1977Released
3:41

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about Cocaine. By Songfacts®.

This was written and originally recorded by the Oklahoma blues guitarist J.J. Cale. Clapton gave Cale a huge boost he recorded Cale's song "After Midnight" in 1970 and released it as his first solo single. This helped earn Cale a record deal and enough money to make music on his terms, which he did. Cale recorded "Cocaine" on his fourth album, Troubadour, released in 1976, and issued the song as the B-side of his single "Hey Baby," which was his last charting song as an artist, making #96 in the US. When Clapton was looking for songs for his Slowhand album, he once again looked to Cale, and chose "Cocaine," which became the first song on the set. Clapton would later cover Cale's song "Travelin' Light," and in 2006, the pair teamed up to record an album together called The Road To Escondido.

The lyrics are about drug addiction, something Clapton knew quite well. As he explained in his autobiography Clapton, when he recorded this song, he had kicked a serious heroin habit but was filling his body with cocaine and alcohol. His attitude at the time was that he could manage his addiction and quit at any time - he just didn't want to; that's why he could sing so objectively about a drug that was consuming him. When he finally did get off drugs and alcohol, he had to learn how to make music while sober, which was a big transition because everything sounded very rough to him. He also realized how damaging his addiction was to himself and others on a personal level, and became active in helping others get through their addictions; in 1998 he opened the Crossroads rehab center in Antigua, where clients go through a 29-day wellness-centered approach to treatment.

During the Slowhand sessions, Clapton and his band got to see a J.J. Cale concert, and Cale brought Clapton on stage to duet on this song.

Top Listeners

Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of Cocaine.
AKey
MajorMode
4/4Time Signature
105BPM

Album

The album Cocaine is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released Cocaine.
Universal Music Group International
© 1977 Polydor Ltd. (UK)
℗ 2012 Polydor Ltd. (UK)

See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.

Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.

5.8MArtists
73.5MSongs
12.3MAlbums
6.3KGenres
2.5MLabels
493KPlaylists