Delaney & Bonnie – Accept No Substitute (1969)

“The Original Delaney & Bonnie, also known by its subtitle Accept No Substitute,^[ is the second studio album by American recording duo Delaney & Bonnie. It was recorded with many of the ‘friends’ that would form the core of their best-known 1969–70 touring band, including Leon Russell, Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle and Rita Coolidge. The Original Delaney & Bonnie & Friends was released in July 1969 after Delaney & Bonnie had signed to Elektra Records. … After the album’s release, frustrated that no copies of Accept No Substitute were available in his father’s home town record store, an apparently drunken Delaney Bramlett phoned Holzman (who was in the UK at the time) saying that he would ‘come to England and kill’ Holzman if the situation was not immediately corrected. Holzman responded by releasing Delaney and Bonnie from their Elektra contract. … One song from this album, ‘Ghetto,’ would become a regular feature of Delaney and Bonnie’s live shows. The song, co-authored by Bonnie during Delaney and Bonnie’s tenure at Stax Records, was later covered by Stax stars The Staple Singers. The Original Delaney & Bonnie & Friends was widely acclaimed by music critics. In a contemporary review for The New York Times, Robert Christgau praised the duo’s singing and lyrics of ‘rich but implicit’ sexuality and commonplace truths about love. He was also impressed by how the album appropriates soul music, but asserted that ‘it is a white album, and for once that’s good. No black singers would record anything so eccentric, so unabashedly baroque, in its celebration of black music.’ In his ballot for Jazz & Pop magazine’s annual critics poll, Christgau ranked it as the eighth best album of the year. English guitarist Eric Clapton said he ‘immediately loved the album’, calling it ‘hardcore R&B, and very soulful, with great guitar playing and a fantastic horn section’. He subsequently enlisted Delaney & Bonnie to play with him on his 1969 American tour.  In a retrospective review, music journalist Nick Logan wrote that The Original Delaney & Bonnie & Friends ‘still stands as a remarkable document – the quintessential fusion of gospel, country and soul influences that was easily the most exciting sound of its time.’ AllMusic‘s Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr. said it featured the kind of mixture of soul and rock and roll later present on Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970) by Clapton’s side project Derek & the Dominos, recommending it to listeners unfamiliar with Delaney & Bonnie’s other work. …”
Wikipedia
Delaney & Bonnie – The Original Delaney & Bonnie & Friends (Accept No Substitute)
Discogs https://www.discogs.com/Delaney-Bonnie-Accept-No-Substitute/release/2866311
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YouTube: “When The Battle Is Over” (Live), The Original Delaney & Bonnie & Friends 27 02 1970 complete show 45:23