The Allman Brothers and their band
Approx. reading time: 12 minutes.
8:00am
Me: Oh these people did Ramblin’ Man! I know that one.
Keith: …
8:02am
Me: KEITH. Are you aware that Ramblin’ Man basically ends after two minutes and then keeps going for two more minutes after that?
Keith: …
Hi. If you’re new around here, you’ll want to skim this post first.
OK so we have to get two major things out on the table, right here right now.
I dislike country music
I strongly dislike jam band music
Are there both kinds of artists on the Rolling Stone Top 100? Yes. Am I sweating? Yes.
Will I develop an appreciation for it? Time will only tell.
But before I get into the music, I want to share some absolute shenanigans I’ve learned during my ABB research so far, as I read Alan Paul’s One Way Out.
Five whack and poorly retold anecdotes about ABB that are almost beyond belief.
Come for the music, stay for the hilarity?
1. A guy traversed three thousand miles across the country from LA to Georgia to be a roadie. On a motorcycle.
Gregg and Duane (the two brothers for which the band is named) both left Macon Georgia and spent some time in LA with their band Hour Glass. TLDR Duane moves east, forms a band, and calls Gregg to come join. Gregg moves east and knows they’ve got something good so he calls up Kim Payne.
PAYNE: When I dropped Gregg off at the airport, he said, “If this turns out to be a good thing, I’ll give you a call.” I said, “Yeah, right,” and never expected to hear from him again, but a few weeks later, he called me on the pay phone of the flophouse where I was staying and said, “This is just going to be an ass-kicking band and we need you. Come on down.” I didn’t have any money so I asked if he could get me one of those plane tickets and he said he didn’t think so. Eventually, he said the best he could do was some gas money so I could ride my bike. He sent me 50 dollars. I spent $37.50 getting my bike repaired and took off on the most insane three-thousand-mile trip anyone has ever taken. The $13.50 I had left got me to my parents’ house in Alabama, where I almost collapsed in the driveway. My mother gave me five dollars to make it to Macon. I arrived at the pad, walked into a living room lined with end-to-end mattresses, collapsed on one of them, and slept for twenty-four hours.
Paul, Alan. One Way Out (pp. 32-33). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
I have no idea if this was his route but can we just speculate?
2. The brotherhood extended to the roadies, one of whom, would pay ABB while working for them.
I think his name was “Red Dog”. He was wounded in Vietnam and gave ABB his disability checks when they were just starting out.
3. Before they made it big, a woman named Mama Louise fed them.
She was known for her generosity. ABB promised they would pay her when they could, after making some money on the road. She didn’t believe them, but fed them anyway, and Mama Louise was surprised when ABB made good on their promise. Once they had some money, they even took her on tour for a stretch.
4. Drugs were actually everywhere.
Poor Jaimoe was victimized by bathroom shrooms.
JAIMOE: I went over to the pad to use the commode and sitting on the back of it was a little bottle of those pills—anytime someone got a little something they stored it there so that if the police came it could be flushed away. I looked at them and thought, “This is what Duane had. The way he was bouncing around, I’m gonna give it a try,” and I popped three of them. God damn! They were psilocybin tablets and they slowly came on. They were real natural and earthy and pleasant, but I should not have taken three.
Paul, Alan. One Way Out (p. 38). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
5. One time the band all got arrested. Because of drugs, obviously.
They were on tour and the roadies were looking sus. Some cops pulled over the bus and did a search, found a whole pharmacy of drugs, and since they didn’t seem threatened by paying a fine, the cops charged 4k a person.
https://www.duaneallman.info/jacksonalabamaarrest.htm
Two weeks ago, I knew nothing about the Allman Brothers.
Yup, nothing. I wasn’t even sure I had heard of them before opening Keith’s envelope. I think I thought they were the Avett Brothers. And before you ask, I don’t really know much about them either except for the song “I and Love and You”.
In two weeks I’ve listened to the following albums:
Allman Brothers Band
Idlewild South
At Fillmore East
Eat a Peach
Brothers and Sisters
Win, Lose or Draw
Wipe the Windows, Check the Oil, Dollar Gas
I’ve been timing my listening journey by moving through the book, One Way Out by Alan Paul. This book tells you all about the band chronologically through quotations by band members, and various ABB affiliates.
I’m currently halfway through the book. After Duane Allman dies at 24 with only two studio albums under his belt, and the live Fillmore sessions: his last playing is heard on some of the tracks in Eat a Peach. In the true spirit of brotherhood, the band decides to keep going despite losing one of the actual Allmans.
But then, almost a year later to the day, bassist Berry Oakley dies in an eerily similar fashion. That’s when you realize that the equally strong theme of “fate” has been playing out right under your nose.
With two founding members deceased, the band still continues on, but Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts are navigating power dynamics and the band’s sound shifts in an obvious way towards country. The members are having a hard time coping, self-medicating with drugs and alcohol. At some point they kick Jaimoe out of the band, and that’s about where I tapped out in my listening journey.
Side note: I really need to start googling even the slightest amount of info on these artists before I dive in, because when I read their biographies like novels I get really sad when they die.
The playlist
Listen to my playlist on Apple Music
Listen to my playlist on Spotify
Because I think each album stands alone with its unique sound, I’ve kept the tracks from the same albums together. Rather than compile and shuffle all of my favorite ABB tracks, I’ve cherry picked the best selections from the albums and built the playlist that way.
I’m basically giving your ears a shot-gun history lesson of the Allman Brothers.
