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Cocaine is a song written by Oklahoma singer-songwriter J.J. Cale, and most notably covered by Eric Clapton on his 1977 album Slowhand.
Contrary to popular belief, “Cocaine” is an anti-drug song. Eric Clapton: “It’s no good to write a deliberate anti-drug song and hope that it will catch. Because the general thing is that people will be upset by that. It would disturb them to have someone else shoving something down their throat. So the best thing to do is offer something that seems ambiguous — that on study or on reflection actually can be seen to be ‘anti’— which the song “Cocaine” is actually an anti-cocaine song. If you study it or look at it with a little bit of thought… from a distance… or as it goes by… it just sounds like a song about cocaine. But in actual fact, it is quite cleverly anti-cocaine.” (From The Best of Everything Show, with Dan Neer). Over the years, Clapton has added the lyrics 'that dirty cocaine' in live shows to underline the anti-drug message of the song, but also to presumably show his present antipathy to cocaine use.
Clapton has also commented, “…that’s an anti-drug-song. The fans only listen to the refrain: ‘She don’t lie, she don’t lie, cocaine.’ But it says, ‘If you wanna get down, down on the ground, cocaine.’ It’s sad how young people destroy themselves with drugs. I hate listening to my old records, which I did stoned or drunk. (From Stern magazine, Germany, 1998)
Trivia
- Clapton recorded his version a year after Cale's was released. Clapton has recorded several songs written by Cale, including "After Midnight" and "Travelin' Light."
- The lyrics are about drug addiction. Clapton was a heavy heroin user in the early '70s (upon his return to England after recording Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, he was spending £1000 per week), and got off them in 1974. He eventually founded the Crossroads Centre in Antigua to help others who are fighting addiction.
- Glyn Johns produced the Clapton recording. He had previously worked with The Who, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones.
- In 1988, Elton John and Mark Knopfler joined Clapton on stage to perform this at the 6th annual Prince's Trust Rock Gala. Proceeds from the show went to charity.
- In Michael Moore's 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, the guitar line of the song is played once while the camera is showing George W. Bush's blacked-out medical records, possibly suggesting that Bush's records were tampered with because of youthful drug use.
External links
"Cocaine (song)"