I can't believe it's already been 25 years since this happened:
I think they sound pretty damn good. it's just too bad they couldn't of worked things out with Dickey.
@fender31 I thought it sounded darn good too. I had the impression by the time they played Atlanta in 2000 Dickey was a mess. So I never tried to find a tape of Atlanta. I didn't want to hear Dickey in that kind of shape.
But other things had been brewing for recent years.
Dickey refused to allow the band to be involved in Butch Truck's personal business ideas.
Gregg and Butch didn't like what they thought to be substandard original material Dickey put into the sets and refused to drop them. Tombstone Eyes, Rave On, J. J.'s Alley etc.
Gregg didn't like Nobody Knows and refuses to continue singing it thinking that would get it dropped but Dickey wouldn't and just began singing it himself.
Dickey played too loud and refused to turn down causing Jack Pearson to quit in 1999.
Dickey pulled a knife on Alan Woody in 1996 so he and Warren left in 1997.
Dickey was a pistol!! But so talented with his own extremely unique style on guitar and created wonderful songs for the ABB. Revival, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, Blue Sky, Les Brer in A Minor, Ramblin' Man ( Butch hated Ramblin' Man), Southbound, Jessica, Pony Boy, High Falls, Crazy Love, Seven Turns, etc etc.
Gregg said much of it had been brewing for several years.
Southbound by Dickey Betts. It's the Brothers and Sisters arrangement recorded live in San Francisco in November, 1973.
It's really something to hear a six man band smoke a song like this!!!
A show I feel like I ought to listed to, not one I want to for fear of what I might hear
But based on some comments here and in the setlist section leftover from passed days I will give it a shot
Love how this site keeps things like this alive
Comments from Original ABB Site
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I have the show. Sound is pretty decent, a little long winded. Lacking the usual fire in an ABB concert.
Was at Dickey’s last ABB show as well. I thought it was a fine show but it was a festival and a huge crowd so I wasn’t paying attention to the details in quite the same way as a small theatre (or recording). The drums/bass thing went on way too long for a Sun night festival ending show. Lost lots of folks by the time No One To Run With came on. True Gravity stood out as a highlight.
Who would have thought that this turned out to be Dickey’s last show with the band? Quite a setting–probably the largest crowd that I’ve ever seen at an Allmans show. It was almost a little too much at times, particularly since my b
Live Whipping Post from 1973!! Dickey, Chuck, Gregg and the entire band sound fantastic!!
They were hitting the NOTE!!
Just listened to the last Dickey show.
I kind of wish I didn't
Some really nice moments, but mostly a lot of cringey ones
I collected several of the spring 2000 shows audoence recording. My memory is that the Memphis show was the best of the bunch. I think ther were 4 instrummentals that night, including Rave On and J J's Alley.
The NOLA show from that spring may have been the worst. At one point they started playing Every Hungry Blackhearted Woman.
Not kidding, Dickey was playing one song and Derek was playing the other, and it went on like that for a painfully long time. Not just a cringe worthy moment. It was really bad. This was just days before the Atlanta show and I am convinced this was the moment Gregg, Butch and Jaimo decided that something had to be done.
- @porkchopbob I think that was in Memphis at about the same time but I am not certain.
@kcjimmy It want as simple as deciding to do something. I was following Butch Trucks' blog and Butch wrote he had been fed up with Dickey for years and Dickey's dictatorship approach of deciding what the band would do with the sets, shows and the business end of the band.
Then the spring tour is what finally did it for Butch. Having to play Dickey's latest songs he and Gregg thought were no good, the bullying and Dickey being too drunk to play the songs correctly. According to Butch, Dickey was an alcoholic and drug addict. ( Used to hear that about Gregg too!!!!)
So after Atlanta, Butch said he decided to quit. He told his wife that was the last time he would play with Dickey and the band. That he was done with the Allman Brothers.
Then Butch's wife found out from Gregg's wife Gregg was quitting too!!!!!! So Butch called Gregg and said " He has been holding us hostage and shoving us around for years. Instead of us quitting, let's get rid of Dickey and keep the band together. Butch said Gregg told him Dickey's contract wouldn't let us do that. And Butch told Gregg that Dickey didn't have a contract. The four founders don't have contracts. We are the owners and everyone else has contracts with us. All we have to do is vote and Dickey is off the stage.
