# jj cale ![[j.j.cale(cropped).jpg|300]] cale in 2006 background information birth name: john weldon cale born: december 5 1938 oklahoma city oklahoma u.s. died: july 26 2013 (aged 74) san diego california u.s. genres: americana cajun blues swamp rock country rock red dirt tulsa sound occupation(s): musician songwriter producer instrument(s): guitar vocals years active: 1958-2013 labels: shelter mercury polygram virgin rounder silvertone website: jjcale.com john weldon "j. j." cale (december 5 1938 - july 26 2013) was an american guitarist singer and songwriter. though ey avoided the limelight ir influence as a musical artist has been acknowledged by figures such as mark knopfler neil young waylon jennings and eric clapton who described ir as one of the most important artists in rock history. ey is one of the originators of the tulsa sound a loose genre drawing on blues rockabilly country and jazz in 2008 cale and clapton received a grammy award for ir album the road to escondido # life and career # # early years cale was born on december 5 1938 in oklahoma city oklahoma. ey was raised in tulsa oklahoma and graduated from tulsa central high school in 1956. as well as learning to play the guitar ey began studying the principles of sound engineering while still living with ir parents in tulsa where ey built himself a recording studio. after graduation ey was drafted into military service studying at the air force air training command in rantoul illinois. cale recalled "i didn't really want to carry a gun and do all that stuff so i joined the air force and what i did is i took technical training and that's kind of where i learned a little bit about electronics." cale's knowledge of mixing and sound recording turned out to play an important role in creating the distinctive sound of ir studio albums # # early musical career along with a number of other young tulsa musicians cale moved to los angeles in late 1964 where ey found employment as a studio engineer as well as playing at bars and clubs. cale first tasted success that year when singer mel mcdaniel scored a regional hit with cale's song "lazy me." ey managed to land a regular gig at the increasingly popular whisky a go go in march 1965. with johnny rivers already performing there regularly club co-owner elmer valentine rechristened cale as j.j. cale to avoid confusion with the john cale in the velvet underground. in 1966 while living in the city ey cut a demo single with liberty records of ir songs "after midnight" with "slow motion" as the b side. ey distributed copies of the single to ir tulsa musician friends living in los angeles many of whom were successfully finding work as session musicians. "after midnight" would go on to have long-term ramifications for cale's career when eric clapton recorded the song and it became a top 20 hit. cale found little success as a recording artist. not being able to make enough money as a studio engineer ey sold ir guitar and returned to tulsa in late 1967. there ey joined a band with tulsa musician don white # # rise to fame ![[220px-jjcalemunich75.jpg|300]] cale in concert in munich germany 1975 in 1970 it came to ir attention that eric clapton had recorded cale's "after midnight" on ir debut album. cale who was languishing in obscurity at the time had no knowledge of clapton's recording until it became a radio hit in 1970. ey recalled to mojo magazine that when ey heard clapton's version playing on ir radio "i was dirt poor not making enough to eat and i wasn't a young man. i was in my thirties so i was very happy. it was nice to make some money." cale's version of "after midnight" differs greatly from clapton's frenetic version which is itself based on cale's own arrangement > the history on that deal was the original "after midnight" i recorded was on liberty records on a 45-rpm and it was fast. that was about 1967-68 maybe 69. i can't remember exactly. but that was the original "after midnight" and that is what clapton heard. if you listen to eric clapton's record what ey did was imitate that. no one heard that first version i made of it. i tried to give the thing away until ey cut it and made it popular. so when i recorded the naturally album denny cordell who ran shelter records at the time and i had already finished the album ey said "john why don't you put 'after midnight' on there because that is what people recognize you for?" i said "well i've already got that on liberty records and eric clapton's already cut it so if i'm going to do it again i'm going to do it slow it was suggested to cale that ey should take advantage of this publicity and cut a record of ir own. ir first album naturally released on october 25 1971 established ir style described by los angeles times writer richard cromelin as a "unique hybrid of blues folk and jazz marked by relaxed grooves and cale's fluid guitar and iconic vocals. ir early use of drum machines and ir unconventional mixes lend a distinctive and timeless quality to ir work and set ir apart from the pack of americana roots music purists." ir biggest u.s. hit single "crazy mama" peaked at no. 