#allman brothers band at fillmore east

[chaunceyandchumleysdad]

We’ve lost another one of the original Allman Brothers. Lead and rhythm guitarist Dickie Betts passed away on April 18, 2024. He was the consummate foil to his guitar partner, Duane Allman. In any other band, Dickie Betts would have been an outstanding lead guitarist in his own right. He started out in the shadow of Duane, yet added a different and complimentary style that made the Allman Brothers Band unique. The mastery of Betts and Allman weaving their licks on the live albums At Fillmore East and Eat A Peach is, in my opinion, incomparable in Rock music history. In Gregg Allman’s memoir, My Cross To Bear, he talks about how the band honed their skills by playing constantly. When they were in cites to perform concerts, they would spend their free time playing free shows at local parks. They were, arguably, the tightest jam band in Rock history. (The Tedeschi-Trucks Band, with their Allman Brothers pedigree, may be the next best thing.)

With the untimely death of Duane in 1971 at the age of 24, Betts became the sole guitar player in the band. Reluctant to find a Duane replacement, the band instead added the young and blossoming Chuck Leavell as a piano player to be the foil for Betts. After the death of their bass player and Duane’s kindred spirit, Berry Oakley, they recorded the album Brothers and Sisters, which became the band’s best-selling album. Betts wrote four of the seven songs including their biggest hit, Ramblin’ Man and the FM radio favorite, Jessica. This was when I first saw the band. They played at the now defunct Chicago Stadium on November 1, 1973. (A memorable streak for me as at the tender age of 17, I went to three concerts in three nights; The Moody Blues, Frank Zappa – yes, The Mothers on Halloween, and Allman Brothers Band.) All these years later, I am still going to concerts and music festivals and have already lined up five over the next five months. Yet, after all these years, when I think back to my favorite shows, that 1973 Allman Brothers show still stands out as my all-time favorite.

The Allman Brothers eventually went back to the two-guitar format, first with Warren Haynes and later with Derek Trucks. In the end, Gregg Allman had a falling out with Betts, and the Allman Brothers continued without him until they called it quits in 2014.

With the loss of Duane Allman, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks, Gregg Allman and now Dickie Betts, drummer Jaimoe is the only surviving member of the original band. With the love I have for this band, I am kicking off the weekend in memory of Dickie Betts with Allman Brothers Band and the Dickie Betts song, In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed.

[longliverockback]

The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East [SACD] 1992 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab ————————————————— Tracks CD One: 1. Statesboro Blues 2. Done Somebody Wrong 3. Stormy Monday 4. You Don’t Love Me

Tracks CD Two: 1. Hot ‘Lant 2. In Memory of Elizabeth Reed 3. Whipping Post —————————————————

Duane Allman

Gregg Allman

Richard Betts

Jai Johanny Johanson

Berry Oakley

Butch Trucks

* Long Live Rock Archive

[the-contemptress]

As soon as the weather hits 80° I start blaring the entire "At Fillmore East" Allman Brothers album

[jt1674]

[the-cricket-chirps]

Geraldo Bezerra

The Allman Brothers Band, Fillmore East Poster

ca. 1971

[rastronomicals]

10:07 PM EST November 16, 2023:

The Allman Brothers Band - "Stormy Monday" From the album At Fillmore East (July 1971)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

[dinosaursr66]

Dickie and Duane trading licks and Gregg bringing it.

SONG OF THE DAY - Friday, April 19, 2024

[kosmik-signals]

“Replacing and surpassing the long out-of-print compilation from 1996… To make this Sonic Journal we went back to Owsley’s original source reels and made fresh Plangent processed transfers.”

[spilladabalia]

The Allman Brothers Band - Whipping Post - 9/23/1970 - Fillmore East -

[history105rockandrollblog]

Lecture 13: “Statesboro Blues” (1971) - The Allman Brothers Band: The Allman Brothers Band released their third album, At Fillmore East in July 1971. Recorded over two nights in March (12 and 13) of 1971, At Fillmore East would be the band’s breakthrough album reaching the #13 spot on the Billboard Top 100. Recognized as one of the best live rock albums ever recorded, it was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important” and added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2004. Duane Allman really showcases his guitar playing prowess in the opening track, “Statesboro Blues.”  

[agoodsongeveryday]

Day Nine Hundred and Sixteen

My friends tell me That I've been such a fool And I have to stand by and take it, baby All for lovin' you I drown myself in sorrow As I look at what you've done But nothin' seems to change The bad times stay the same And I can't run

[justwalkiingthedog]

The Allman Brothers Band - Whipping Post - 9/23/1970 - Fillmore East (Of...

