RIP Gregg Allman

Apologies if this article from the Los Angeles Times has been posted already. I was catching up on the Sunday paper today and came across this piece. Gregg Allman was a most soulful and humble man.

Gregg Allman was the voice and face of Southern rock

By Randall Roberts
May 28, 2017
Gregg Allman was the voice and face of Southern rock

Call it the big bang of Southern rock: the convergence of forces that led two brothers, Duane and Gregg Allman, to convene in Jacksonville, Fla., on March 26, 1969, for a jam session that would beget the Allman Brothers Band.

Even further, call it a defining moment of the jam band era, because what happened that day helped set the foundation for a uniquely American, and enduring, musical movement.

Gregg Allman, who died Saturday at age 69, served as a primary voice and face of that movement, and he helped carry the Allmans’ music to the masses through songs including the epic “Whipping Post,” “Midnight Rider” and “Melissa.” He became a gossip column staple through his relationship with Cher, wrestled with various addictions and lived much of his life on the road playing music.

On that Wednesday in 1969, though, Gregg was hardly a hot property, and he arrived at drummer Butch Trucks’ house to face the skepticism. Gregg had been living in Los Angeles, frustrated and signed to a fruitless deal with Liberty Records. His older brother Duane, who would die in a motorcycle crash in 1971, had his own label issues, and retreated to the Allmans’ hometown to start anew with his own band.

“It was real tense in there. You could have cut it with a knife,” Gregg wrote of that first rehearsal in his 2012 autobiography (with Alan Light), “My Cross to Bear.”

“Thank God they had a real good sound system set up, so when I started singing, they could hear me, and everything came together at that moment.”

What converged mixed rock, blues, country and jazz. It was twangy but not folky like the Grateful Dead. The Allmans’ music was tightly wound and urgent where the Dead’s was laid back, with extended solo and improvised moments that reveled in structural freedom.

How much freedom? The Allmans’ Fillmore East version of “Whipping Post” earned heavy rotation on FM radio — despite it being longer than 22 minutes.

Through it all, Allman’s cigarette-strained voice, raspy and soulful, delivered originals and blues standards, a stew of influences transforming songs such as Blind Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues” and T-Bone Walker’s “Stormy Monday” into rollicking rockers featuring the dueling guitar action of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts. The double-drumming of Trucks and Jai Johanny Johanson added rhythmic heft.

Gregg played organ and sang, uniting the competing textures under the guidance of spare keyboard chords, wicked solos and his husky voice.

Hailed as classics now, the band’s first few albums — with Gregg responsible for most of the songwriting -- pleased the critics but barely made a dent on the charts. Although the band was incendiary live, its studio albums didn’t pack as much punch.

Those who want punch, though, should blast the group’s breakout album, “At Fillmore East.” Recorded across a number of nights at the New York outpost of Bill Graham’s club, the four sides of the double album featured a mere seven songs.

Within those few songs, however, were mountainous improvised moments made possible by a well-practiced band that had been touring for nearly two years straight.

To say they jammed is an understatement. Songs such as “You Don’t Love Me” and “Hot ’Lanta” seemed to spring from the gate at full sprint and carried momentum without any noodling and little self-indulgence.

As a lyricist, Allman was hardly a genius, and may have relied too much on blues tropes about being short on money and time, about hard love and messy rejection. In “Whipping Post,” which he wrote, the singer bemoans losing a lover who “took all my money, wrecks my new car/ Now she's with one of my good time buddies/ They're drinkin’ in some cross-town bar.”

Despite the whipping post’s symbolism in the antebellum South, the song makes no reference to its use as a tool of slavery.

A sin of omission, perhaps, but by its very nature the mostly white Southern rock movement could be a minefield, with some acts and their fans celebrating regional heritage by embracing the Confederate flag.

Yet Gregg Allman, who recorded six solo albums during his career, strongly rejected symbols of Southern pride that called for a return of the Confederacy, doing so as he celebrated the blues and soul music that inspired him.

“I was taught how to play music by these very, very kind older black men,” he said in a 2015 interview with Radio.com. “My best friend in the world is a black man. If people are gonna look at that flag and think of it as representing slavery, then I say burn every one of them.”