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 clark's american bandstand to promote the song which would have moved it higher on the charts. cale declined when told ey could not bring ir band to the recording and would be required to lip-sync the words really was produced by audie ashworth who would go on to produce cale until 1983. cale's second album further developed the "tulsa sound" that ey would become known for: a swampy mix of folk jazz shuffling country blues and rock 'n' roll. although ir songs have a relaxed casual feel cale who often used drum machines and layered ir vocals carefully crafted ir albums explaining to lydia hutchinson in 2013 "i was an engineer and i loved manipulating the sound. i love the technical side of recording. i had a recording studio back in the days when no one had a home studio. you had to rent a studio that belonged to a big conglomerate." cale often acted as ir own producer / engineer / session player. ir vocals sometimes whispery would be buried in the mix. ey attributed ir 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" although cale would not have the success with ir music that others would the royalties from artists recording ir songs would allow ir to record and tour as it suited ir. ey scored another windfall when lynyrd skynyrd recorded "call me the breeze" for ir 1974 lp second helping. as ey put it in an interview with russell hall "i knew if i became too well known my life would change drastically. on the other hand getting some money doesn't change things too much except you no longer have to go to work." ir third album okie contains some of cale's most recorded songs. in the same year of its release captain beefheart recorded "i got the same old blues" (shortened to "same old blues") for ir bluejeans & moonbeams lp one of the few non-originals to ever appear on a beefheart album. the song would also be recorded by eric clapton bobby bland lynyrd skynyrd and bryan ferry. "cajun moon" was recorded by herbie mann on ir 1976 album surprises with vocals by cissy houston by poco on ir album cowboys & englishmen and by randy crawford on naked and true (1995) the 1976 album troubadour includes "cocaine-" a song that would be a major hit for eric clapton the following year. in the 2004 documentary to tulsa and back cale recalled "i wrote 'cocaine' and i'm a big fan of mose allison...so i had written the song in a mose allison bag kind of cocktail jazz kind of swing...and audie said 'that's really a good song john but you oughta make that a little more rock and roll a little more commercial.' i said 'great man.' so i went back and recut it again as the thing you heard." the song's meaning is ambiguous although eric clapton describes it as an anti-drug song. ey has called the song "quite cleverly anti-cocaine" noting > it's no good to write a deliberate anti-drug song and hope that it will catch. because the general thing is that people will be upset by that. it would disturb them to have someone else shoving something down ir throat. so the best thing to do is offer something that seems ambiguous - that on study or on reflection actually can be seen to be "anti" - which the song "cocaine" is actually an anti-cocaine song. if you study it or look at it with a little bit of thought ... from a distance ... or as it goes by ... it just sounds like a song about cocaine. but actually it is quite cleverly anti-cocaine by the time ey recorded 5 in 1979 cale had also met singer and guitarist christine lakeland and the lp marks ir first appearance on ir albums. in the 2005 documentary to tulsa and back lakeland says they met backstage at a prison benefit show featuring b.b. king and waylon jennings. cale and lakeland would later marry. as william ruhlmann observes in ir allmusic review of the album "as cale's influence on others expanded ey just continued to turn out the occasional album of bluesy minor-key tunes. this one was even sparer than usual with the artist handling bass as well as guitar on many tracks. listened to today it sounds so much like a dire straits album it's scary." the release of 5 coincided with a notable live session with leon russell recorded at russell's paradise studios in june 1979 in los angeles. the previously unseen footage features several tracks from 5 including "sensitive kind-" "lou-easy-ann-" "fate of a fool-" "boilin' pot-" and "don't cry sister." lakeland also performs with cale's band. while living in california in the late sixties cale worked in russell's studio as an engineer. the footage was officially released in 2003 as j.j. cale featuring leon russell: in session at the paradise studios # # 1980s cale moved to california in 1980 and became a recluse living in a trailer without a telephone. in 2013 ey reflected "…i knew what fame entailed. i tried to back off from that. i had seen some of the people i was working with forced to be careful because people wouldn't leave them alone… what i'm saying basically is i was trying to get the fortune without having the fame." shades which continued cale's tradition of giving ir albums one word titles was recorded in various studios in nashville and los angeles. it boasts an impressive list of top shelf session musicians including hal blaine and carol kaye of the wrecking crew james burton jim keltner reggie young glen d. hardin ken buttrey and leon russell among many others. 