Tag: Call Me The Breeze

I’ve been in a J.J. Cale mood for a while so here is another one of his songs made popular by someone else and he was happy about it.

Like Eric Clapton… Lynyrd Skynyrd helped Cale finance his lifestyle, allowing him to release albums in a leisurely fashion. Cale didn’t like fame and tried to avoid it. On his first seven albums, he didn’t include a picture of himself.

Of Skynyrd’s rendition of “Call Me the Breeze,” Cale said that it afforded him the money to have more freedom in how and when he made his music and was always honored when other artists covered his songs. This was a popular song by the band but never was released as a single. It has become a staple of classic rock radio though since the format started. It appeared on Second Helping released in 1974.

Instead of following Cale’s more stripped-back lead on the track, Skynyrd amped the song up with a more rock style. With Van Zant’s vocals and King, Collins, and Rossington’s guitars it became a concert favorite. Throughout the years, “Call Me the Breeze” has been covered by Johnny Cash with his son John Carter Cash, Shooter Jennings, Bobby Bare, Peter Frampton, John Mayer, and more.

When Cale died in 2013 from a heart attack, Clapton paid tribute to his friend by including a rendition of “Call Me the Breeze” and other tracks for a Cale tribute album in 2014, The Breeze: An Appreciation of JJ Cale, which also features Willie Nelson, Tom Petty, Mark Knopfler, and John Mayer.

Lynyrd Skynyrd thought a lot of J.J. Cale. They didn’t record covers very often but they covered Cale twice with this one and a song called Same Old Blues off of the 1976 album Gimme Back My Bullets.

Call Me The Breeze

Call me the breeze
I keep blowin’ down the road
Well now they call me the breeze
I keep blowin’ down the road
I ain’t got me nobody
I don’t carry me no load

Ain’t no change in the weather
Ain’t no changes in me
Well there ain’t no change in the weather
Ain’t no changes in me
And I ain’t hidin’ from nobody
Nobody’s hidin’ from me
Oh, that’s the way it’s supposed to be

Well I got that green light baby
I got to keep movin’ on
Well I got that green light baby
I got to keep movin’ on
Well I might go out to California
Might go down to Georgia
I don’t know

Well I dig you Georgia peaches
Makes me feel right at home
Well now I dig you Georgia peaches
Makes me feel right at home
But I don’t love me no one woman
So I can’t stay in Georgia long

Well now they call me the breeze
I keep blowin’ down the road
Well now they call me the breeze
I keep blowin’ down the road
I ain’t got me nobody
I don’t carry me no load
Oooh Mr Breeze