His songs have been performed by a number of other musicians including "After Midnight" and "Cocaine" by Eric Clapton,"Cajun Moon" by Randy Crawford, "Clyde" and "Louisiana Women" by Waylon Jennings, "Magnolia" by Jai, "Bringing It Back" by Kansas, "Call Me the Breeze" and "I Got the Same Old Blues" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, "I'd Like to Love You, Baby" by Tom Petty, "Travelin' Light" and "Ride Me High" by Widespread Panic, "Tijuana" by Harry Manx, "Sensitive Kind" by Carlos Santana, "Cajun Moon" by Herbie Mann with Cissy Houston, and "Same Old Blues" by Captain Beefheart.
Cale was born on December 5, 1938, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He was raised in Tulsa and graduated from Tulsa Central High School in 1956. Along with a number of other young Tulsa musicians, Cale moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s, where he first worked as a studio engineer.
The Leathercoated Minds was a 1966-67 psychedelic studio-based band masterminded largely by Snuff Garrett and J J Cale. The band produced one album, A Trip down the Sunset Strip, co-produced by Cale and Garrett
Finding little success as a recording artist, he later returned to Tulsa and was considering giving up the music business until Clapton recorded "After Midnight" in 1970. His first album, Naturally, established his style, described by Los Angeles Times writer Richard Cromelin as a "unique hybrid of blues, folk and jazz, marked by relaxed grooves and Cale's fluid guitar and laconic vocals. His early use of drum machines and his unconventional mixes lend a distinctive and timeless quality to his work and set him apart from the pack of Americana roots-music purists."
Some sources incorrectly give his real name as "Jean-Jacques Cale". In the 2006 documentary, To Tulsa and Back: On Tour with J.J. Cale, Cale talks about Elmer Valentine, co-owner of the Sunset Strip nightclub Whisky à GoGo, who employed him in the mid-1960s, being the one that came up with the "JJ" moniker to avoid confusion with the Velvet Underground's John Cale. Rocky Frisco tells the same version of the story mentioning the other John Cale but without further detail.
His biggest U.S. hit single, Crazy Mama, peaked at #22 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1972. During the 2006 documentary film To Tulsa and Back Cale recounts the story of being offered the opportunity to appear on Dick Clark's American Bandstand to promote the song, which would have moved the song higher on the charts. Cale declined when told he could not bring his band to the taping and would be required to lip-sync the words to the song.
Cale died on Friday, July 26, 2013, at Scripps Hospital in La Jolla, California, after suffering a heart attack.
Drifter
J.J. Cale Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Boy she used to love me
Free fever got me and I had to go
I never seen that woman no more
New York City is a place I been
I was there one time with a travellin' band
Young girl there wanted me to stay
I think she wanted me to pay
Here we go down the road again
Drifters life is a drifters wife
Don't say I didn't tell you so
Travellin' man now he don't know
Only what he hears on the radio
Politics and money don't bother him
Only good lookin' women and a bottle of gin
Portland, Oregon, to the Mexican line
Boy let me tell you the women are fine
If you don't hang around there very long
They'll never ever know you're gone
The lyrics in J.J. Cale's "Drifter" speak of the life of a wanderer, always on the move and never really settling down. He reminiscences about a woman he used to love down in Tennessee, but his urge to keep moving and living the drifter's life got the better of him, and he never saw her again. The next place he's been is New York City, where he spent time with a young girl who had more money on her mind than love. He recognizes that a drifter's life is also the life of a drifter's wife, always living on the road and never putting down roots.
As he continues on his journey, he speaks of being blissfully unaware of politics and money, instead living only for good looking women and a bottle of gin. He talks about how the women from Portland, Oregon, to the Mexican line are fine. They are attractive, but he doesn't plan to stay around long enough to develop any meaningful connection with them. In the end, he acknowledges that the life of a drifter is a lonely one, that it's easy to leave places without anyone noticing you're gone.
Overall, the song is a reflection on the life of a drifter and the challenges that come with it, including loneliness, missed opportunities for love, and the constant need to keep moving.
Line by Line Meaning
Had me a woman down in Tennessee
J.J. Cale had a woman once in Tennessee
Boy she used to love me
The woman loved him a lot at some point in time
Free fever got me and I had to go
Cale had the urge to move on because he had wanderlust
I never seen that woman no more
He lost touch with the woman he had in Tennessee
New York City is a place I been
Cale has been to New York City before
I was there one time with a travellin' band
He went to New York City with a band that was touring
Young girl there wanted me to stay
A young girl he met in New York wanted him to stay
I think she wanted me to pay
He thinks the young girl wanted him to pay for something
Roll it out, roll it in
This is a call to pack up and get moving
Here we go down the road again
This is another call to get moving
Drifters life is a drifters wife
Being a drifter means you have to frequently leave behind people you love or care about
Don't say I didn't tell you so
This line is a warning or caveat of sorts
Travellin' man now he don't know
He doesn't know where he's headed
Only what he hears on the radio
He only knows what he hears on the radio
Politics and money don't bother him
Political issues and money matters don't concern him
Only good lookin' women and a bottle of gin
He's only interested in good looking women and alcohol
Portland, Oregon, to the Mexican line
He mentions locations where he's been to, spanning from Portland, Oregon to the Mexican border
Boy let me tell you the women are fine
The women in those places are attractive
If you don't hang around there very long
If you don't stay in one place for long, you won't leave behind many memories or engagements
They'll never ever know you're gone
Leaving without staying long enough means you won't be missed by anyone
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: J. J. CALE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind