I don’t know how I missed this one, but sadly Delaney Bramlett passed away a couple days after this past Christmas. Delaney and Bonnie were a crushing soul rock group from back in the 60′s that got completely overshadowed by some bigger acts – enough so that I just stumbled upon them a few years back. Delaney was a beast on guitar and vocals, and their band essesntially created the sound that The Allman Brothers and Eric Clapton would make their own. In fact, Clapton loved them so much after they opned up for Blind Faith on a tour, that he basically broke up Blind Faith and joined Delaney and Bonnie. A couple years later, he more or less stole the whole band to create Derek and the Dominos. Bobby Whitlock on organ, Carl Radle on bass – just a huge band. Oh, and Jim Gordon on drums who would later go on to murder his own mother. Just a fun factoid. Sorry.
Accept No Substitute has taken regular rotations on my record player since I nabbed it a few years back, and unfortunately I still don’t think it’s been re-released on CD yet. There’s a Best Of out there, but it’s worth digging to find some gems. Here’s a positively eruptive cut of “Comin Home” with both Clapton and George Harrison on guitar – just try to find a better back-up band. Bonnie, who was of course the first white Ikette, (really!) proves here that you can still sing your heart out with your blood full of opiates.
