Posted on 10/02/2006 12:45:21 PM PDT by Abathar
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Eric Clapton 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 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.
I hate that song.
Somehow,I think that both NA and AA would strongly encourage its members to refrain from singing songs about cocaine.
Yeah, sure - that is what I meant to say...
I always liked the guitar work on it myself.
I just find it extremely hypocritical. And even worse to believe it's an anti-drug song when it's certainly not. The drug almost killed him and he's still singing its praises.
Idiot.
I saw him play it. The only time he moved during the concert was during Cocaine. He swayed about 4 inches from side to side.
Now, don't go off dissin Eric Clapner.
It is not like Clapton's fan base is made up of 13 year old kids.
I know, and it's not like every classic rock station across the country doesn't play it every day either.
Bull
If you got that lose
You wanna kick them blues
Cocaine
When your day is done
And you wanna ride on
Cocaine
She's alright,
She's alright,
She's alright,
COCAINE
If your day is gone
And you wanna ride on
Cocaine
Don't forget this fact
You can't get it back
Cocaine
She's alright,
She's alright,
She's alright,
J. J. Cale may have in fact written the song as an anti drug song, but as one who has seen Clapton perform the song (years ago) it was not and has not been viewed as an anti drug song by his audience, just the opposite in fact.
Now if he is doing it in a different style, that may in fact give the song a negative impact, then that is different. But he should not try and deny that it has been received as a pro drug song.
If he HAD gone through a change of life and liked the music itself, he'd consider writing his own answer song to revisit the song and its subject with his new eyes.
Government figures talking to teens about masturbation and Eric Clapner dabbling with Cocaine again.
Someone should book former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders on the talk show circuity...
LOL!!!
Who does the other cocaine song? I always thought it was much better. (And no, I was never a coke head, but I knew many who were.)
Cocaine's for horses
It's not for men
Doctor said it'll kill me
But he didn't say when
Cocaine - running all around my brain
I thought White Lines was the other cocaine song.
I get it. Does that mean I am drunk?
But officer, I only had two beers?
Just insert the word propane. Works for me.
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