John Weldon Cale (5 December 1938 – 26 July 2013), known as JJ Cale or J.… Read Full Bio ↴John Weldon Cale (5 December 1938 – 26 July 2013), known as JJ Cale or J.J. Cale, was a Grammy Award-winning American singer, musician, and songwriter. Cale was one of the originators of the Tulsa Sound, a loose genre drawing on blues, rockabilly, country, and jazz influences. Cale's personal style has often been described as "laid back".

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.

Woke Up This Morning
J.J. Cale Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I woke up early this morning
There wasn't a cloud in the sky
I walked up to the window
If I had wings I could fly

Everything looked like a garden
The wonder of it all
Reflection of the sun on the water

Looked like a crystal ball

The blue sky covers dimensions
Beyond what my eyes could see
Stretch my imagination
Totally free

The time was only a moment
Spreadin' like a lighting rod
I know I saw for a moment
The hand of God

As if he'd painted a picture
And put it on my window pane

What I saw this morning
I'll never ever see again

Overall Meaning

In J.J. Cale's song "Woke Up This Morning," the singer describes waking up early to a beautiful day with clear blue skies. The first line of the song sets the tone for the entire piece, as the singer sounds reflective, almost as if he is on the brink of an epiphany. He looks out the window, imagining what it would be like to fly with wings, and everything he sees appears to him as though it were part of a beautiful garden. He marvels at the reflection of the sun on the water, which looks like a crystal ball, hinting at a sense of magic or wonder.

As he gazes at the blue sky above, he acknowledges that it covers dimensions beyond what his eyes can see, seeming to stretch his imagination. The moment seems fleeting, as time is "only a moment, spreadin' like a lightning rod." In this moment, he feels as though he has witnessed the hand of God through the painting he sees on his window pane. The beauty of what he has seen is so incredible that he knows he will never see it again.

Overall, "Woke Up This Morning" is a reflective and insightful piece about how people can find beauty in unexpected places. The song captures the sense of awe that comes with experiencing a moment of natural beauty, while also recognizing the fleeting nature of these experiences. It is a reminder to appreciate the present moment and take in the beauty that surrounds us.

Line by Line Meaning

I woke up early this morning
I woke up early in the day today

There wasn't a cloud in the sky
The sky was free from clouds today

I walked up to the window
I approached the window

If I had wings I could fly
If I had wings, I could fly far and wide

Everything looked like a garden
Everything appeared as beautiful as a garden

The wonder of it all
It was all quite amazing

Reflection of the sun on the water
The image of the sun when it was reflected on water

Looked like a crystal ball
It appeared to be like a crystal ball

The blue sky covers dimensions
The blue sky goes beyond what we perceive in multiple ways

Beyond what my eyes could see
Goes beyond the range of my visible sight

Stretch my imagination
Enhances the limits of my imagination