Following the trail of The Bottle can lead in a few different directions, including corrupt pressing plants that helped bootleg one of Gil Scott-Heron's finest recordings when it started turning into a hit. A much more respectable way to drink from this musical source was to do a cover version of the song, which is where the multi-talented Bill Jones comes into the picture and the action switches to Sad Louis, Misery -- otherwise known St. Louis, Missouri. Black activist spokesman Scott-Heron no doubt approved of a funk band naming itself Brother to Brother, but this is not something Jones can take credit for. The group featured as many as a half-dozen vocalists whose by contrast smallish instrumental component was plucked after the fact from the ranks of St. Louis studio musicians.

Jones covered lots of territory on bass, organ, clavinet, and guitar. He also sang, produced, and wrote songs for the group. The only Brother to Brother album, a 1976 request to Let Your Mind Be Free, does not feature the group's cover of The Bottle, instead leaning heavily on Jones' outpourings such as Groovy Day, Joni, and Visions. This Jones should not be confused with the Billy Jones who recorded an album entitled Birds of the Sea for Decca in 1975 -- that Jones hung out a long way from St. Louis, as in Amsterdam and Africa. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi