Eric Clapton Does J.J. Cale's Cocaine After Midnight
Not anymore. Back in the "good ol' days" of rock-and-roll, before they both got too old and too smart to put anything stronger than Dristan up their nose, likely they did share a snort or two. These days, the only lines Eric Clapton and J.J. Cale are sharing are of the poetic variety, something they both know a lot about.
Eric Clapton has been on the big stage virtually all of his life. J.J. Cale has been content to toss his memorable and notable classic rock songs into the mix from somwhere off to the side.
If people (excluding J.J.'s loyal fandom) know of J.J. Cale at all, they know him because of Eric Clapton's covers of "After Midnight," and "Cocaine." While Clapton made them his own, no lesser greats have also delved into the Cale catalog with gusto.
Jerry Garcia
But performing musicians know Cale for more. They know him for "Call Me The Breeze," delivered so infectiously by Lynyrd Skynyrd on Second Helping
They know him for "Magnolia" which helped launch the short but sweet career of Poco
Those that dig just a little deeper pull out some of the most touching songs of all. Songs like "The Sensitive Kind" which bluesman John Mayall
John "J.J." Cale, according to numerous biographers, was born in 1938 in Oklahoma City and raised and schooled in Tulsa.
SIDEBAR: Ironically, of all the great songs recorded by Clapton that Cale did write, he didn't write the famous Clapton hit "Tulsa Time
Says biographer Colin Escott in The Very Best Of J.J. Cale Songbook (see below), "Cale seems proud that he has prevented himself from becoming tremendously famous. 'I stopped a lot of people who wanted to shove me into the real big time,' he said recently. 'Your ego wants to say, 'Hey, I'm somebody, man,' but I knew there were many days when I just wanted to be John Cale.' Someone he knew from school painted him as a sly raccoon on his first album jacket. He slips out at night and makes a record. You catch him sometimes in your headlights, then he's gone. Back to the lake. Back to the desert. Back to the trailer park."
But now J.J. is back to the big dance, albeit seemingly still just outside of the limelight. In June of 2006, the DVD J.J. Cale - To Tulsa And Back: On Tour With JJ Cale was released. Featuring appearances by Eric Clapton and others who have been influenced by and help shape the "Tulsa sound," the DVD is a series of candid interviews in which Cale describes his childhood and his wild years in psychedelic California. He also shares his insights about his influences, his songs and songwriting, success (or lack of it), and life on the road. The DVD includes rare outstanding live performances, and beautiful images of the American landscape.
The "Tulsa sound" has had a powerful pull on Clapton over the years. He once said of his self-co-penned hit, "Lay Down Sally
And now, Clapton is back with his old friend and mentor. Says Amazon.com, "After years of admiring each other's musical masterworks, guitar great J.J. Cale and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer/Grammy-winner Eric Clapton have teamed up to create an original album together called The Road to Escondido. The resulting hybrid sound defies labels, and instead finds influence across the spectrum...
"...despite the rather slick production and long list of guest backing musicians (including four bassists, four drummers, five other guitarists, and three percussionists), The Road to Escondido is still dominated more by Cale than Clapton. The relatively reticent Okie wrote 11 of the 14 tracks, and it's his low-key soufflé of blues, jazz, and country that shapes and directs the disc's tone, with Clapton along for the ride. The opening 'Danger' sets the dusky mood as the duo rides a typical Cale swamp groove that gives way to a tightly wound Slowhand solo. They trade lead vocals on a lovely version of the after-hours jazz blues classic 'Sporting Life Blues,' and the ubiquitous John Mayer
"Clapton hasn't sounded this relaxed or involved in his own material for years. The traditionally laid-back, if not quite snoozy, Cale responds with a comparatively energized performance, likely due to the high-profile company. When the two harmonize on the mid-tempo foot tapper 'Anyway the Wind Blows,' the result is so natural and spontaneous it's a shame these two didn't join forces earlier. On paper, it appears that Cale has the most to gain from partnering with an established superstar, but the fact is this collaboration yields Eric Clapton's most engaging and contagious roots-rock release in a long time." —Hal Horowitz
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recorded "After Midnight." So did guitar-great 
, among many others. It was a Top 20 hit for Clapton in the Fall of 1970, released on his eponymous debut solo album, 
.
. Now synonymous with southern-rock kings Skynyrd, "Call Me The Breeze" was also taken down by country legends 
.
in the 70s (although of course individual members of Poco, Timothy Schmidt -- now with the 
and 
.
rendered brilliantly and Carlos 
worked his magic on. (Cale's own recording of "The Sensitive Kind" is equally compelling.) And songs like "Cajun Moon" that jazzy songstresses such as 
and 
couldn't stay away from.
." "Tulsa Time" was written by Nashville's Danny Flowers.
," that it "was as close as an Englishman could get to being J.J. Cale." One can readily hear the laid-back rock-a-billy similarities between "Lay Down Sally" and Cale's records.)
makes an impressive appearance on the subtle blues of 'Hard to Thrill.'
