Since getting sober, Eric Clapton has refused to play his classic cover of J.J. Cale's "Cocaine" because, as he recently told the AP, "I thought that it might be giving the wrong message to people who were in the same boat as me." That's fair, 'cause no matter how anti-coke the opening lines of the song are, that guitar riff just makes it feel like a four-minute ad for the Bolivian marching powder.
But now Clapton feels comfy enough with the song's true, anti-drug message that he will, once again, add the song to his repertoire, saying that he missed performing it "just purely from a musical point of view." Will it outrage soccer moms taking their kids to his rock shows? Not nearly as much as "Cocaine" the energy drink is outraging New York City Councilmen.
This stuff is truly ridiculous. It has three times more caffeine than Red Bull and, oh yeah, it's called Cocaine. A Queens Councilman told the New York Times the only reasons you would use "this infamous and insidious name" to market your product:
"Either you are woefully ignorant of the horrors of cocaine addiction, or your god is the dollar bill, and not even human life is more sacred."
And so, officially, Clapton could not have picked a worse day to make his announcement.
BWE tried the drink and said it "resembles clown piss" ?- enough to keep us at bay ?- but if you're in Midtown Manhattan and feeling adventurous, you can grab a can at Rupert Jee's Hello Deli (near Letterman's studio). Once you've stopped grinding your jaw long enough to type, you can let us know how it is.
