10 Best Hard Rock Songs Of The '70s
6. Cocaine - J. J. Cale (1977)
Although this track was made popular by Eric Clapton, the original version is the one you want bolstering your record collection. J. J. Cale was a guy content to dwell in the background of the music scene. He released plenty of records and toured constantly, but his tracks were more famous than he was.
Acts like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Captain Beefheart, Eric Clapton and Bryan Ferry all covered Cale's songs, resulting in massively successful hits for those artists. The cover's were great in their own right, but non of them came close to the reserved and understated cool of J. J. Cale's versions.
His sound oozed with confidence, non of his tracks rushed to make a point, they just sat comfortably in the groove.
Cocaine was the not the first or the last time Clapton would cover one of Cale's songs. In the early '70s he cut a version of After Midnight. At that point Cale was floating around in the metaphorical wilderness, with barely a penny to his name.
The success of Clapton's version encouraged Cale to re-record the song, bringing him a degree of recognition. From then on Clapton and Cale would often collaborate, releasing several albums together.