{"id":7271,"date":"2022-11-26T22:47:20","date_gmt":"2022-11-26T22:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=7271"},"modified":"2022-12-18T11:24:04","modified_gmt":"2022-12-18T11:24:04","slug":"music-cocaine-cale-clapton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=7271","title":{"rendered":"MUSiC: Cocaine, Cale & Clapton\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
What a great album cover!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I grew up with J. J. Cale\u2019s Naturally<\/em>. It was in my parents\u2019 record collection. And I always loved it. One of the first covers I ever attempted, in my early teens, was the song Magnolia, from this superb album. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also had a few Clapton discs, including both Slowhand<\/em> and 461 Ocean Boulevard<\/em>. Fantastic albums! Slowhand<\/em> is interesting because it features two covers by other artist that are both superb in their original versions, by their composers – J. J. Cale\u2019s Cocaine, and John Martyn\u2019s May You Never – and none too shabby in Clapton\u2019s readings. And in both cases Clapton\u2019s versions helped make the original songwriters a little better known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
J. J. Cale\u2026 gone but not forgotten.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
If you want to hang out, 
You've got to take her out, cocaine
If you want to get down, 
Get down on the ground, cocaine
She don't lie, 
She don't lie, 
She don't lie, cocaine

If you got bad news, 
You want to kick them blues, cocaine
When your day is done 
And you want to run, cocaine
She don't lie, 
She don't lie, 
She don't lie, cocaine

If your thing is gone 
And you want to ride on, cocaine
Don't forget this fact, 
You can't get it back, cocaine
She don't lie, 
She don't lie, 
She don't lie, cocaine

She don't lie, 
She don't lie, 
She don't lie, cocaine<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
What do I want to say about this song? Well, first off, I love both versions. Cale\u2019s is more personal, with his unique \u2018home studio\u2019 vibe. Clapton\u2019s benefits from the sublime drumming of Jamie Oldaker, whose buttery smooth press rolls lend the song a whole new feel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Jamie Oldaker performing with Clapton and co.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Also, and perhaps more controversially, I love the ambivalence of the lyrics, and their stance re the titular drug. On the Wiki page on the song Clapton says it\u2019s a clever anti drug song. I think he\u2019s being a bit disingenuous! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The line \u2018Don\u2019t forget this fact, you can\u2019t get it back\u2019 is the only cautionary caveat to what is otherwise a fairly clearly pro-cocaine line, so to speak. But it has to be admitted, as the last statement before the recurring refrain \u2018she don\u2019t lie, she don\u2019t lie, she don\u2019t lie\u2019, it does <\/em>subtly and cleverfully skew the up until then positive perspective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of all the drugs I tried in my, um\u2026 what shall we call them\u2026 wasted<\/em> years? It was the only one I have no bad memories of. All the others turned from happy highs to depressing downers. But cocaine was, for me, always pure fun.*<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
I never got this deep into it!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Maybe it was just that I didn\u2019t take it in the quantities rock stars and Tony Montana types did? I did that instead with weed. And that soured the experience. But, whatever, as they say these days, for some reason this song is resonating with me right now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think it\u2019s high time – sorry, can\u2019t he\u2019p maself – I both transcribe and learn the Oldaker drum part. It\u2019d be a great tune to teach in my drum lessons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 Clapton\u2019s version popularised Cale\u2019s song.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
* I\u2019m not advocating it\u2019s use, by the way. Merely relating past experience. One of the strongest objections to its use – quite apart from the well documented hazards for users – is that it inevitably supports the brutally exploitative international narcotics trade. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I grew up with J. J. Cale\u2019s Naturally. It was in my parents\u2019 record collection. And I always loved it. One of the first covers I ever attempted, in my early teens, was the song Magnolia, from this superb album. We also had a few Clapton discs, including both Slowhand and 461 Ocean Boulevard. Fantastic … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “MUSiC: Cocaine, Cale & Clapton\u2026”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[157,89,158,155,137,156,114,113,139],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-1Th","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7271"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7271"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7522,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7271\/revisions\/7522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}