1982's grasshopper was recorded in studios in nashville and north hollywood and while a more polished production it continues cale's exploration into a variety of musical styles that would become known as americana ir 1983 album #8 was poorly received and ey asked to be released from ir contract with polygram. lyrically speaking with the exception of "takin' care of business" the subject matter on #8 is unremittingly grim. the cynical "money talks" ("you'd be surprised the friends you can buy with small change…") "hard times" "unemployment" and "livin' here too" deal with harsh economic woes and dissatisfaction with life in general while the provocative "reality" is about using drugs to escape many of the problems ey chronicles on the album singing "one toke of reefer a little cocaine one shot of morphine and things begin to change-" and adding "when reality leaves so do the blues." when later asked how ey had spent the 1980s ey replied: "mowing the lawn and listening to van halen and rap" after making a name for himself in the seventies as a songwriter cale's own recording career came to a halt in the mid-1980s. although ey scored a handful of minor hits cale was indifferent to publicity preferring to avoid the spotlight so ir albums never sold in high numbers 1989's travel-log was the first solo album cale produced himself without long-time producer audie ashworth although ashworth co-wrote the opening track "shanghaid" with cale. while the album has a travel theme with titles like "tijuana" and "new orleans" cale insisted ey did not set out to make a concept album and only recognised it after ey picked the songs > it's kind of ironic. when andrew lauder of silvertone said they'd like to put out some tapes i just got a bunch together and they put 'em out as an album. it wasn't till i got to listening to the album that i noticed that i'd written a bunch of tunes in the last four or five years about towns and places and travellin' around in 1990 ey explained in an interview "in 1984 i was with a different record company and it didn't seem to be working out too good so i asked to get out of my contract and that took a couple of years to shuffle the paper around. then when i got through doin' that i thought i'd take a little break from recording; maybe go in once or twice a year and record somethin' i'd written" # # 1990s the 1992 album number 10 was cale's second lp for silvertone. compared to ir albums in the '70s and '80s ey employed fewer session players for this album yet still achieved ir signature sound. notoriously wary of the spotlight cale quietly went about ir own business ir way delivering ir own unique blend of musical styles augmented by ir laid-back vocal delivery. ironically in an era of grunge and the mtv unplugged trends cale became immersed in electronics and synthesizers. "i did the unplugged live kind of thing in the '70's and the '80's-" ey told one interviewer. "i've gone to the other direction now that all that's become popular. been there done that! they didn't call it unplugged in those days but that is what it was…there is a fascination about electronics…it is an art form in itself." 1994's closer to you is best remembered for the change in sound from cale's previous albums due to the prominence of synthesizers with cale employing the instrument on five of the twelve songs. although the use of synthesizers may have seemed like a left turn for flans used to ir laidback rootsy sound it was not new; cale had used synthesizers on ir 1976 troubadour album. in an interview with vintage guitar in 2004 cale acknowledged the dismay some flans felt recalling > …me playing with the synthesizer everybody hated. audie ashworth did the first eight albums and those were kind of semi-popular for an obscure songwriter like me. then i started doing these albums in california with all synthesizers and me being the engineer. i liked those but the folks wanted a little warmer kind of thing produced by cale guitar man differs from the albums ey made in the seventies and early eighties in that while those records featured numerous top shelf session players cale provided the instrumentation on guitar man himself augmented by wife christine lakeland on guitar and background vocals and drummer james cruce on the opener "death in the wilderness." in ir allmusic review of the lp thom owens writes "although ey has recorded guitar man as a one-man band effort it sounds remarkably relaxed and laid-back like it was made with a seasoned bar band." in assessing the album rock writer brian wise of rhythm magazine commented "'lowdown' is typical cale shuffle 'days go by' gives a jazzy feel to a song about smoking a certain substance while the traditional 'old blue' reprises a song that many might first have heard with the byrds version during the gram parsons era." after guitar man cale would take a second hiatus and not release another album for eight years # # later career between 1996 and 2003 cale released no new music but admiration for ir work and musicianship only grew among ir flans and admirers. in ir 2003 biography shakey neil young remarked "of all the players i ever heard it's gotta be hendrix and j. j. cale who are the best electric guitar players." in the 2005 documentary to tulsa and back: on tour with j.j. cale cale's guitar style is characterised by eric clapton as "really really minimal" adding "it's all about finesse." mark knopfler was also effusive in ir praise for the oklahoma troubadour but cale's early 90s experimental synth-heavy output left ir at odds with the music industry. 