The Allman Brothers Band - The Allman Brothers at Fillmore East
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Free Music Notes for The Allman Brothers at Fillmore East
Free Music Review: The Best
Hit: 5 Stars
I've been listening to this record probably weekly for over 30 years, and never tire of it. Primary reason: Duane's slide guitar playing. He has somehow turned his instrument into a device that I find to be the most expressive musical vehicle I've ever heard. It rivals the human voice. He's making that guitar SING. Tony Bennett(who I don't even like that much)has said that musicians envy singers because there are limits to what they can express with an instrument. Take 4 minutes and listen to the slide playing in Statesboro Blues. It's the most joyful,wondrous, humorous thing you'll ever hear. Jeff Beck eat your heart out.
Gregg's voice is wonderful throughout, tho now it seems more of a technical rather than emotional achievement. Still, whateya want from a young white guy. A very minor quibble.
One of my favorite parts is the drive and atmosphere they achieve leading to the end of Elizabeth Reed. The anticipation during those two short drum solos roaring toward the close is jaw-dropping. The energy of the crowd waiting to explode is a palpable breathing thing.
Get this recording. You'll find yourself coming back to it over and over.
Free Music Review: Duane at top!
Hit: 5 Stars
It just doesn't get much better than this for music fans, especially those of blues and rock guitar. The vocals of Greg Allman are exceptional, he sings with intense feeling and has a great "white blues" voice. The rhythm section is also tremendous. Everything is great, but the guitars take one's breath away. Dickey Betts is a great sidekick to Duane Allman and is a major factor in the greatness of the recording, but in the end it's Duane that makes us gasp and want more. There's no other player in the world quite like Duane; he plays one heck of a mean fretted guitar, but on slide, he's from another planet, with the exception of Muddy Waters and Ry Cooder, no one belongs in the same universe as Allman on slide. He is the god of slide, the Zeus, the MAN! You must hear him to believe it, buy now!Free Music Review: Only 7 songs, but....
Hit: 5 Stars
Yea, only 7 songs but the songs are performed at such a high level. This album is almost perfect in excecution and like the Band's Rock of Ages, it almost seems to be done in a studio, the Brother are so tight! Absolute delight. In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed is almost 13 minutes long and you never tire of the song - a real tribute to Dicky Betts great style and licks. Hot 'Lanta is also very solid and intriguing, and Stormy Monday and You Don't Love Me are great rides also. Gregg Allman has a very soulful voice and is solid on the organ. This was playing every night in someone's college dorm in the early 70's. If you didn't have this album, you just weren't cool. Great album.Free Music Review: Gotta have it!
Hit: 5 Stars
This rules. Not as good as Eat a Peach, but so what? As far as live albums go, this is in a class of its own. Four expert blues covers, three solid originals... what's not to like?
Things start with a BLAST. You get the intro, "Okay, the Allman Brothers Band...", then the band blows the roof off of Statesboro Blues. Listen to Duane's playing! Bloody AMAZING! And they keep rockin' the house with Done Somebody Wrong, which just smokes all over the place. Then things get cooled down with my FAVORITE cover of my FAVORITE blues song, Stormy Monday. Now I've heard a lot of covers of this, but none of 'em match this version. I can honestly say this is even better than T-Bone Walker's original, which is an amazing song to begin with. But no other recorded version can compare to the Allmans', and this is coming from someone who loves the blues and feels that most blues covers pale in comparison to the originals (even their sterling Trouble No More and Hoochie Coochie Man can't top Muddy's takes). Duane's famed Coltrane-esque guitar solo has been discussed so much among Allmans fans that I can't say anything new about it, and Dickey's isn't bad either. Plus Gregg's tasty jazzy organ chart, often forgotten but certainly worth mentioning.
So far we haven't had one of those famous really long jams. Enter You Don't Love Me, starting off with a little guitar blurb and handclaps (kind of like One Way Out) before exploding into full-blown blues mode. Gregg's soulful vocal is a high point as always, and the jam just takes off... I especially like the part where the whole band drops out but Duane, who (literally) solos for three or four minutes before everyone else joins in again. Then they slow it down and kick into a brief quote from Joy to the World before finishing things up. Fantastic. Also good? The unfortunately named Tom Douchette's oft-ignored harmonica playing. They should've just enlisted the guy in their ranks, to further their authenticy as a blues band (as if they needed any, because the Allmans always struck me as more of a blues band than a rock one).
Now we get to the originals. The first is the relatively brief, but intense, instrumental Hot 'Lanta. Then you get a longer one: the powerhouse reading of In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, which after its introduction mutates into something totally different than the studio original. You know how a lot of bands like to make live recordings of their hits quite similar to their studio ones? The Allmans wisely decided to break that long-standing tradition, resulting in a classic performance that some would say tops the studio original. I don't know about THAT, but this is quite an achievement.
Then we get to the monstrous Whipping Post. At over twenty minutes, I admit I find it a bit wearing - some fans consider it a classic, though I prefer the more compact reading on the debut. However, Duane's playing is superb, even if they could've afforded to rein it in a bit. But there's a classic moment right before the start: you hear some drunk moron scream, "WHIPPING POST!" (at least that's what it sounds like - either way, the "Free Bird!" gag started as people shouting for Whipping Post at random concerts), and Duane replies with (I think) "Actually, we were just about to play that". I'm not sure if this is actually what happens, but if it is, I like it.
Classic live album.
Free Music Review: Allman Joy
Hit: 5 Stars
This monsterpiece deserves its "desert island disc" status; it pretty much sets the bar for in-concert blues rock excitement. With that out of the way, let's clear a path through the bouquets of roses strewn at its feet and actually look at it.
First, ABBLAFE - the product of a perfect moment - is as good as it ever got for The Allman Brothers. Duane Allman was truly a virtuoso, but he died shortly after it was recorded. The in-person intensity never carried over to their studio albums, which were pretty bad. (The good parts of Eat A Peach were simply leftovers from this engagement.) Most egregious of all were their attempts at ballads, songs like Melissa were goopy then and downright embarrassing today.
As to being representatives of "Southern Rock," what does this term even mean? ABB rock is no more overtly racist, misogynistic, or unintelligent than regular rock, and besides, the ABB originated in Florida which is an entity even more awful, and quite distinct from, the South. Check the Fillmore East playlist. What you have here is classic amped-up Delta blues, spun out into long, endlessly creative jams.
Which brings me to the ABB secret weapon rarely credited or even mentioned. ABBLAFE features a rhythmic bed created by the highly unusual sound of two drummers, and their relentless energy does just as much to propel the furious and infectious forward motion of this CD as the interplay between Duane Allman and Dickey Betts. Give the drummer(s) some!
As to Greg Allman, the less said the better, although his marriage to Cher - and Federal drug charges, (resulting in a plea he secured by ratting out a friend), did provide a listless nation with some much-needed diversion. The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East is a fabulous, must-have CD, and it gets better with repeated listening - but it's Duane's show, and like Hendrix, Duane burned brightly and too briefly.