The song Eric Clapton used to imitate his guitar hero
Eric Clapton had a number of great hits throughout his career. He was never an artist happy to remain stagnant; instead, he always looked forward to pushing creative boundaries and trying to challenge himself. This led to stints with a range of bands and musicianship under a plethora of different stage names, each representing a different facet of the guitarist.
Interestingly, one of his biggest songs was one of the more simple to write. Although Clapton was no stranger to lingering over his guitar and waiting for inspiration to strike, when it came to writing his 1977 hit ‘Lay Down Sally’, he and his backing singer Mercy Levy were able to put it together relatively quickly.
“We were in the studio one day and he [Clapton] said, ‘I want to write this song called ‘Lay Down Sally’. So I went into the corner and came up with the melody,” said Levy, “At first it had more of a Little Feat groove. But we worked at it all day and eventually Eric hit on the rhythm and I played keyboards, and we recorded the track.”
Levy wrote the lyrics for the whole song that night, which were about someone trying to convince a girl not to leave and hang out with them in bed instead. “Eric said, ‘Can you write some lyrics at home tonight?’ So I did, and we recorded the vocals the next day.”
Eric Clapton has admitted that when writing the song, he was less interested in the theme or the topic and was more excited about imitating the guitar style of one of his favourite artists. When talking about the song, Clapton admitted that it was “As close as an Englishman could get to being JJ Cale.” He also paid homage to the guitarist on the song by making the B-side a cover of his track ‘Cocaine’.
Clapton certainly owes a lot to JJ Cale. The guitarist is often credited with being one of the most pivotal voices in the development of rock ‘n’ roll. He was one of the originators of what became famously known as the Tulsa Sound, which was a combination of rockabilly, country, jazz, and blues.
Without knowing it, Clapton had been doing an impression of Cale for his entire career, just on a much deeper level. Most of the time, when music evolves, it’s not the result of an original idea but because of the merging of ideas which came before. Cale represents this with the genres that he put together, and Clapton ended up doing the same with different styles of guitar playing, which helped to form the modern rockstar.
Steve Van Zandt highlighted this when talking about all the different musicians he loves, from BB King to George Harrison, before discussing how Eric Clapton combined all their playing styles. “Clapton absorbed that, then introduced the essence of black electric blues,” he said, saying that Keith Richards, Carl Perkins, Scotty Moore and Buddy Guy can all be heard in Clapton’s style of guitar playing.
While Clapton had his heroes, such as JJ Cale, because of the many genres he merged, Clapton inspired other guitars for exactly the same reason. “Eric Clapton is the most important and influential guitar player that has ever lived, is still living or ever will live,” said Van Zandt, “Do yourself a favour, and don’t debate me on this.”
