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Allman Brothers Band: Duane Allman
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Before assembling the first legendary lineup of the Allman Brothers Band in 1969, Duane and Greg played together in two British-Invasion-style projects called the Allman Joys and Hourglass. Duane decamped to Muscle Shoals where he was exposed to the finest Soul and R&B players around, appearing alongside Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin. These influences fed into the gumbo of sounds that made the Allman Brothers Band's self-titled debut unlike any record that had come before it. At a time when the color line dividing the American South was still something people fought and died over, the Allman Brothers not only integrated blues and soul with swampy, Psychedelic rock and bits of country; they went one step further by including an African-American in their lineup. The twin percussive attack of Jaimoe Johanson and Butch Trucks gave early concert favorites such as "Whipping Post" and "Dreams" an elaborate architecture, which Dickey Betts and the Allmans supplemented with tidy bits of soloing, sharing leads with the poise of a seasoned jazz group.
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The Allman Brothers Band’s At Fillmore East wasn’t rock and roll’s first live album, and it wasn’t the first double album, but it gave both formats a cachet neither had enjoyed prior to its release in the summer of 1971. In its wake came a host of similarly packaged performances—from Humble Pie’s Rockin’ The Fillmore to Peter Frampton’s Frampton Comes Alive!—that sought to duplicate the six-string magic of guitar greats Dickey Betts and Duane Allman and their respective Les Pauls. A tour-de-force of Southern-based blues rock, much of it improvisational, At Fillmore East ... became a primary template from which future “jam” bands such as Widespread Panic, Gov’t Mule, and even the Black Crowes would draw. The passing of time has done nothing to diminish the album’s power.
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The Allman Brothers came together in Jacksonville in 1969, and brothers Duane and Gregg Allman were the driving force behind the formation. The band released their first album, The Allman Brothers Band, that same year, although it did not meet much commercial success. Their follow up effort, Idlewild South in 1970, was a huge success, and was ... the precursor to the album that made them legends. 1971 was the year that At Fillmore East was released, and this album is still popular to this day. Tragedy struck soon thereafter, however, as Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident on October 29, 1971. The band has had other struggles, but they have persevered and remain one of the most popular live acts in the world.
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The Allman Brothers never replaced Duane's guitar, but did add a second pianist, Chuck Leavell to their lineup. Then one year and 12 days after Duane's accident, tragedy struck again as Oakley was ... killed in a chillingly similar motorcycle accident, just a few blocks from where Duane had his. The band had just started work on their new album with the song "Ramblin Man" being Oakley's last contribution. They recruited bassist Lamar Williams to take his place. The resulting album, Brothers And Sisters, released August 1, 1973, was a bit more mellow and country sounding with Betts playing all the lead and slide guitar parts and singing more lead vocals on the album too. A good album but still not as strong as the other ones were, yet it still went to number one on the charts and "Ramblin Man" was a hit single reaching number two on the single's chart.
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The album’s brilliance notwithstanding, when the Allman Brothers Band delivered At Fillmore East to the powers-that-be at Atlantic Records, the executives balked at releasing a two-album set that contained three songs with double-digit running times. The group held its ground... and in the end even convinced the company to price the set at a figure only slightly above that of a single album. Tragically, Duane Allman lost his life in a motorcycle accident just a few months later, but At Fillmore East stands as a crowning achievement for Southern rock’s finest band.
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Known for their freewheeling, improvisational live shows, the Allman Brothers’ blues-, country-, and soul-tinged sound launched the Southern rock craze of the early 1970s. Duane Allman founded the group in Macon, Gorgia, in 1969 with his brother, vocalist and organ player Gregg. Joining them were Dickey Betts on guitar, Berry Oakley on bass, and Butch Trucks and Jaimoe Johanny Johanson on drums. Despite Duane’s tragic death in a motorcycle accident immediately after their third album (the live At Fillmore East) went gold in 1971 – and Oakley’s death in a motorcycle accident a year later – the band stayed together, producing more chart-topping albums. By the mid-‘70s, drug and alcohol problems, legal mishaps, and Gregg’s troubled relationship with Cher (whom he married twice) caused the group to disband. They reunited in 1989 and became an arena staple.
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