SOD: Eric Clapton "Bottle of Red Wine"

Eric Clapton's eponymous solo debut album has always been held in high regard by yours truly. With virtually the same contributors that formed Delany and Bonnie's band (including Delaney and Bonnie themselves), the music is a continuation of their sound, with Eric Clapton taking center stage on guitar and vocals. Delaney co-wrote six of the songs with Clapton, and convinced Clapton to do the album in the first place (using his all-star cast of session players). It's also said that Delaney is the one who convinced and taught Clapton to sing the blues.

 The vocals on this track are shared between Clapton and Bonnie Bramlett, and they are perfect for one another. The album version of this track (which I cannot seem to find on youtube for copyright reasons I'm sure), even has shades of "Faces" type vocal work and rhythm, in my opinion. The driving beat and rhythm section is as one would expect, very indicative of the work that these same musicians did when joined by Duane Allman to form Derek and the Dominoes in the spring of 1970. 

Bottle of Red Wine is by no means the "single" off this album, in fact I think it may be overlooked at times. But it is a favorite of mine nonetheless. All the parts work very harmoniously together to create a well balanced, succinct blues song. The guitar solo is short and sufficient (like the song itself), and I'm not saying that I don't love those endless guitar conversations between Allman and Clapton from the Domino years, but there's something to appreciate about these shorter tunes too. The more popular songs to come out of this album were "After Midnight", which was originally written by J.J. Cale in 1966, and "Let It Rain" which would become a concert staple of Clapton's.