The musician who made Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton fall in love with the guitar: “Deep well of creativity”
In the 1960s, when a string of British bands stormed the American charts and dubbed the movement British invasion music, there seemed to be a convenient oversight of something vitally important.
While British invasion music was celebrating something fresh and exciting, at the hands of our country’s most exciting talents, it was ultimately building off the back of America’s deep history with blues music. The greatest proponents of the movement, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, would consistently cite the likes of BB King, Muddy Waters and JJ Cale as their primary influences, and so the true foundations of the British invasion were relatively wobbly.
As British music continued to flourish in the 1970s, it was Cale whose fingerprints could be found all over the sound. Everyone from Eric Clapton to Mark Knopfler were effusive in their praise of the guitarist, in a bid to further highlight his name to the relatively uninitiated music fan.
The former remembered Cale’s music as being a constant through the ever-changing landscape of music. Be it the early days of 1960s blues rock or the grit of 1980s heavy metal, Cale’s style could consistently be found in the guitar playing of whatever era.
Clapton explained, “What seemed to evolve out of the ’60s and into the ’70s and then, in another way, the ’80s — heavy metal came out of all of this stuff — was, like, volume and proficiency and virtuosity. There didn’t seem to be any reasonable limit to that; it was just crazy. I wanted to go in the other direction and try to find a way to make it minimal, but still have a great deal of substance”.
Adding, “That was the essence of JJ’s music to me, apart from the fact that he summed up so many of the different essences of American music: rock and jazz and folk, blues. He just seemed to have an understanding of it all.”
But Cale wasn’t just a virtuoso guitar player, descending into endless solos and licks that showcased his genre-fused style. No, he had a sense of creative nuance that made him a prolific songwriter, also. That was the essence of his brilliance that inspired Mark Knopfler, a guitarist who possessed all the technical skill Cale inspired, but desperately needed to sharpen that into songwriting to help articulate the ideas of Dire Straits.
“JJ Cale kept me falling in love with guitar, kept me wanting to play the instrument,” says the British guitar hero and singer-songwriter. “But most important for me, I think, is the songwriter in him, the deep well of creativity that has given us so many bewitching songs to treasure.”
That well of creativity brought precision to Knopfler’s songwriting, best showcased on his monster hit ‘Sultans Of Swing’. While Knopfler proceeds to delve into a solo that celebrates the very best of guitar playing, it comes back around to a chorus line that anchors the expanse of the overall idea and prevents it from becoming somewhat of a sprawling mess.
It was the same for Clapton too, who balanced his indulgence with creative structure, namely on tracks like ‘Layla’ and ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’. All three of these songs are cemented in British rock history, yet took their cues from an American guitarist who paved the way for modern blues.
