Eric Clapton – After Midnight ….Under The Covers Tuesday

We had Cream not long ago so we will progress to Eric today. I will say I did like Eric more with Cream.

This song was not an Eric Clapton-written song…it was written by the great J.J. Cale. Cale seemed to have an aversion to fame but he was thankful to hear Eric cover his song at the time. He said “I was dirt poor, not making enough to eat and I wasn’t a young man. I was in my thirties, so I was very happy. It was nice to make some money.” 

It was a much-needed windfall to an artist struggling in obscurity, and already into his 30s. He landed a deal on Leon Russell and Denny Cordell’s Shelter label and thought he had finished recording his first album for them, Naturally, when Cordell suggested he revisit this composition and share its limelight. When his album Naturally came out in 1971 it got played thanks in part to Clapton covering this song a year before.

Naturally - JJ Cale | Muziek, Jazz

J.J. Cale’s version of After Midnight on the album peaked at #42 on the Billboard 100 and I could not find it charting in Canada. His song Crazy Mama peaked at #22 on the Billboard 100.

Eric Clapton Album Cover.jpg

After Midnight was on Clapton’s self-titled debut album released in 1970. The album had some Clapton classics on it. Blues Power, After Midnight, and Let It Rain. The producer was Delaney Bramlett of the band Bonnie and Delaney that Clapton and George Harrison had played and toured with off and on. I like the album although I think it does sound a bit thin…no fault of Clapton.

The song peaked at #18 on the Billboard 100, #10 in Canada, and #17 in New Zealand in 1970.

Clapton released another, more mellow version of “After Midnight” in 1988 on his greatest hits compilation Crossroads. It was released as a single but did not chart. This 1988 version was used in commercials for Michelob beer. It’s odd that he would let them use it since he was in rehab in 1987 to get off of alcohol. Which to his credit he has supposedly been off of it since.

Eric Clapton:  “I wanted to go in the other direction and try to find a way to make it minimal, but still have a great deal of substance,” he told NPR. “That was the essence of J.J.’s music to me, apart from the fact that he summed up so many of the different essences of American music: rock and jazz and folk, blues. He just seemed to have an understanding of it all.”

After Midnight

After midnight, we’re gonna let it all hang down
After midnight, we’re gonna chug-a-lug and shout
We’re gonna stimulate some action
We’re gonna get some satisfaction
We’re gonna find out what it is all about
After midnight, we’re gonna let it all hang down

After midnight, we’re gonna shake your tambourine
After midnight, it’s all gonna be peaches and cream
We’re gonna cause talk and suspicion
We’re gonna give an exhibition
We’re gonna find out what it is all about
After midnight, we’re gonna let it all hang down

After midnight, we’re gonna let it all hang down

After midnight, we’re gonna shake your tambourine
After midnight, it’s all gonna be peaches and cream
We’re gonna cause talk and suspicion
We’re gonna give an exhibition
We’re gonna find out what it is all about
After midnight, we’re gonna let it all hang down

After midnight, we’re gonna let it all hang down
After midnight, we’re gonna let it all hang down
After midnight, we’re gonna let it all hang down
After midnight, we’re gonna let it all hang down

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

43 thoughts on “Eric Clapton – After Midnight ….Under The Covers Tuesday”

  1. I’ve heard a few versions from Clapton, even his acoustic version is good. I wish he would have kept playing that Gibson. JJ Cale is sort of like Warren Zevon, an elusive character that skirted around the limelight. He wrote some good tunes.

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    1. I with ya Phil on that Gibson…like I’ve said many times…when Cream reunited I knew it wouldn’t sound near the same with that Strat.

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  2. It may have been Clapton’s cover that introduced me to JJ Cale. I still have the album “Naturally”, which sits alphabetically between The Byrds (“Sweetheart of the Rodeo”) and Cab Calloway on my shelf. Cale has a sitting-on-the-back-porch sound. I can’t imagine him standing up to play. “Delaney & Bonnie and Friends” was a used record store find shortly after it was released. I still don’t know why someone gave it up so soon.

