Long Drag Off a Cigarette

Joe Cocker

Long Drag Off a Cigarette

"He smokes and drinks and don't come home at all" sang Alice Cooper. There are 4000 bars in New York City. I used to play at the 55 Bar until 4 in the morning. I would get up early, 3 hours later at 7, and walk to Zito's Bakery on Bleecker Street. Passing the 55 Bar, I could see people still there drinking from the night before. The anti-smoking laws hadn't yet gone into effect. Smoking and drinking seem to go hand in hand. "Let's Get Lost" sang Chet Baker, and cigarettes and alcohol could assist you in that. We all know how bad it is for you but like eating bacon, we're not going to give it up. There's an element of cool to it. A cool remove, a distancing, a safe distance from the banal stress of the day to day. There are Irish grandmothers who drink and smoke daily and live to be 110, and health fanatics who die young of lung cancer having never touched a cigarette.

There are 800 pubs in Dublin. No one wants to be alone. Even if you don't feel like talking to anybody, you want to be in the company of others. Better to connect briefly than not at all, or is it? This is a rhetorical question.

I had written the lyrics to this song in my notebook but had no music. Late one night at Westlake Studios in Los Angeles during the sessions for my first album, I asked the engineer to roll tape.  I picked up my guitar and improvised a melody and chord changes. It was only two minutes long. I thought I might later add more lyrics and a chorus section, but it became clear that the song stood on its own as-is. Jimmy Haslip played bass on it and I may have experimented with a few other overdubs, but it eventually ended up on my 2nd album in its stripped down form.

There is a Donny Hathaway album, "Everything is Everything." To quote Springsteen "ain't it the cold truth."

I met Flip Scipio when he worked at Mandolin Brothers on Staten Island and I was buying a guitar. He knew of me because "Long Drag Off a Cigarette" sung by Joe Cocker, was the B side of a 45 in a jukebox somewhere in Holland. The songs have a life of their own and go walking down the street without me. Flip is a spiritual master/ guitar builder and fixer/ brother/friend. He introduced me to Leni Stern, and Jennifer Kimball and sent my album Vibrolux to his cousin Eric in Holland, which led to my first tours in Europe. Songs and people come into your life and everything changes forever.

I played guitar on the Joe Cocker session. The other players were heavies, Greg Phillinganes, Nathan East and Jim Keltner. Greg very openly, did not like the song at all. No chorus, very simple chord changes, what was the point? Joe was hours late so I ended up singing the track. Joe walked in and said "Is this his record or mine?" and then walked out. He came back a few weeks later and recorded his vocal. It is one of my favorites, in terms of other performers singing my songs.

She was sittin' there kinda' distant

Eyes half closed

She took a long drag off a cigarette

And let it out real slow

I felt something click in between her and me

That's when she turned around and said

"Hey, long time no see"

Looks like luck's been on your side

Knock on wood

I don't know what or who finally got through to you

Coz man,  I never could

Me, I just walking back to the fire

Hey, is being confused some kind of sin?

But tonight I'm gonna turn around and walk right outta here

Before I get back into trouble again

I feel kinda' distant

Sittin' here with my eyes half closed

I'm gonna take a long drag off a cigarette

And let it out real slow

Here's my original version:

Here's a cool remix that adds a groove: