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Reviews To Tulsa And Back: On Tour With JJ Cale Sunday, July 13, 2008 Like Cale himself, the story is told simply and in a straightforward manner. By Brian Wise
To Tulsa And Back: On Tour With JJ Cale
JJ Cale
Shock
A decade or so ago, while interviewing JJ Cale, I jokingly remarked that while his biography said that he had made eleven albums he had really made one album eleven times. Immediately I made the statement I was worried that he might take it the wrong way, maybe not understanding the Australian sense of humour.
Cale laughed heartily down the phone line and said, ‘You’re right, but don’t tell anybody!’ It was the perfect example of the attitude of this relaxed and almost elusive songwriter/guitarist.
If you had to find a living definition of laid back then JJ Cale would seemingly fit the bill. His attitude is reflected in his songs which are invariably low-key yet mostly pack a subtle punch. Often, nothing much seems to happen in a Cale song but it happens so beautifully that it only disguises the eloquence of his writing.
Yet Cale, attributed with creating the Tulsa sound, remains relatively unknown to modern audiences (despite the recent sampling of ‘Low Rider’) while his songs have made stars of other guitarists and bands. As he says in this documentary, he discovered early on the value of writing a good song and the fact that there are plenty of great guitarists out of work.
Eric Clapton tells here of how he admired one of Cale’s guitars only to have JJ quip, ‘You paid for it.’ True - because no one has done more than Clapton to boost Cale’s career: first by turning his songs such as ‘After Midnight’ and ‘Cocaine’ into huge hits and then by more recently recording an entire album, The Road To Escondido, with him.
But Cale’s songs have also been recorded by a raft of other well-known names such as Chet Atkins, The Band, Tom Petty, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Captain Beefheart, Johnny Cash, David Allen Coe, Deep Purple, Bryan Ferry, Jerry Garcia, Waylon Jennings, Freddie King, George Thorogood and Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings, to name but a few. Even contemporary artists such as Band Of Horses and Spiritualised have chosen his songs. No doubt we will hear other interesting covers as musicians continue to discover some of the gems contained in Cale’s lesser-known albums.
German director Jörg Bundschun, who made a 2001 documentary about John Lee Hooker, is also a fan and decided to follow Cale as he toured the American Southwest to support the 2005 album To Tulsa and Back.
As well as following the tour, the film acts mainly as a retrospective on Cale’s career, which actually began in the late 1950s. The narrative is held together by interviews with Cale and with his band mates, friends such as Clapton and Cale’s manager Mike Kappus.
As Cale says, by the time he actually achieved some success he was 32 years old, with a long history behind him. That history begins in Tulsa, once the oil capital of America and a city that was thriving with clubs. It is eerie to see Cale walk through the now-deserted downtown area, talk about his early career and visit Cains, a club at which he played regularly and which, luckily, has been restored. One wonders where musicians can possibly get their start these days!
In the ‘60s Cale decided to move to California for the good of his career but by the same token he refused to appear American Bandstand because he didn't want to lip sync. Instead, he learned about production and later made his own albums, in his own time. After a few years of struggle he returned to Tulsa just in time to find that Clapton had recorded ‘After Midnight.’
Seldom touring, Cale has built a small but devoted audience. Kappus tells how the record company rang Cale to tell him that he should tour to promote his first hit only to get the reply, ‘Well, if I’ve got a hit why do I have to go out there and promote it?”
“He’s probably the most unaffected person that’s ever been in the music business,” says drummer Jim Karstein. Clapton marvels at Cale’s ability to ignore commercial pressures. “It seems like he had some really good values instilled in him as a kid, somehow,” he notes.
“I never had any ambition,” says the then 65-year-old Cale his film was made in 2006), “I really didn’t dream and I’m still that way. I just kind of take it one day at a time. I think probably the only difference now than when I was a young person when I wake up in the morning I’m glad I’m still alive.”
Cale’s dry sense of humour is illustrated in the story of how he got his stage name when a promoter pointed out that there was already a John Cale playing with the Velvet Underground and suggested a switch to JJ Cale. “If you give me a job you can call me anything you like,” says Cale.
This DVD – which has a total running time of 170 minutes - has more than an hour of added material including new tracks, concert footage, acoustic jams, and extended interviews with Cale and others. There’s some delightful footage of Clapton’s Crossroads Festival - with JJ and Eric doing ‘After Midnight’ - that will make you wish you could have been there too!
Like Cale himself, the story is told simply and in a straightforward manner without the usual hype that accompanies many music films. The ultimate compliment is that you will find yourself going back to listen to all your JJ Cale albums – and if you haven’t got any of his recent work you’ll want to search it out.
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