[jt1674]

[justforbooks]

Dickey Betts

Guitarist, singer and founding member of the Allman Brothers Band best known for writing their 1973 hit Ramblin’ Man

Dickey Betts, who has died aged 80, was a founder member of the Allman Brothers Band, one of the most influential US “southern rock” groups of the 1970s. The hard-living outfit blazed out of Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969 with a mix of rock, blues, country and jazz that defined the genre, also influencing artists such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, the Black Crowes and Kid Rock. They scored several platinum and gold albums and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Although the six-piece band was ostensibly led by the blond- haired Allman brothers, Duane and Gregg (guitar and keyboards/vocals respectively), as joint lead guitarist, singer and main songwriter Betts played a crucial role. A larger than life character with his cowboy hats, long moustache and gunslinger good looks, Betts wrote many of the band’s best loved songs, including Jessica, Blue Sky and the 1973 US No 2 smash Ramblin’ Man, inspired by life on the road.

The signature duelling of Betts’s and Duane Allman’s lead guitars rewrote the rule book of how twin guitarists play together - previously one had played lead and the other rhythm. The band’s huge fanbase included President Jimmy Carter, and in 2020 Betts even received the rare accolade of a mention in a Bob Dylan song, when Murder Most Foul contained the line “Play Oscar Peterson, play Stan Getz/Play Blue Sky, play Dickey Betts.”

He was also the inspiration for the rock star character played by Billy Crudup in the former rock journalist Cameron Crowe’s film Almost Famous (2000), the director having been drawn to Betts’s aura of “possible danger and playful recklessness behind his eyes”.

Betts was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, one of the three children of Harold, a carpenter, and his wife, Sarah (nee Brinson), who wrote poetry and played the cornet in a Salvation Army band. Although his father was also a keen fiddler, Dickey’s first instrument was the ukelele, which he started playing aged five, later graduating to the mandolin and the banjo.

He was at West Gate elementary school when he wrote his first song, Seven Years With Pamela, about his sister. He then attended various West Palm Beach schools until seventh grade, dropping out of high school when he was 16, by which time his pursuits included carpentry, hunting and listening to the Grand Ole Opry on the family radio.

Hearing Chuck Berry’s Maybellene in his mid-teens prompted another switch of instrument, as he “started realising that girls like guitars”. He dropped out of high school aged 16 to tour the US with a travelling circus in his first band, the Swinging Saints, but was playing in Second Coming with the bassist Berry Oakley when Duane Allman invited both men to join his new group.

The lineup was completed by the drummer Butch Trucks and – unusually in white-dominated 60s southern rock - a black second drummer, James Lee Johnson, who had previously played with Otis Redding and Percy Sledge.

Although sales of their first two albums were sluggish, Duane Allman’s appearance on Eric Clapton’s 1970 album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs – which included the classic hit Layla – boosted the heavy-touring Allman Brothers Band’s rising profile. Their 1971 live album At Fillmore East sold 1m copies.

After Duane Allman and Oakley were killed in motorcycle accidents in 1971 and 1972 respectively, Betts led a rejigged lineup. The 1973 album Brothers and Sisters – featuring Ramblin’ Man and the instrumental Jessica, later the theme to the television motoring show Top Gear – topped the US charts for five weeks, while 1975’s Win, Lose Or Draw went into the Top five. By then the band were succumbing to a familiar music industry cocktail of success, drugs, alcohol and feuding.

Betts and Gregg Allman both made solo albums, before Betts felt betrayed when the latter testified against the band’s road manager in a 1976 drugs case and refused to work with him again. Nevertheless, they regrouped in 1978, splitting again in 1982.

A second comeback in 1989 proved more enduring, although in 2000 Betts was fired over his drinking. That third spell in the band had been dogged by alcohol and drug abuse, lawsuits and arrests, and in 1996 he was charged with aggravated domestic assault after pointing a handgun at his fifth wife, Donna (nee Stearns), whom he had married in 1989. The charges were dropped after Betts agreed to enter rehab.

In his later years he returned with his own Dickey Betts Band and played in the band Great Southern with his son Duane. True to his ramblin’ man credentials, he remained on the road to the last, even after brain surgery following a 2018 fall at home, and he released live albums well into his 70s.

He is survived by Donna and his children, Kimberly, Christy, Jessica and Duane.

🔔 Forrest Richard Betts, musician, singer and songwriter, born 12 December 1943; died 18 April 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[rastronomicals]

5:18 AM EST November 19, 2023:

The Allman Brothers Band - "You Don't Love Me" From the album At Fillmore East (July 1971)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

Bands Whose Best Albums are Live

  1. Humble Pie - Performance: Rockin' the Fillmore   2. Rainbow - On Stage   3. Cheap Trick - At Budokan   4. Deep Purple - Made In Japan   5. Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush - Live   6. The Allman Brothers - At Fillmore East   7. The Who - Live At Leeds

[fugengulsen]

The Allman Brothers Band ► Hot 'Lanta Live at Fillmore East Closing Nig...