Quick, what songs from the seventies do you think of first when I say Eric Clapton? I'd lay odds that at least one, if not two of them, would be either "After Midnight" or "Cocaine."
Back in the early 1970's, there was a great trivia question you could ask, and very few people would know the answer. Who wrote the Eric Clapton hits "After Midnight" and "Cocaine"? Of course everybody knows the answer now, but back then hardly anybody had ever heard of a guy named J. J. Cale.
You could make a pretty convincing argument that Clapton's solo career wouldn't have taken off quite as quickly if it hadn't been for J. J. Cale. A casual fan of Clapton's music from that time period, like me, probably couldn't even tell you the name of another song that he had a hit with during that period.
Oh yeah, his cover of Bob Marley's "I Shot The Sheriff," got airplay around the same time. Nine times out of ten if they played an Eric Clapton song on the radio (FM radio, you'd never hear any of his stuff on the AM dial – far too risqué), it would be one of those three. But more often than not, it would be one of the former two.
I've never been a big fan of Clapton, but to give him credit where credit is due, he was always quick to mention this great guitar player from California who was good enough to let him play a couple of his songs. Gradually people began to get to know the name J. J. Cale, until you'd hear his versions of "After Midnight" and "Cocaine" on the radio about as often as you'd hear Clapton's.
Mainly because he couldn't be bothered to play the game, and he preferred to stay at home and play guitar over going out on the road (the story goes that he said if I can't get home to my own bed after a gig I'm not interested), Cale has always remained on the edges of the limelight. He's known by those who care to seek out fine guitar playing and a rough hewn voice, but for the majority he's just a name on the credits of a couple of Eric Clapton songs.
Article comments
1 - JC Mosquito
Call Me the Breeze was one of his too, wasn't it? In fact, the whole Naturally album is a classic. JJ Cale is one of the few writers that could write a song off of a two chord change and make it sound great.
2 - lars jørgensen
Nb. ALL of Cale's albums are great masterpieces;-)
but off course some are better than others - I hope they will find other "forgotten" songs of Cale, because it will take years...-maybe not at all, before we will have another so kind and sensitive musician/man as Cale.
A man so humble and down-to-the-ground isn't easy to find among "stars";-)
Lars(a fan since -74, Denmark )
3 - Mike U.
I am a singer/songwriter/guitarist who has been heavily influenced by Johnny Cale's work ever since I first played his album "Naturally" in a small record shop in Orlando, back in 1971. His lyrics to the song "Carry On," though never a hit, enabled me to get through my last year of teaching high school English and retire with a smile instead of the frowns on so many retiring teachers. No one can touch his laidback sound. Some can write better (Jimmy Buffett, John Prine); some can outplay him in that style (Clapton, et. al.)- but NO ONE puts it all together in one package like JJ Cale. Listen all the way through one Cale album and you'll be a believer, unless you're young and absolutely have to have a faster, more driving beat all the time. I used to be that way- then I grew up some. Age happens.
I recently found an incredible interview with JJ Cale over at Vintage Guitar. Check out www.vintageguitar.com/artists/details.asp?ID=197
for a conversation with a man with less pretention than most stars. He's the only star I know of to turn down the typical multi-million dollar deal to tour. His response: "Why do I need to tour to sell these songs when they're already a hit?" Cale is the only artist I feel is worthy to follow closely. He never disapoints.
Don't waste your time trying to hear him in a bar. A bunch of us tried to listen to him in Charlotte at the Visilite Theater, which was really a bar, and went home extremely dissapointed. The management in three tries simply could not stop the young folk who were there to party- didn't even know Cale- from talking,screaming, and carrying on with their partying. JJ plays and sings softly. We heard very little of his music that night, our only chance to hear The Master of Mello. But I've got his albums and the mello-ness continues.