Eric Clapton With Delaney & Bonnie- Dont Know Why

After quitting Cream and going through several false starts looking for a new musical direction, Clapton found Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett, a married couple playing authentic southern influenced R&B. Clapton toured with them briefly and played on a couple of their albums along with other musical heavy-hitters of the time like George Harrison, Duane Allman and Leon Russell.

Both Delaney and Bonnie encouraged Clapton to find his own voice as a singer/songwriter and helped him write several of the tunes that appeared on his first solo record. "Don't Know Why" was one of them. This live version is much, much better then the one that ultimately ended up on the album. The band sounds amazing and well rehearsed; Clapton himself delivers a great vocal performance and displays a perfect example of understated but effective guitar playing, kind of the opposite of what he had been doing in Cream and in Blind Faith.

"Don't Know Why" is about Clapton's new wife Patti Boyd, who previously was married to George Harrison during his time in the Beatles. In the video there's Harrison standing right behind Clapton playing guitar, which must have been at least a little weird when they did this song. In fact right after Clapton sings the line "Go on back to him, he'll take you in" [1:30], he looks over his shoulder towards Harrison and smiles.