I came to this song only recently when I was researching the music of country great Don Williams and his close friendship with guitar legend Eric Clapton. Clapton first saw Williams perform as a musical guest on the syndicated Dinah Shore variety show in April 1976, and they later met in person in England during Clapton’s 1976 tour.
They always seemed an unlikely pairing to me, but it became clear that each man’s music had quite an impact on the other. For example, Eric began embracing a more country-influenced sound with songs like Lay Down Sally. But the real clincher, at least for me, was today’s featured song – We’re All the Way.
I think it’s one of Eric Clapton’s finest yet most underrated songs. Not just that, but for someone like yours truly, who has been listening to the music of the gentle giant Don Williams for nearly all my life and has featured his music here so prominently, We’re All the Way seems about as close as Eric could come to sounding just like his good friend Don Williams. Not surprising, really, since… (drum roll please)… it was written by Don Williams in 1976. Ta-daaa! Here’s Don’s version.
After he and Don met, Eric seemed to embody a smoother, more relaxed style in his singing, and it couldn’t have been on silkier display than in We’re All the Way. There’s so much to the texture and feel of the song, and it’s got these magical guitar interludes that seem to twinkle.
It also possesses my favourite singing by Clapton – the style that moves me the most. Very tender and sensitive, not unlike the voice he uses in his iconic romantic masterpiece Wonderful Tonight, which shan’t be too long from featuring here.
[Verse 1]
There’s no cause to think that I won’t stay
Haven’t I been with you all the way?
There’s no time like now to make amends
After all, we are more than friends
[Chorus]
This could be the time for you and me
We could go wherever we should be
So don’t put words between us we shouldn’t say
And don’t be acting halfway
When you know we’re all the way
[Verse 2]
There are times when I don’t see the light
I don’t know if what I do is right
But when I’m wrong, it’s never meant for you
So don’t confuse my words with what I do
[Chorus]
This could be the time for you and me
We could go wherever we should be
So don’t put words between us we shouldn’t say
And don’t be acting halfway
When you know we’re all the way
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
I had this album back in the day. EVERYONE DID. This is probably the best song on the album. NOT “Cocaine” which got played to death.
I didn’t know the album was so popular. Our family didn’t own Eric’s records. I came to his music at the Academy in my late teens thanks to my Section Under Officer who was a huge Springsteen and Clapton fan. Someone else just pointed me to some other songs on it. I love the groovy jive of ‘The Core’.
How many people do you think were directly inspired by his song ‘Cocaine’ to have a snort? Haha
Gee, I don’t know. Everyone I knew did coke. I had a sizable habit in the 80s. I got clean in 1990, just before my 30th birthday.
Jackson Browne had a song called “Cocaine”, too, it’s on his live album “Running on Empty”. Totally different song. Also very influential when it comes to doing coke. I did my first line in 1979.
I did the hallucinogenic drugs like LSD, Ecstasy and Marijuana, but never ‘harder drugs’ like Cocaine or Heroin.
When I was kind of destitute in Centro Bogota, I got all so close to trying Cocaine. I always wondered what it was like. Only by fortune-stance I didn’t.
I’m glad you got off it. Just listening to Browne’s ‘Cocaine’. It sounds like an old Guthrie tune. I know that looking older talk from the doctor feels like. Good song. Haha.
I did the prototype of Ecstasy, MDA, which I thought was pretty hard. My ex husband (we weren’t married yet) described it as a mixture of LSD, meth & cocaine & I’d say that was a pretty good description of it.
This was in 1981. We used a portion of my student loan to buy an ounce of the stuff. It was a white powder. We were going to sell it, but nobody knew what it was & very few people were willing to try it. It tasted terrible. We used to buy Contac cold remedy & take the capsules apart & fill them with the powder & swallow them. I got sick every single time. I got good at knowing when I was going to puke ~ the first couple of times, I puked all over the living room ~ & I’d make sure I was in the bathroom. Halfway puking, I would realize that I was off. It was a 12-hour high & it was like flying on the milky way. EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL & YOU TOTALLY HAD YOUR SHIT TOGETHER. But after about 2 months of doing that stuff, I was really sick. I was down to 85 pounds & I hadn’t been under 100 pounds since I was in the 4th grade. I couldn’t keep anything down except clear broths & tea. It took me about a month to regain my health. That was the first time in my life I had ever been that sick. I was never sick a day in my life before that.
That was probably the hardest narcotic I had ever done up to that point. I’ve done heroin a few times (snorted it, never used a needle EVER) & that’s pretty bad. Makes me really sick in much the same way. I couldn’t deal with the sickness.
Heavy drinking made me sick. I used to wake up & throw up. I can’t believe I lived that way now. I wouldn’t live like that if you paid me.
We got from the tender ‘We’re All the Way’ to our previous drug consumption pretty quick. Darn you for bringing up Clapton’s Cocaine! 😂
Yeah, I imagine the prototype of any drug would be pretty hard compared to the standard version. I can’t begin to fathom a mixture of LSD, meth, and cocaine. Just writing those three together is making me giddy! 😂 And you guys bought an ounce! As Dylan said in ‘I Shall Be Free No. 10: “Wowee! Pretty scary.” God, I love that song. It cracks me up.
That sickness and weight-loss period you recalled also reminded me of when I was in the throes of my alcohol binges. I sometimes went without food for three days and would spew—sometimes blood—from the damage to my stomach lining.
A month is a long time to get back to normal, but I understand that. It would take me at least a week of abstinence just to get into the vicinity of feeling a bit normal again — that meant less stomach pain (hernia, kidneys, etc.), fewer headaches, and lower blood pressure. Only then might I lift a tentative finger to get out of the house and head to the gym.
I think it’s a Godsend that your body reacted so badly to the heavy stuff that you couldn’t keep doing it. It’s also wonderful that those days and those habits are now so far removed from your current mindset.
When I was doing a lot of coke, I didn’t want to eat but I forced myself because I knew I had to have sustenance. I always had a poached egg on toast in the morning with a glass of milk with a multivitamin & my birth control pill & at night, after partying all day & all night, I had a can of chicken & rice soup & a glass of milk. The days we didn’t party, I always ate a lot of fruits & vegetables. I was lucky to be naturally healthy & to have a good immune system. I think that’s why I survived & so many of my friends died.
That’s good that you were able to eat relatively healthy food at regular times and with some consistency. Yes, I think you’re right that it at least provided you with sustenance through those dark episodes. Phew.
When I’m in gym mode, I normally do intermittent fasting. I find my energy levels until my first meal (around 2:00 pm for lunch) are really good — markedly better than if I’d eaten breakfast that morning. Also cutting back on carbohydrates big-time and upping the protein and healthy fats (kind of Ketogenic diet) made a lot of difference.
My life (or at least in terms of how I treat my body) has been of extremes. If it’s not suffering from prolonged alcohol and nicotine addiction, it’s suffering from fairly intense exercise – obviously the latter is super beneficial for my physical and mental well being. You know… treating your body as if it were a temple.
But it’s that constant see-saw which is just sh/t.
I hate fasting. I’m a cow ~ I graze throughout the day. Small amounts of food, mostly fruits & vegetables. I’ve gotten into protein shakes recently. Really love those.
About your comment re. Seinfeld – I doubt he knows what the experience of shopping in a supermarket is after his Seinfeld success.
I deleted the video/article as I often do when I post a video on a whim. Your cool comment was colateral damage. lol Sorry.