BBC 4 Does It Again

BBC4 has being airing series after series of quality arts based programmes this winter, the sort of programmes that would have been part of the Arena thread during the eighties and nineties.

This Friday (last night) featured the legendary American guitarist-songwriter J.J Cale and the whole programme was centered around Cale himself taking us on a musical and physical journey from his roots in Tulsa to Los Angeles and on the road with his band over the best part of forty five years. Cale is a musicians musician and it was great to see how much he is genuinely loved by fellow musicians and the people around him, despite the fact that he sometimes takes eight years between recordings and at one point didn't record anything new for the best part of six years.

Eric Clapton undoubtedly owes his post-Yardbirds career to Cale, having recorded 461 Ocean Boulevard as a homage and brought Cale's songwriting talents to a wider audience via his recording of Cocaine. Cale's single mindedness regarding his music exasperated his former manager on a couple of occasions, the artists refusal to mime (lip sync) on national television saw his album drop out of the charts when national exposure would have guaranteed Top Ten status, when he did have a hit he was so satisfied with achieving it he argued there was no need to do promotion work as it was already a hit!

On a musical level (and I'm no musician) it was interesting to hear Clapton's comments above how Cale plays such a light fingered guitar in contrast to Clapton's style. Evidence of this was their playing of After Midnight at the Crossroads Guitar Festival, whilst Cale was all lightness of touch, Clapton (who was playing his usual laid back style) sounded like Guy The Gorilla with his very British blues chopping style of playing.

The programme was followed with two performances from Jools Holland's Later - it was a great way to spend an hour on a January evening.