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Obituaries
JJ Cale 1938-2013
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 31 July 2013
Singer-songwriter JJ Cale died on Friday at Scripps Hospital in La Jolla, California after suffering a heart attack, a statement on his website announced.
Born John Weldon Cale in Oklahoma on 5 Dec 1938, he moved to LA in the early 60s and began working as a studio engineer while carving out a career as a recording artist for himself – taking on the moniker JJ to avoid confusion with The Velvet Underground’s John Cale. After finding little success he was about to give up and go back to Oklahoma when Eric Clapton recorded a cover of his song ‘After Midnight’ in 1970.
Clapton’s endorsement of his work gave Cale the boost he had been looking for, and later covers by artists such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Santana, Johnny Cash, Captain Beefheart and, more recently, Spiritualized, helped to bring his songs to a wider audience. Many other artists have cited him and the ‘Tulsa Sound’ – the mix of blues, country and jazz that he is credited for creating (though he himself played down his role) – as a major influence.
Cale also worked with Clapton, recording an album in 2006 called ‘The Road To Escondido’, for which they won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. However, perhaps because other people’s version of his songs were always better known than his own recordings, he continued to see himself more as a songwriter than a recording artist.
In the biography produced to accompany his last album, 2009’s ‘Roll On’, he said: “Basically, I’m just a guitar player that figured out I wasn’t ever gonna be able to buy dinner with my guitar playing so I got into songwriting, which is a little more profitable business”.
