| Blues Power | |
| Cover: | Blues Power Cover.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Eric Clapton |
| Album: | Eric Clapton |
| B-Side: | Bottle of Red Wine |
| Released: | 1970 |
| Recorded: | Early 1970 |
| Genre: | Rock · blues rock |
| Label: | Polydor |
| Producer: | Delaney Bramlett · Tom Dowd |
| Prev Title: | After Midnight |
| Prev Year: | 1970 |
| Next Title: | Let It Rain |
| Next Year: | 1972 |
"Blues Power" is the second solo single by British rock musician Eric Clapton, off his 1970 debut studio album Eric Clapton. It was released in 1970 as a 7" vinyl gramophone record under Polydor Records.[1] The song never reached any of the music charts worldwide.
The song features a rock and roll style tempo and singing by Clapton, with the music and lyrics being stopped frequently with a pause between chosen lines. The song is in the key of C major.[2] Besides being released on the studio album and as a single in 1970, the track is included on various live and compilation albums: The History of Eric Clapton (1972), Eric Clapton at His Best (1972), Just One Night (1980),[3] Backtrackin' (1984), Time Pieces Vol.II Live in the Seventies (1985), Crossroads (1988) and The Cream of Clapton (1995). In total, the song is featured on over 15 albums.[4]
Music critic Robert Christgau notes that the songs "Bottle of Red Wine" and "Blues Power" do not deserve classic status, and goes on to criticise Clapton's performance on the song: "a party song called "Blues Power" from a man with a hellhound on his trail".[5] AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine says the song "isn't a blues song".[6]
In his live album Leon Live, rock musician Leon Russell used the beginning few lines of the song, which he co-wrote, on his own song "Shoot Out on the Plantation".