Naturally (J. J. Cale album)


Naturally is the debut studio album by J. J. Cale, released on October 25, 1971.

Background

J.J. Cale, who grew up in Oklahoma, first gained recognition in 1964 when singer Mel McDaniel released a regional hit covering Cale's song "Lazy Me" and became a hit. Cale later moved to California to work as chief engineer at Leon Russell's home and began performing at venues such as Whisky a Go Go. Due to the existence of Johnny Rivers as a regular performer, and to avoid confusion with John Cale of the Velvet Underground, club co-owner Elmer Valentine suggested that Cale be renamed "J.J. Cale".
In 1966, Cale released a single called "Slow Motion" on Liberty Records, which was not a commercial success. However, its B-side, "After Midnight", later became a major influence on Cale's career, as Eric Clapton recorded a cover version of the song in 1970 and it reached the top 20 of the Hot Singles chart. Cale did not know about Clapton's recording of "After Midnight" until he heard it on the radio when it became a radio hit that year. Cale later recalled in an interview with Mojo magazine that during this time he was facing significant financial challenges in his 30s, and that the unexpected success of the song provided him with vital financial stability. With the new success of "After Midnight", encouraged by his friend and producer Audie Ashworth, Cale began recording the entire album.

Recording

The recording of Naturally uses an independent production model, follows a standardized recording process, and musicians receive royalties according to industry practices. In terms of musical presentation, the work builds the basic musical framework of the Tulsa sound, and the album incorporates multiple elements, its technical characteristics reflected in three aspects: delicate drum arrangements, deep vocals within a limited vocal range, and guitar technique that combines basic country chord progressions, blues scale improvisation and jazz harmonic thinking. Among them, songs such as "Call Me the Breeze" were recorded with primitive drum machine accompaniment and sound almost like demos.
In 2004, Cale explained to Dan Forte of Vintage Guitar:
The album showcased Cale's distinctive, understated style, and it successfully established his solo recording career, which continued until his death in 2013. James Calemine once commented:
Cale's version of "After Midnight" differs greatly from Clapton's frenetic version, which is itself based on Cale's original Liberty Records arrangement. The Oklahoma Troubadour explained in 2004:
In the 2005 documentary To Tulsa and Back, Cale admitted, "I wasn't real crazy about the Naturally album and I'm still not, but most of the people who like my music, J.J. Cale fans, really like the Naturally album. I think what they liked really was the songs." In the same documentary, Cale recalls producer and agent Audie Ashworth calling him saying if he appeared on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, the single "Crazy Mama" would jump into the Top 10 on the charts, but Cale refused when he learned he would have to lip sync to the recording of the song. While "Crazy Mama" nearly cracked the Top 20, Cale was unimpressed with fame right from the beginning, telling Steve Newton of The Georgia Straight in 1990:
In 2009 the album was re-released, together with Cale's second studio album Really, as a French exclusive 24-track 2-CD album set, part of Universal Records' "2 For 1" series.

Reception

The album contained the 1972 hits "Crazy Mama" and "After Midnight" as well as turntable hits "Bringing it Back", "Call Me the Breeze", and "Clyde". "Crazy Mama" was actually the B-side of the single, "Magnolia", but a DJ in Little Rock, Arkansas played it in preference to the A-side, facilitating its success. Reviewing the LP for Rolling Stone in 1972, Jon Landau said, "This quiet and leisurely album from an excellent guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter is a charmer. J.J. Cale has a unique approach to funk, blues, and country and all it involves is taking things at just as relaxed and mellow a pace as the human metabolism will allow. Here it results in one of the most enjoyable debut albums heard in some time." Village Voice critic Robert Christgau was less receptive to the "lassitude affected" by Cale and his collaborators. In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies, he said that while "Call Me the Breeze" and "Crazy Mama" are "absolutely beguiling", the rest of the record's "murmured blues meditations are so easy on the spirit that even though they have their charms they invite the mistrust of moralizers like myself—there's just too much talent here to justify such slight results." Thom Owens of AllMusic later wrote that "Cale effortlessly captured a lazy, rolling boogie that contradicted all the commercial styles of boogie, blues, and country rock at the time" of the album's release.

Track listing

All songs written by J. J. Cale.
Side one
  1. "Call Me the Breeze" – 2:38
  2. "Call the Doctor" – 2:26
  3. "Don't Go to Strangers" – 2:22
  4. "Woman I Love" – 2:40
  5. "Magnolia" – 3:23
  6. "Clyde" – 2:29
Side two
  1. "Crazy Mama" – 2:31
  2. "Nowhere to Run" – 2:26
  3. "After Midnight" – 2:25
  4. "River Runs Deep" – 2:42
  5. "Bringing It Back" – 2:46
  6. "Crying Eyes" – 3:15

Personnel

Musicians

Production