Oh that mysterious mr. JJ

In the early to mid-seventies, we had a music magazine called "Musa" (=music). They did reviews of the first three JJ albums as they came out. All of them got quite good reviews, but none were given any "instant classic" status. Though 3rd of them, Okie, was the album of the month, they were slightly disappointed with it.

Although their earliest reviews complained the music lacked edge, the editor-in-chief and some of the other journalist at the mag slowly got really big into JJ.

Here's some quotes from the article on JJ Cale from 1974, by editor-in-chief Waldemar Wallenius, since then a major figure in Finnish rock journalism (and even ran for EU parliament a decade ago):

"There's something about JJ that makes a grown man squirm on the floor from pure pleasure, making sounds of cry and laughter"

"...I am not far from crying out loud, so strongly his sighing touches the deepest parts of my soul"

At first at the office, JJ was considered just a midly interesting artist,
"but then the record was on the turntable constantly, and there were five editors fighting over who can listen to it... and so there were already 5 JJ Cale fans in Finland".


"Naturally and Really are in the top ten records of all time, and it is of no use anybody claiming otherwise. It is a fact. Just believe it!"

"So I've been meaning to write an article on JJ Cale for half a year, so that word would spread. The only problem is there is no info on him to spread"

... he adds, in the beginning of this 4 page article, and continues with info like this:

"Readers with eagle eyes and an astute memory will remember, that in both our album reviews [Naturally and Really] we have mentioned that JJ Cale is blind. The source for this information is long lost, but the belief in it grew stronger by all the photos of him, as his eyes don't look normal. But now the well-known Rolling stones magazine had an article about him, and apparently he can see very clearly, as among others he says, he has been watching TV. I wonder how the facts stand on this now? Oh well, the music still remains, regardless".

I'll get back to playing JJ guitar in a day or two. But just wanted to post this bit, as I always found it amusing. JJ got into the brains of these guys so that they wrote about him, although didn't have any facts to share, except the bit about Naturally and Really being in the top 10 records of all time. Well, at least that fact has stood the test of time. :D Anyways, lessens my load, I ain't the first nonsensically about JJ!

(translations are mine, thus quotation marks are used quite freely here. The source is "Musa", 4/1974, pp.32-35 if anybody wants to check :) )