- Writer: J.J. Cale
- Producer: Glyn Johns
- Recorded: May, 1977 at Olympic Studios, London
- Released: November 1977
- Players:
Eric Clapton — vocals, guitar
George Terry — guitars
Carl Radle — bass
Jaime Oldaker — drums
Dick Sims — organ
Yvonne Elliman and Marcy Levy — vocals - Album: Slowhand (RSO/Polydor, 1977)
- Also On:
Just One Night (RSO/Polydor, 1980)
Time Pieces: The Best Of Eric Clapton (RSO/Polydor, 1982)
Crossroads (Polydor/Chronicles, 1988)
The Cream Of Clapton (Polydor/Chronicles, 1995)
Crossroads 2: Live In The Seventies (Chronicles, 1996)
One More Car, One More Rider (Warner Bros., 2002) - The Slowhand album, and “Cocaine” in particular, marked Eric Clapton taking a more aggressive electric-guitar style than he had shown on his solo albums up to that point.
- Clapton fans immediately noted the similarity between the signature riffs of “Cocaine” and Cream‘s “Sunshine Of Your Love.”
- The lengthy live rendition of the song on Just One Night features an edgy wah-wah solo that almost breaks down at one point.
- J.J. Cale, a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based country-blues artist, also wrote another one of Clapton’s best-known hits, “After Midnight,” as well as Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s “Call Me The Breeze.” Cale is the primary exporter of the “Tulsa sound” — a blend of rock-and-roll, country, blues, and jazz with its own rustic flavor.
- Backup singer Yvonne Elliman had played Mary Magdalene in the film and stage versions of Jesus Christ Superstar and was also recording sporadically herself. Following the Slowhand sessions, she left the band to concentrate on solo work, and had a huge hit with “If I Can’t Have You,” from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.
- The other backup singer, Marcy Levy, previously sang with Bob Seger and stayed with Clapton until 1978. She also co-wrote the Slowhand hit “Lay Down Sally.” In the early ’90s, Levy changed her name to Marcella Detroit (after her hometown) and had great success both as a solo performer and with Siobhan Fahey (from the 1980s group Bananarama) in Shakespeare’s Sister.
FAST FORWARD:
- For many years Clapton, who is now sober and drug-free, has not included “Cocaine” is his concert setlists. But in 2006 he changed his mind, telling the Associated Press: “I thought that it might be giving the wrong message to people who were in the same boat as me, but further investigation proved the song, if anything… 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.” He also said that he missed playing the tune throughout the years, “just purely from a musical point of view.”
- Clapton has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times — with the Yardbirds, with Cream, and as a solo artist.
- Clapton was awarded a Member Of The British Empire (MBE) honor from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in 1995, which was upgraded to Commander Of The British Empire (CBE) in December 2003.
Clapton has devoted himself to establishing and maintaining the Crossroads Centre Antigua drug-and-alcohol-treatment facility.