And because I have a lot of commentary and I’m tired of seeing a wall of text, I’ve put all this info in a fancy drop-down menu. You’re welcome?
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Kicking off my Allman Brothers playlist is a song not even by the ABB. Here’s why.
Before ABB formed, Duane Allman was a studio bum at Muscle Shoals who started recording backing tracks for Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett. After listening to all the song choices for Wilson, the studio was still trying to find a hit. Duane Allman was the one who suggested Wilson record Hey Jude.
People thought he was crazy but he just started playing it and magic happened.
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Spoiler alert: this is my favorite ABB album. I SAID IT.
After only knowing “Ramblin’ Man,” I was not expecting the powerful blues of “Don’t Want You No More” and its perfect segue into “It’s Not My Cross To Bear”. Hearing Gregg Allman’s voice for the first time and reading that he wrote track two at twenty-two… blew my mind. I didn’t want to move on past these two tracks but it got even better.
There is not a single track on this album that I do not like.
“Black Hearted Woman” slaps. HARD.
At first listen I couldn’t figure out what time signature this song was in and I love a good rhythm riddle.
In case you want to know how I think of it. The hook is 8 measures of 7/4 and then you’re in 4/4. Alternatively can be thought of as alternating measures of 4/4 and 3/4 in the hook.
The next three tracks are also solid, especially the solos in “Dreams”.
The standout track on this album, if the first 6 haven’t convinced you yet, is “Whipping Post”. And it opens with another rhythm riddle in the hook which my brain thinks of as three measures of 3/4 followed by one measure of 2/4 which repeats until the hook is done, and then you’re in 4/4.
It makes sense that I would like this album because they recorded this before they realized they were a ‘live band’ and before I knew enough to know that there is a distinction between ‘live band’ and ‘jam band’.
During this recording era, they were a studio band. They would rehearse relentlessly and orchestrate all six parts note by note to perfection before recording.
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While not as compelling for me as the first album, there are some standout tracks integral to the band that appear right in the middle, “Midnight Rider” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed”. This is about the time they start realizing that when they’re taken out of the studio and playing live, the music doesn’t have to stop after three minutes. And this is also about the time where they get compared to the Grateful Dead.
The band members had a lot to say about the Grateful Dead. Mostly that they respected what they were doing, but didn’t really think much other than that. I haven’t listened to much Grateful Dead so it will be interesting to compare the two when I do. Here’s what I’ve noticed and have come to appreciate about live ABB.
ABB mesh in a way that’s unrehearsed, especially the earlier live albums. There’s a distinct sound among the early members that’s magical, and is lost later as the membership changed
ABB rehearsed a lot of their hooks before taking them to the stage and painstakingly wrote out some of the instrumental songs
ABB was blues heavy with a strong jazz and r&b influence
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Duane may not have been much of a songwriter, but he was undoubtedly an artistic director.
Smack in the middle of my playlist you’ll hear another non-ABB song, “Layla”. If you like Eric Clapton it’s worth reading about Duane and Eric’s relationship.
I don’t know much about Eric Clapton (chill out, I’ll get there), but Duane’s work on Layla is another stellar example of his artistic direction.
Nobody thought “Layla” needed anything but Duane said it needed a piano part. Lo and behold the best thing that happened to this song is the piano part at the end. Duane didn’t write it, but he’s the reason it’s there.
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This is what you need to listen to this summer.
Duane Allman died shortly after recordings for Eat a Peach began, so he doesn’t appear on the first three songs. But the band didn’t think of stopping despite the recording studio’s fears. Three weeks later they were finishing Eat a Peach.
This album stands out for two reasons. Firstly, Gregg’s response to Duane’s death was “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” which is an incredible track. Secondly, this is where I start to hear the shift away from Duane’s artistic direction. Gregg had been sitting on “Melissa” for a long time, and he knew Duane liked the melody, but he didn’t think of taking it to ABB because it didn’t sound like their vibe.
And ending the album is a delightful ditty, “Little Martha” which sounds like summer rain. It is the only composition credited to Duane.
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This is probably the last ABB album worth a listen. I don’t mean to say that there aren’t worthwhile tracks on the albums and on some of recordings that come after, I’m just saying that, at this point, the sound feels so far removed from the original, which is what I love most.
Here there’s a noticeable country influence and that’s in partial thanks to the artistic direction of guitarist Dickey Betts.
This album gave the world “Ramblin’ Man” which is shambly in comparison to the other songs I’ve mentioned, but since it’s like THE ABB SONG somehow, I have to include it.
This same album gave the world “Southbound” and “Jessica”, two tracks that are far more worth our time and attention.
BTW Late ABB high-key sucks?
Although I do include some tracks recorded on albums after Brothers and Sisters, they hit different. And not in the best way.
Wasted words is so slow in the live version on “Wipe the Windows” album. The only thing that makes it sort of worthwhile is that it’s cool to hear their live adaptation because I fully believe ABB took seriously the difference between studio performing and live performing and they were bilingual in this way.
But “Wipe the Windows” compared to “At Fillmore East”? I mean, night and day difference in their togetherness and musicality.
One of the drummers, Butch Trucks, said it best about the early years.
We were playing music for ourselves and for each other.
Paul, Alan. One Way Out (p. 65). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
After tragedy, fame , and fortune, things were no longer the same.
Maybe I’m wrong.
I’ve decided to give this band one more week in which I’ll hunker down and decide once and for all if there’s anything later that’s worth a darn-tootin’.
So check back next weekend for the answer.
