![\"J.J](\"https:\/\/cdn1.faroutmagazine.co.uk\/uploads\/1\/2023\/09\/J.J-Cale-Musician-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/div>While JJ Cale doesn\u2019t feature toward the top of many top guitarist lists, he has been frequently endorsed by peers. Canadian singer-songwriter\u00a0Neil Young\u00a0also weighed in on JJ Cale\u2019s underappreciated capability.<\/p>\n
In Young\u2019s biography,\u00a0Shakey<\/em>, he went as far as to place Cale at the very top alongside Hendrix. \u201cWhat is it about JJ Cale\u2019s playing? I mean, you could say Eric Clapton\u2019s the guitar god, but\u2026 he can\u2019t play like JJ,\u201d Young told biographer Jimmy McDonough.<\/p>\n Adding: \u201cJJ\u2019s the one who played all that shit first\u2026 And he doesn\u2019t play very loud, either \u2013 I really like that about him. He\u2019s so sensitive. Of all the players I ever heard, it\u2019s gotta be Hendrix and JJ Cale who are the best electric guitar players.\u201d<\/p>\n But if one of those players is routinely considered one of the greatest of all time and, during his heyday, was capable of delivering huge record sales as well as inches of newspaper praise, why is Cale so forgotten in comparison? Young was quite clear: \u201cJJ\u2019s my peer, but he doesn\u2019t have the business acumen \u2013 he doesn\u2019t have the idea of how to deal with the rest of the world that I do. But musically, he\u2019s actually more than my peer, because he\u2019s got that thing. I don\u2019t know what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n Young returned to the subject of Cale in his more recent autobiography,\u00a0Waging Heavy Peace<\/em>, writing, \u201c\u2018Crazy Mama\u2019 by JJ Cale is a record I love. The song is true, simple, and direct, and the delivery is very natural.\u201d [The song was the closest thing Cale had to a hit single, peaking at number 22 on the\u00a0Billboard<\/em>\u00a0chart in 1971.] \u201cJJ\u2019s guitar playing is a huge influence on me,\u201d Young continued. \u201cHis touch is unspeakable. I am stunned by it.\u201d<\/p>\n As well as being one of the more subtly gifted guitarists of his generation, JJ Cale also struggled with the business side of music. He enjoyed playing, but he was self-effacing and didn\u2019t have an eye for the bigger picture. Cale could, and probably should, have been one of the most revered musicians of all time, but his unwillingness to play the game and make good business decisions would ultimately hamper that march to the top.<\/p>\n It was only after he was discovered by Clapton, who covered his song, \u2018After Midnight\u2019 in 1970, that he began to receive more widespread credit for his work. Clapton also released a better-known cover of Cale\u2019s song \u2018Cocaine\u2019 in 1977.<\/p>\n Listen to JJ Cale\u2019s \u2018After Midnight\u2019 below, one of the many great hits composed by the guitarist\u2019s guitarist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If I was asked to list the finest guitarists of all time, I might idly rattle off the usual roster of\u00a0Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"yoast_head":"\n