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  3. I always liked this song , I would have guessed it came out later than ’70. It’s one of his better singles I think, but ‘Let it Rain’ might have been better still off that album.

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  4. It’s a great cover, actually I like both Claptons released versions. I’m not a Clapton expert but I understand he took a lot from that Tulsa Sound that really helped form his solo career. Great pick and some good discussion.

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  5. EC put some cash in JJ’s jeans which was cool. Liked his version and Eric at this stage. Thing is Max, Cale is the man over here (with a few others). He’s never far from the turntable. Talk about someone who did it his way and never sold out. Covers of his songs kept his bank account healthy. Like you said about good songs being good (something like that) this one one of them. I think I’ll go let it “All hang down”. Cale in my books was one cool cat. Not a bad cut on that “Naturally’ album.

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    1. He did do it his way and I have to respect that. He said this one did well for him…and another southern band with the intials LS cover version of one of his songs helped setup a comfortable lifestyle…I’m doing that one soon.
      Crazy Mama is the one I know best but I had that album back in the day. I tihnk someone gave it to me. I loved it.

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      1. CB did a take on that baby. Being a bass player , how does Radle’s subtle bass lick on Cale’s version grab you. Carl joined Eric at this time ( I wonder if Cale got a fee?) JJ was before the Replacements on his aversion to bullshit. There’s real cool doc floating around on him. Recommend it. Clearly Erics hero. Throw Knopfler in there also. LS did him proud also. Quite a few folks covered his tunes. I think the band Kansas chipped in. For me it all comes back to JJ. His songs are on replay in my head. ‘Boiling Pot’ has been stuck on repeat for the last couple years. You talk about your down to earth/real term you use (you have some good ones Max)

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      2. Carl Radle was a great bass player. I love it of course…he was great in Derk and the Dominos.

        I’ll look up that documentary…I love docs man. I remember Steve Winwood doing one and Widespread Panic. I can’t recall which song though.

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      3. Its very good Max. You can see how much Clapton holds him in respect. JJ is also highly regarded on his guitar playing and his sound. Cant have better folks than Panic and Winwood do your music. Cool!
        Ive been wearing the Cale (Peckinpah) head bandana since I started listening to him. I tried the punk gear for a while but it didnt fit. Back to the bandana for CB

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      4. You know what? I’m 56 and never worn a bandana since I was in my 20s….mostly a LA hat…now I started to wear a red one…I like it quite a bit. It belonged to a friend of mine that is gone now…so even more reason to wear it.
        I need to break Naturally out again.

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  6. I’m familiar with both Cale and Clapton’s versions and like them both, but probably like Cale’s a teensy bit better. It’s got that jazziness and is at a good tempo. Eric speeds it up and gives it a whole different, and more exciting spin. So funny (not sure if funny ha ha or funny strange [Chad Hansen quote]) about letting a beer corporation use the song, but what the heck else do you do after midnight except drink, drug, and other assorted undercover things? I like Clapton no matter where he is or who he’s with. I know he has his flaws and I’m not making excuses for him, but I love him despite.

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    1. Oh I’m a huge Clapton fan. From what people say who knows him…he can be the most genrous guy around but other times…not nice at all…in other words…he is a human being.
      I like Cale also…he was a great songwriter and I like his albums also.

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  11. Idefinitely liked JJ Cale’s version better than Clapton’s faster rockin’ one. I think they used Clapton’s slow version of this as part of a Michelob commercial back in the ’80’s or ’90’s. Great song, and JJ definitely deserves any attention we give him…

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  13. Clapton’s first recording of “After Midnight” is the version of the song I knew and loved years before I heard J.J. Cale’s cool original.

    I wasn’t aware of Clapton’s slower rendition from his “Crossroads” compilation – not bad and a bit more similar to Cale’s original but I prefer the faster version.

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  14. I count myself lucky that our region heard the JJ Cale version on the radio. I never appreciated Clapton’s cover, because to me it felt like an uninspired cover of someone else’s song. But knowing it helped Cale when he needed it, I can appreciate Clapton making it way more famous.

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