The Boidem column from December 1999 was devoted to my attempt to find the Albert King guitar solo that Eric Clapton copied on a song from Cream's second album. Back then, my primary means of finding the information I sought were web search, online discussion forums, and the email contacts that might grow out of my queries.

This is, of course, ancient history, though it's available to anyone who wants to read that column. But I think the time has come for me to admit that I was wrong. Driving home one early evening, when this column was already taking shape in my head, the Cream song Strange Brew started playing. I didn't need Shazam, and I hardly needed to think twice. When the Clapton guitar solo started I immediately identified it as the original Albert King solo (from Oh, Pretty Woman, on his Born Under a Bad Sign album) I'd been looking for. Clearly, though I'd convinced myself that I was looking for an Albert King solo that Clapton used in Sunshine of Your Love, I'd simply confused myself. Yes, I'd been told this, and even acknowledged it, but it was only many years later that I realized that I had the answer all along. I'd simply been asking the wrong question. The Clapton solo on Sunshine of Your Love, BTW, is far from interesting - I doubt Albert King would have played it.