 

^^^^^...only 2 out of 6 of that original band left now...

 

Heck yeah!

 

A heck of a Valentine's Day. And that same day, across the pond, The Who were recording Live At Leeds!

 

Jim Ladd is doing a tribute to Gregg on his SiriusXM radio show, right now. RIP, Gregg!

 

Like the way the article starts, then cringe at the socio-political slant the author feels compelled to exploit. Celebrate his musical legacy. F'in LA Times.

 

Wow. The top two live rock recordings of all time. Of course, I'm partial to Fillmore East.

 

Both reside proudly in my collection, with Fillmore East represented about 8 times over in various formats and remasters.

 

I think the Allman Brothers lp that you are partial to was actually recorded in March '71 (the famous Fillmore East shows).

 

Those are solid records. More than worthy additions to the ABB canon.

 

Agreed. One other nit to pick: I don't consider the ABB "Southern Rock". They may have been a progenitor and an inspiration but they were way too diverse in sound to be pigeonholed thusly. They were on a whole other plane. I'd say the "voice and face" of Southern Rock is Ronnie Van Zant.

 

Gregg Allman’s Longtime Manager Recalls the Singer’s Final Days and Their Career Together (EXCLUSIVE)

Very insightful.

 

Allmans played Three Rivers in August 1973. I was in Florida on a post high-school graduation/ vacation trip. Otherwise I'd have been vending at another classic rock show .....

 

Agree 100%. Southern rock was just a label that they got looped into, but they were far greater than that label and genre.

 

Yes, three of the best albums of the 90s! I was playing the two on the right this weekend.
A favourite:

 

RIP to a legendary voice. I'll be listening to the music he made until I'm gone, too.

 

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154352790530698

 

Duane, Berry, Gregg and Butch are probably making some fine music right now.... hard to believe that the only core members left alive are Dickey and Jaimoe.

 

His three solo albums from the 1970's are really of high quality. He was really such a marvelous talent and hopefully his estate reissues some of his out-of-print product (two of his three 1970's era solo projects are out of print).

 

Last November I bought this reissue of Laid Back. I highly recommend it : Gregg Allman-Laid Back-200 Gram Vinyl Record|Acoustic Sounds

 

Son Devon Allman :

" Wanted to take the time to thank y'all for the amazing outpouring of love and light sent to my family over the last few days. Our family has been deeply touched by the heartfelt tributes and loving words that have rolled in. Beyond that I'm speechless. I'm numb. I'm empty. My Dad once told me "Son, there's something on this planet more powerful than the nuclear bomb" I said "yeah? What's that Pop?" And he replied ....."words" Your kind words have helped during a very difficult time. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. One love > DA "

.

 

I can, honestly, envision a Super Deluxe Edition of Laid Back happening at some point. It's certainly worthy of it. It sold well enough to be certified Gold, it spawned a top 40 single and a well received tour. I can imagine it being like the Brothers & Sisters set...disc one being the album itself,; disc 2 with unreleased studio tracks (i.e. demos, alternate mixes/takes, '74 tour rehearsals, etx), though I wonder how much overlap there'd be with the One More Try Anthology, and discs 3 and 4 having a full live set...between the dates at the Capitol Theatre and Carnegie Hall, three shows were recorded...take the best one and include the Cowboy set...this would all cover Laid Back and The Gregg Allman Tour nicely.

 

I was driving through town yesterday and saw on the marquee that Devon Allman is playing the Kent Stage on June 12...

 

Yesterday I was talking to a friend over the phone about our favorite Gregg Allman song. So many great ones throughout his career. My favorite was the one that first really made me take notice of him as a singer, which was "Melissa" (studio track from Eat a Peach). Such an amazingly soulful voice from a young man who was only 24 at the time he laid down that track. People talk about songs that "take you someplace". Melissa is one of them - it is so real to me. I believe an entire book can be written about just this song alone.

This morning, at the beginning of my usual 75-minute drive to work, I punched in my cell phone music player on shuffle mode and Melissa was one of the first tunes that came up. I let it go on repeat for the whole trip, must have played abut 20 times, just reveling in its beauty. What Gregg Allman did with that song, and many others, never grows old.