The Bottle

"The Bottle"
Single by Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson
from the album Winter in America
B-side	"The Bottle (Drunken mix)"
Released	1974
Recorded	October 15, 1973 D&B Sound (Silver Spring, Maryland)
Genre	Jazz-funk[1]
Length	5:14
Label	Strata-East
Songwriter(s)	Gil Scott-Heron
Producer(s)	Perpis-Fall Music
Gil Scott-Heron singles chronology
"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" (1971) "The Bottle" (1974) "Johannesburg" (1975)
Official audio
"The Bottle" on YouTube

"The Bottle" is a song by American soul artist Gil Scott-Heron and musician Brian Jackson, released in 1974 on Strata-East Records in the United States. It was later reissued during the mid-1980s on Champagne Records in the United Kingdom. "The Bottle" was written by Scott-Heron and produced by audio engineer Jose Williams, Jackson, and Scott-Heron. The song serves as a social commentary on alcohol abuse, and it features a Caribbean beat and notable flute solo by Jackson, with Scott-Heron playing keyboards.

The song was issued as the first and only single for Scott-Heron's and Jackson's album Winter in America (1974). It became an underground and cult hit upon its release, and the single peaked at number 15 on the R&B Singles Chart. Described by music critics as the album's best recording, the commercial success of "The Bottle" helped lead to Jackson's and Scott-Heron's next recording contract with Arista Records. Similar to other compositions by Scott-Heron, the song has been sampled extensively by hip hop artists.

The song describes the lives of the alcoholics living in the Logan Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C.^[2]