[Slowhand] Clapton "Rethinks" Playing "Cocaine"

[Kevin Wilson]

If memory serves me well, the "Clapton told the AP" bit is a
word-for-word transcript of his 2005 interview, specifically the portion
dealing with this song on "To Tulsa and Back - On Tour with J.J. Cale".

 

Also, I've never heard the band shout out "dirty cocaine". It's part of
Eric's singing portion. As we all know, the audience shouts out:
"Cocaine" at the end of the number and then cheers!

 

The song has been part of Eric's repertoire since it came out and is a
standard contribution at most get-together appearances.

 

It can perhaps be said that he does not play it for his little girls
when he sings them to sleep at night. I hope he sings and plays them
"Ol' Ben Lucas" from his 1976 session with Kinky Friedman. I used to
sing it to my kids when they were young and they loved it, especially
the part "and here he comes with a green one once again" - they'd cringe
and smile broadly and ask for it again and again. 

 

Kevin 

 

---

 

Eric Clapton Rethinks Playing 'Cocaine'
Oct 2, 1:20 PM EST

The Associated Press

Eric Clapton <http://music.msn.com/artist/?artist=16119814>  is playing
"Cocaine" in concert again. The recovering drug addict and alcoholic,
who founded the Crossroads Centre addiction recovery center on the
Caribbean island of Antigua, stopped performing the song written by J.J.
Cale <http://music.msn.com/artist/?artist=16073380>  when he first got
sober.

"I thought that it might be giving the wrong message to people who were
in the same boat as me," Clapton recently told The Associated Press.

"But further investigation proved ... the song, if anything, if it's not
even ambivalent, it's an anti-drug song. And so I thought that might be
a better way to do it, to approach it from a more positive point of
view. And carry on performing it as not a pro-drug song, but just as a
reality check about what it does."

Clapton's band shouts out "dirty cocaine" during the song.

"It's one of those songs that you can take it any way you like," Clapton
told the AP. "But it very clearly says in the opening verse, `If you
wanna get down, down on the ground,' I mean, that's, I think, the focal
point of the song. That's what the song's about, is that, you know,
there's a price."

Clapton also said he missed playing "Cocaine," with its signature guitar
riff, "just purely from a musical point of view."

Clapton, 61, is on the North American leg of his world tour. His duet CD
with Cale, "The Road to Escondido," is scheduled for release Nov. 7.

 

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