Rock-Blues guitarist / songwriter and producer JJ Cale was born on this day in 1938 in Oklahoma City, OK. Cale began his career in a band that also featured Leon Russel, and briefly played with Delaney and Bonnie before embarking on a solo career in 1965. He wrote the Eric Clapton hits After Midnight and Cocaine, as well as Lynyrd Skynyrd`s The Breeze. Cale appeared on albums by Jesse Colter and Maria Muldaur, as well as playing on and producing 3 of John Hammonds albums; Got Love If You Want It , Trouble No More and Long As I Have You . John Weldon Cale[1] (December 5, 1938 – July 26, 2013), known as JJ Cale or J.J. Cale, was an American singer-songwriter and musician who was one of the originators of the Tulsa Sound, a loose genre drawing on blues, rockabilly, country, and jazz influences. Cales personal style has often been described as laid back. Songs written by Cale that have been covered by other musicians include After Midnight by Eric Clapton, Phish and Jerry Garcia, Cocaine by Eric Clapton, Clyde by Waylon Jennings and Dr. Hook, and Call Me the Breeze by Lynyrd Skynyrd, John Mayer, Johnny Cash, Bobby Bare and Eric Clapton. In 2008 he was a Grammy Award winner, jointly with Clapton. Cale was born on December 5, 1938, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.[1] He was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and graduated from Tulsa Central High School in 1956. Along with a number of other young Tulsa musicians, Cale moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s, where he first worked as a studio engineer.[2] Finding little success as a recording artist, he later returned to Tulsa and was considering giving up the music business until Clapton recorded Cales After Midnight in 1970. His first album, Naturally, established his style, described by Los Angeles Times writer Richard Cromelin as a unique hybrid of blues, folk and jazz, marked by relaxed grooves and Cales fluid guitar and laconic vocals. His early use of drum machines and his unconventional mixes lend a distinctive and timeless quality to his work and set him apart from the pack of Americana roots music purists.[3] In 2013 Neil Young remarked that of all the musicians he had ever heard, J.J. Cale and Jimi Hendrix were the two best electric guitar players.[4] Some sources incorrectly give his real name as Jean-Jacques Cale.[5] In the 2005 documentary, To Tulsa and Back: On Tour with J.J. Cale, Cale talks about Elmer Valentine, co-owner of the Sunset Strip nightclub Whisky a Go Go, who employed him in the mid-1960s, being the one that came up with the JJ moniker to avoid confusion with the Velvet Undergrounds John Cale. Rocky Frisco tells the same version of the story mentioning the other John Cale but without further detail.[6] In this 2005 documentary J.J. Cales style is also characterized by Eric Clapton as ...really, really minimal... and he states precisely: ...its all about finesse. His biggest U.S. hit single, Crazy Mama, peaked at #22 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1972. In the 2005 documentary film To Tulsa and Back Cale recounts the story of being offered the opportunity to appear on Dick Clarks American Bandstand to promote the song, which would have moved it higher on the charts. Cale declined when told he could not bring his band to the taping and would be required to lip-sync the words.[7] Cale often acted as his own producer, engineer and session player. His vocals, sometimes whispery, would be buried in the mix. He attributed his unique sound to being a recording mixer and engineer, saying; Because of all the technology now you can make music yourself and a lot of people are doing that now. I started out doing that a long time ago and I found when I did that I came up with a unique sound.[8] In live performances, Cale played with minimal stage lighting. His catalogue is published for the World excluding North America by independent music publishers Fairwood Music (UK) Ltd. Cale died of heart failure in July 2013, at the age of 74, in La Jolla, California.[9][10][11] Covers Songs written by Cale that have been covered by other musicians include After Midnight and Cocaine by Eric Clapton (Cocaine also was covered by Nazareth), Call Me The Breeze by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Johnny Cash, and Eric Clapton, Clyde by Waylon Jennings and Dr. Hook, I Got the Same Old Blues by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ride Me High and Travelin Light by Widespread Panic, Bringing It Back by Kansas, and Magnolia by Poco. In 1974 Captain Beefheart covered the song Same Old Blues on his album Bluejeans & Moonbeams. Santana covered The Sensitive Kind on their 1981 album Zebop! The 1992 track Run on Spiritualizeds debut album, Lazer Guided Melodies, is essentially a cover of Cales Call Me the Breeze with some additional lyrics. Cale is given songwriting credit on the album. George Thorogood & The Destroyers covered Devil In Disguise on their 2003 album Ride Til I Die. As well as After Midnight on his self-titled debut album in 1970 and Cocaine on Slowhand in 1977, Eric Clapton has covered Cales Ill Make Love To You Anytime on his 1978 album Backless. Other Clapton covers of Cale originals include Travelin Light on his 2001 album Reptile, River Runs Deep and Everything Will Be Alright on his 2010 self-titled album Clapton, and Angel on his 2013 album Old Sock. In 2014 Eric Clapton & Friends released the tribute album The Breeze: An Appreciation of JJ Cale. Here Cales tunes are covered by Clapton with Tom Petty, Mark Knopfler, John Mayer, Don White, Willie Nelson, Christine Lakeland and others. In the video version of Call Me The Breeze for this album, Clapton declares of Cale He was a fantastic musician. And hew was my hero.[12]youtu.be/7ACOWsMUGE4
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 13:25:09 +0000
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