaining as they are interesting. Being the master strategist that he is, what he lacks in brawn he makes up for with brains. His battle analysis skills are off the charts and he is skilled at predicting his enemies next move (and line) before they even think of it. He has a short fuse with a foul mouth to match and has absolutely no fear or respect for authority, except that of his grandmother’s. Truly, his grandfather would be rolling in his grave if he could see him.

Joseph first sets out to rescue his Uncle Speedwagon from a secret underground Nazi Base in Mexico, where he fights the mysterious Pillar Man Santana. When he learns that the Nazis have unearthed three more Pillar Men from beneath the Colosseum in Rome, he and Speedwagon immediately rush there and rendezvous with Caesar Zeppeli a fellow Ripple user and Will A Zeppeli’s grandson. 

When the Pillar Men awaken, Joseph and Caeser attempt to fight them, but they prove too strong — even for Joseph’s Clacker Volley which was infused with Ripple. Joseph manages to convince them for a rematch in a month’s time. As insurance to make sure Joseph does not run away, they insert the Wedding Rings of Death in Joseph’s heart and throat — which will explode if he does not defeat them and get the antidote in a month.

After a grueling month of training, Joseph faces off with the Pillar Men and emerges victorious, albeit with the casualty of his left hand, which is replaced with a prosthetic soon after.

He say, “One and one and one is three”

Got to be good-looking, ’cause he’s so hard to see

The most well-known Beatles fan conspiracy theory is the Paul is Dead theory! The ridiculous premise was that Paul McCartney supposedly died in a car crash and was replaced by a fake. While obviously false, the Abbey Road album cover added to the hysteria that the image was supposed to be funeral procession, with a barefooted McCartney as his spirit. McCartney later parodied this urban legend in his album Paul is Live.

“Come Together” is the opening track on Abbey Road. Influenced by the hoax, some fans assumed that “One and one and one is three…hard to see” refers to the fact that there were only three Beatles remaining and that McCartney was “so hard to see” because he was a ghost!

Back to JoJo, Joseph’s fight with the last of the Pillar Men — Kars — is a close call. Kars is blasted out into space and Joseph’s whereabouts are unknown. His family and friends presume he’s dead when he does not appear and even hold a funeral for him months later when all hope of his return seems lost. A surprise visitor turns up at the funeral — Joseph himself, who was evidently alive and well.

In Part Three, Joseph is a major supporting character. Equipped with his newly awakened Stand Hermit Purple, he journeys to Egypt with his grandson Jotaro Kujo to stop DIO’s diabolical plan. Though Joseph is 68 years old in Part Three, he retains the physical skill of his 18-year-old self, thanks to being a Ripple user (and the only Ripple user alive in the JJBA universe).  

Come together, right now

Over me

In Part Three, the Joestar group — or rather the team that accompanies Jotaro and Joseph to Egypt — has more or less been recruited by Joseph, if you squint. He’s also the one that befriends the residents of any area they travel to, the most enterprising and adventurous of the lot. It’s something that hasn’t changed from Part Two. He’s charismatic and rallies people together. He wins the respect of almost all his enemies, if he doesn’t piss them off too badly, that is. While Timothy Leary did not get to use “Come Together” to bring people together and join the party, Joseph certainly did. 

He got Ono sideboard, he one spinal cracker

He got feet down below his knee

Hold you in his armchair, you can feel his disease

In a way Joseph has an “Ono sideboard” of his own. Part Four’s protagonist Josuke Higashita is the illegitimate son of Joseph, a result of a fling with a Japanese woman, Tomoko Higashita. While Joseph doesn’t leave his wife Suzie Q for Tomoko, the former was understandably and rightly very angry and upset at Joseph’s actions, he does travel to Japan to meet his son and help him out. Joseph, now 78, has long given up his Ripple training. He’s frail, hunched over his cane, hard of hearing and acts senile. It is unclear if the senility is just an act to escape responsibility for his actions as he does display moments of perfect clarity.

Joseph out of all the Joestars so far, has lived the longest and most colorful life. He is the one character that (visibly) ages along with the series with quite a lot of character development. At the end of Part Three: Stardust Crusaders, there’s a panel of Joseph listening to “Get Back” as he returns home with his grandson Jotaro, wrapping up another successful adventure with JoJo getting back to where he belongs.

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