I don't understand Dicky Betts' Greatness

If you've got a solid handle on who plays what on the Fillmore East "Whipping Post," listen again, closely. I love Duane, but Dickey does much of the heavy lifting there. When I realized that, it raised my opinion of Dickey's playing a bit more.

 

The fact that he had to survive childhood with a name like Dicky Betts is enough for me. Man has balls of iron.

 

It's never a good sign when the artist's name is misspelled in the thread title.

 

I hate these negative threads as well.
Too many of them in my opinion.
Who cares who you don't like or don't get.
Tell us what you enjoy, mybe we can all learn something from that.

 

And a threadcrap, too. Not you, him @Bobsblkwax

 

I've never thought Dickey was one of the greatest guitarists either -- but that never stopped me from enjoying his songs and his playing.

 

Yes indeed. Dickey does carry a bit of that weight during Whipping Post. His solo towards the end of Stormy Monday is great, also.

I guess the OP doesn't care for Dickey Betts. Doesn't bother me.

 

'Cause opinions are like a***holes? Everybody is one...

Category:Songs written by Dickey Betts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia »

+ High Falls...

 

And his 70's solo albums are gold as well. "Highway Call" (with Vasser), "Dickey Betts and Great Southern" (Bougonvillea!!), "Atlanta Burning Down".

He's the man.

 

guessing you never heard him play live

 

He always sounds to me like he's slightly out of tune.

 

The Allman Brothers clearly liked Him!!!

 

As a guitarist who has been playing 50 years now, I'll just toss a few thoughts out to chew on.

Many notes cover a multitude of sins. What I mean by that is when you play a solo with a lot of notes, surely some of them will stick. But there's also a dilution that happens. In the midst of the notes that are really saying something, you have what Zappa called "gnat notes." Notes which are just taking up space.

My personal opinion is that it's much harder to do what Dickey, Jeff Beck and David Gilmour do... edit their playing down to the bare essentials necessary to convey the desired emotion.

Now "notey-ness" is a valid emotion in and of itself. It's hard to convey frenzied intensity without it. But man does not live by bread alone. While it's great to have the "blizzard of notes" trick in your bag, the vast majority of times it's going to serve both the guitarist and the audience better if a guitarist can construct a simple melody that both says something profound, and is also simple enough to stick in the human consciousness. For example, as much as I love and admire Alan Holdsworth's playing, it doesn't stick the way the solo from "Money" does. Gilmour's solos tend to take on a zeitgeist that Holdsworth's rarely do (unless I suppose one was inclined to transcribe them and learn them note for note).

I enjoy both Duane and Dickey. Arguably, the magic is that their expressive temperaments were so different. Imagine if ABB had two guitarists like Duane. I think it would have been less interesting. For example, I think Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Outlaws somewhat suffered from this problem. There wasn't as much contrast between the guitarists as I might have liked. Certainly not as much contrast as there was between Duane and Dickey.

Sometimes I (like the OP) feel that Dickey can be a bit sedate for my personal tastes. But that's just Dickey being Dickey. He wasn't put on this earth to please me. I'm grateful for the thoughtful melodic quality he brought to blues-based rock, which often digresses into member measuring contests (who can play the most notes).

Dickey may never be the OP's cup of tea. That's perfectly OK. To the OP's credit, I didn't hear him say that "Dickey sucks." He merely said (in so many words), "Dickey doesn't do it for me. What am I missing?" We all have a right to say that about any music at any time. My advice (and it's advice I follow myself) is to not waste time with music (either listening or playing) if it doesn't wow you. By all means listen to as much music as you can and give everything a chance, but some stuff just isn't gonna do it for you. That's OK. There's too much great music out there that will. Embrace the wow; jettison the meh.

 

Birth name:
Forrest Richard Betts

 

I love this footage, Dickey Betts is real dude.



His solo LP, Highway Call, is one of my faves too. Great player, no doubt about it.

 

The Allman's definitely sounded better with both. Picking between the two, while they were playing together, is akin to choosing between Glenn Tipton or K.K. Downing.

 

How on earth is "Elizabeth Reed" NOT a song?? Because there's no lyrics for you to "rock out" along to? What a short-sighted definition of music you have. It's a wonderfully-composed, incredibly played SONG!!

 

i have all of those, plus i'm a musician myself, and i've always found betts boring.

 

I've been listening to the expanded Fillmore shows and my appreciation of Dickey's playing has grown even stronger. I have to wonder how his standing in the history of the band would be had Duane not eaten that peach...?

 

+ Light touch, soaring jazzy runs...wrote some of the ABB's best known songs.

- Not known for being the nicest guy in the world.

 

I don't understand you not understanding... Dickey Betts has always been a hell of a great guit-fiddle player.
Dickey and Duane were magic together, well for that matter, Duane (RIP brother) and Eric (Derek and the Dominoes) were magic.
But in the grand scheme of things, if you don't feel it when Mr. Betts plays, then you don't feel it. It's your lose...
Relisten to Brothers and Sisters.
You probably don't get J.J. Cale (as one of the greatest guit-fiddlers) either???
Jelly, jelly, jelly

 

It's like owning and riding a Harley. "If I had to explain it to you , you wouldn't understand" .

 

Maybe the OP doesn't feel any sense of loss at all. Does the whole world have to share your personal taste in music? What about stuff I love that you might not? Must my world view be that you experience a loss because you might not care for it and therefore choose not to listen to it?

Or perhaps, you're in the "everybody on record is a genius" camp - you basically like everything. That would certainly be your right, but some of us are more discerning in our personal tastes about what we like or don't like in the great universe of recorded music.

Since you brought it up, JJ Cale bores me to tears. I feel no sense of loss whatsoever by not listening to him.

 

Blue Sky - simple, sweet great song.

 

I think Betts and Duane Allman complemented each other perfectly. Duane was just amazing, inspired, pushing the boundaries of the instrument. Betts was more lyrical and melodic, but also more conventional. Together, they were magic.