2004's to tulsa and back reunited ir with long-time producer audie ashworth as ey recalled to dan forte > a few years ago before audie passed away i said "i've been making synthesizer records; ain't nobody likes 'em but me. i'll come to nashville and we'll hire all the guys who are still alive who played on the first albums." audie said "great." i told ir to book some studio time. but then ey passed away and i put the deal on hold. eventually i decided to do the same program only go to tulsa instead of nashville. david teegarden of teegarden & van winkle is a drummer who has a studio so i told ir to get the guys in tulsa that we used to play with when we were kids. i cut some there and had some demos i did here at the house and i sent them all to bas and to mike the album returns to the style and sound cale became famous for - a mix of laid-back shuffles jazzy chords and bluesy rock and roll with layered vocals - but it also embraces technology resulting in a cleaner sound than on cale's earlier albums. lyrically cale makes a rare foray into political songwriting with "the problem-" an indictment of then-president george w. bush with lines like "the man in charge ey don't know what ir's doing ey don't know the world has changed." "stone river" is an understated protest song about the water crisis in the west in 2004 eric clapton held the crossroads guitar festival a three-day festival in dallas texas. among the performers was j. j. cale giving clapton the opportunity to ask cale to produce an album for ir. the two ended up recording the album together releasing it as the road to escondido. a number of high-profile musicians also agreed to work on the album including billy preston derek trucks taj mahal pino palladino john mayer steve jordan and doyle bramhall ii. in a coup whether intended or not the entire john mayer trio participated on this album in one capacity or another. escondido is a city in san diego county near cale's home at the time located in the small unincorporated town of valley center california. eric clapton owned a mansion in escondido in the 1980s and early '90s. the road referenced in the album's title is named valley center road. the album won the grammy award for best contemporary blues album in 2008 with cale writing 11 of the 14 tracks on the album with two cuts "any way the wind blows" and "don't cry sister" being re-recordings of songs that cale recorded previously in the 1970s. in a 2014 interview with npr clapton spoke at length about cale's influence on ir music > what seemed to evolve out of the '60s and into the '70s and then in another way the '80s - heavy metal came out of all of this stuff - was like volume and proficiency and virtuosity. there didn't seem to be any reasonable limit to that; it was just crazy. i wanted to go in the other direction and try to find a way to make it minimal but still have a great deal of substance. that was the essence of j.j.'s music to me apart from the fact that ey summed up so many of the different essences of american music: rock and jazz and folk blues. ey just seemed to have an understanding of it all clapton who toured with delaney & bonnie in 1969 recalled in the 2005 documentary to tulsa and back "delaney bramlett is the one that was responsible to get me singing. ey was the one who turned me on to the tulsa community. bramlett produced my first solo album and "after midnight" was on it and those players played on it...461 ocean boulevard was my kind of homage to j.j" # # death cale died at the age of 74 in san diego california on july 26 2013 following a heart attack. stay around a posthumous album made of previously unreleased material was released on april 26 2019 # tributes **+** in 2014 eric clapton & friends released the tribute album the breeze: an appreciation of jj cale. on it cale's tunes are covered by clapton with tom petty mark knopfler john mayer don white willie nelson derek trucks cale's wife christine lakeland and others. in the video version of call me the breeze for this album clapton declares of cale "ey was a fantastic musician. and ey was my hero." **+** kevin brown's 2015 album grit contained a track called "the ballad of j. j. cale" in tribute to brown's musical inspiration **+** hungarian alternative rock band quimby's 2009 album lármagyűjtögető contained a track called "haverom a j. j. cale" ("my buddy j. j. cale") # discography **+** naturally (1971) **+** really (1972) **+** okie (1974) **+** troubadour (1976) **+** 5 (1979) **+** shades (1981) **+** grasshopper (1982) **+** #8 (1983) **+** travel-log (1989) **+** number 10 (1992) **+** closer to you (1994) **+** guitar man (1996) **+** to tulsa and back (2004) **+** roll on (2009) **+** stay around (2019) // republic of bob