J.J Cale "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 he did was imitate that. No one heard that first version I made of it. I tried to give the thing away, until he 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, he said, ‘John, why don’t you put ‘After Midnight’ on there because that is what people recognise 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.I’ve had songs that just come out of the air, and it was over, and I wrote the words down, and I’d go, ‘Where did that come from?’ Because I was an engineer I wrote a lot in the studio. There is one thing I never did; I’m not a poet, so I never wrote the words out and then tried to put music to it. I’d always come up with the music first and then put the words to it, or write the music and the words on the guitar at the same time. Some of the songs were a labor of love, some of the songs I had no idea why I wrote them. And, some of the songs I worked on forever. And a lot of them I worked on forever and they never came out, thank God. You name it, I’ve written that way, in studios, in the living room, on busses. ‘After Midnight’ was an instrumental track. I cut about four tracks, and I left it alone there for about six months, and then I went back in and wrote the words to it. But I have never written the words first and then put music to it."
- by Derek HalseyOctober 2004
Q: Some guitar stars who are great stylists in their own right cite you as an influence and dip into your style – for instance, Mark Knopfler. Does it ever make you self-conscious if you find yourself doing something that others have borrowed from you – because it might be perceived the other way around?
J.J Cale: That’s okay to me. I’ll hear Eric Clapton do one of my tunes, and I’ll borrow some of the things that he put on my tune. That’s that trade-off. People will go, “Man, Eric Clapton is ripping you off.” No, you ain’t got a clue. We’re all just passing this around; it’s dinner for everybody. That’s the positive thing about musicians. You may go through a period where you’re really egotistical and that might worry you, but if you live long enough you see that none of us are really inventing anything. Music is music; there’s only so many notes and chords. I’ll hear something on TV, and either borrow it, or subconsciously it gets put in. One of my favourite Beatles songs was “We Can Work It Out.” If you listen to that and “After Midnight,” they’re totally different, but that was me kind of imitating the Beatles. That’s how that works.
On a personal note I don't recall hearing Clapton's version until I saw him do it live much later and the album version by JJ was my first experience of that great song. Just as I heard 'Same Old Blues' by Beefheart and that's what turned me on to JJ's work in the first place and John from Sunshine* records turned us on top JJ's forst album and we bought pretty much everything after that . . . . . . to me its like listening to Clapton covering I Shot The Sheriff' Dreadful! Stick to the blues Mr C! Can't sing reggae and can't play the wah-wah peddle either come to that listen to Jimi play the peddle and then listen to Eric, he just can't cut it . . . . . .
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