# Thoughts on J J Cale? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [May 11, 2025, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261 "2025-05-11T18:42:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2025, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/1 "2025-05-11T18:42:55Z")
I like a lot of his stuff. He was a master of laid back country blues, and his work was usually very well produced. BUT.. He did tend to write an awful LOT of songs, and a lot of them were really just 12-bars. Though every now and again he came up with a masterpiece… the high tail of the bell curve? Guess he just didn’t allow any introspective self-critisism to get in the way of putting a song on tape? I should probably take a lesson from him and Just Write and record! ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2025, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/2 "2025-05-11T18:46:39Z")
JJ Cale is awesome, and I found his music better late than never. He’s a super talented, understated guitar player and songwriter. I dig how the percussion in his songs always seems a little funkier than how other songwriters would have had it. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2025, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/3 "2025-05-11T18:53:58Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > BUT.. He did tend to write an awful LOT of songs, and a lot of them were really just 12-bars. You could direct that accusation to hundreds of great musicians, and it’s even not very true for JJ Cale, he had more range than say, Muddy Waters. Yeah, I like him, I came to him like many others, via Clapton, but think that his original versions of the Clapton covers are better. His “Cocaine” is such a funky gem of a blues that transcends the traditional 12 bar blues, for instance. Also a great influence on Mark Knopfler and the Dire Straits, they’re unthinkable without him. I’m sorry to never have seen him live, though I don’t know if he even ever played in Europe. He kept a very low profile career. A classical musician’s musician. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2025, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/4 "2025-05-11T20:16:26Z")
I was turned on to JJ Cale’s music from a friend fairly early on, late teens- very early 20s. After the initial “oh HE wrote Cocaine and After Midnight, not Clapton?” I really started doing a deep dive into his music. I even, in the days before CDs, used to have a standing order at my favorite used album store to reserve me a copy of any of his out of print records that came in. Such a great mix of understated Country, Blues, Rock, Jazz, etc. I saw him live at the Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Small crowd, He sat on a stool, just slow-jammed and sort of whispered the vocals into the mic. Like being in his living room. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2025, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/5 "2025-05-12T16:03:17Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > You could direct that accusation to hundreds of great musicians, and it’s even not very true for JJ Cale, he had more range than say, Muddy Waters. True. But he generally stayed in the general area of the usual 3 or 4 chords. Fine for groove music. However he hardly ever came up with a chord sequence that makes you sit up and say ‘Hot Damn!’… as, say, McCartney or Lennon occasionally did. Not of course that an unusual chord sequence necessarily makes a great song… far from it in many cases! ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2025, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/6 "2025-05-12T16:26:32Z")
I’m a big fan ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2025, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/7 "2025-05-12T16:42:27Z")
He’s great. I discovered him through Widespread Panic’s covers of his songs. He was also the coolest Twitter user ever. He signed up, posted nothing for years, then made a single post: “I make rock n roll records”. Then never posted again. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2025, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/8 "2025-05-12T16:47:53Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > > > You could direct that accusation to hundreds of great musicians, and it’s even not very true for JJ Cale, he had more range than say, Muddy Waters. > > True. But he generally stayed in the general area of the usual 3 or 4 chords. > Fine for groove music. Well, every genre has its place (except for Schlager, of course), and some exceptional people are able to transcend, switch between or combine genres, but some stay true to the one genre they do the best. And JJ Cale excelled in the blues and groove style, you can say that he invented and defined this laid back style that many, like Clapton and Mark Knopfler, followed. That’s quite a feat. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2025, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/9 "2025-05-12T16:54:14Z")
> [@CoolHandCox](#): > > I discovered him through Widespread Panic’s covers of his songs. I love Panic. I wish they’d come out by me more often. I’ve been streaming JJ all morning ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2025, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/10 "2025-05-12T17:16:37Z")
Waylon Jennings said it best: [“JJ Cale’s my hero…the best I ever heard.”](https://youtu.be/V2reipIGFDE?si=OLiywe5qT9WQCmFo) ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/11 "2025-05-13T02:30:57Z")
I try to model my bass playing after Clyde’s. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/12 "2025-05-13T12:06:03Z")
He did play it with finesse and grace. Or do you mean you only play sitting on the porch without no shoes? ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/13 "2025-05-13T15:40:31Z")
I’m a fan of JJ’s laid back style. Also, I came to him later and was excited to hear the brains behind many other songs and here the originals. Love many of his songs but I could listen to _Wish I Had Not Said That_ on repeat for a good while. Also, loved his collab with Brian Eno on _Wrong Way Up_. ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/14 "2025-05-13T15:58:28Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > Also, loved his collab with Brian Eno on _Wrong Way Up_. That’s a different Cale. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/15 "2025-05-13T16:00:16Z")
LOL. I still like it! Thanks for educating me. And I still like JJ and many of his actual songs. [![](https://i0.wp.com/gnatj.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/doh.png?ssl=1) ](https://i0.wp.com/gnatj.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/doh.png?ssl=1) ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/16 "2025-05-13T16:01:25Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > LOL. I still like it! Thanks for educating me. Wrong Way Up is a great record. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/17 "2025-08-07T17:09:44Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > He did tend to write an awful LOT of songs, and a lot of them were really just 12-bars. He was a master of the Groove, of course, but sometimes one thinks: come on dude, use one or two more chords just once in a while perhaps? On the other hand, there are prog rock bands like, say, Jethro Tull who change key and time signature almost every other bar. And one thinks then: can’t you let the thing flow for a while? Just some random musings from an old songwriter… ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/18 "2025-08-07T17:13:09Z")
Yeah, but sometimes it’s a time for slow groove rock à la JJ Cale, and another time for prog rock. That’s the beauty of music. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/19 "2025-08-07T17:28:02Z")
Ideally one would find a way to merge or fuse the two. But it would take a better writer than me to do it. Steely Dan came close occasionally, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261/20 "2025-08-07T17:31:43Z")
Yeah, Steely Dan are a good example, they had songs that are almost nothing but a vape (The Fez) and very complex songs (Aja). And “Do It Again” has a similar feel to some Cale songs. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-j-j-cale/1018261.md?page=2)