They called Jaimoe but Jaimoe refused to vote Dickey out even though Dickey voted with Gregg and Butch in 1980 to vote Jaimoe out of the band. But Jaimoe insisted the only way an original member can leave the band is die or quit.
So Gregg and Butch gave Jaimoe notice they would quit before they would do the summer shows with Dickey. Jaimoe then went along with a summer suspension with the plan of asking Dickey to get help with his demons and we will meet after the summer tour to discuss the future to save the summer 2000 tour. Jimmy Herring at Butch's suggestion was hired to fill in for Dickey.
No one wanted to meet with Dickey and present the decision so they faxed Dickey at his home.
Dickey sued the band rather than checking into rehab and wanted to be paid for his contributions to the success of the band over the years and charged he was being impersonated by Jimmy Herring.
The band refused to reveal what they paid Dickey in an arbitration settlement and with this settlement Jaimoe decided Dickey quit so they moved on without him. A couple of sources I read online claimed Dickey received $1 million.
Jimmy Herring was offered to be Dickey's permanent replacement but Jimmy refused. Jimmy said he was a Dickey fan and Dickey's solo on One Way Out on Eat A Peach was one of his favorites when he was growing up and Jimmy said Dickey's tone is just crazy good...and that he didn't want to be known as the man who replaced Dickey Betts. Gregg said when Jimmy wouldn't stay he was ready to quit again but Warren Haynes was approached and said he would play in 2001 then decide. Plus Gregg said Warren and Derek wouldn't be replacing Dickey because both were in the band with Dickey.
Depending what mood Gregg was in he would say in interviews they fired Dickey and other times he would say Dickey quit.
As far as I know Dickey continued to own 1/4th of Allman Brothers Band Inc.
Apparently if Jaimoe had not voted with Gregg and Butch to suspend Dickey for the summer, the Allman Brothers Band would have broken up in late spring 2000.
Butch wrote on his blog moving forward they would soon stop playing any songs written by Dickey and Ramblin' Man is out immediately. That the band would never play that song again and Butch said if he had it to do over, he would have fought hard to keep Ramblin' Man from being on an Allman Brothers Band album. And they should have voted Dickey out after Berry Oakley died and hired new guitar player and a bass player.
And a year or so later they were leaving out anything Dickey wrote. But soon over Butch's objections more and more of Dickey's songs returned to the sets.
I know of a few people who as far as they are concerned think the ABB should have broken up when Duane Allman died. Maybe they are right. But this would have ended in 1971 rather than 2014.
But the band I fell in love with did stop existing in October 1971. To me no later lineup of the Allman Brothers Band sounded like the original band with Duane. That's why I play Fillmore East and Eat A Peach far more than anything else available.
@robertdee I always enjoy your thoughts. I loved Butch Trucks's blog. He was very accessible at that time. He would post on this site. I had openly disagreed with his politics more than once on the Forum here, but when I needed his help I sent him a PM and he not only responded, he gave me Bert & Kirk's cell phone numbers. He was a good guy. I like to remember the BLHT days. He and Dickey got along pretty well. All the video I've seen from those days, those two were just smiling, grinning, laughing and cutting up. I Saw them at the Moonshadow Saloon outside Atlanta. It was before they named themselves. Really good playing.
I wasn't suggesting that specific event in NOLA was the reason they fired Dickey. No question it had been brewing for a long time. What I really should've said was that it may well have been the straw that broke the camels back, so to say. It's very painful to listen to because it went on for too long. it was like they both dug their heels in as if to say THIS is the song we're playing, and neither would let up.
Maybe I should go back and listen to it, lol. It can't be as bad as I remember it. My initial response was, "what is going on?" Then I realized they were playing two different songs and it kept going.
I have every show from that spring and while there are moments of greatness, there's a lot of flubs, but this was the worst by far. And don't forget, both Gregg and Butch kept saying they told him to LISTEN TO THE TAPES. That's why I made it a point to go get all those shows. I had to listen to the tapes. The tapes didn't lie.
My thoughts are this, as you pointed out, they put up with a lot of attitude and a lot of trouble but he was still Dickey Betts and a hell of a guitar player for most of that time. But his playing really was so bad that spring. There was no reason to put up with the rest of that stuff. They all thought he would get sober and come back. I don't think anybody dreamed he would walk away and stay gone forever. I love Dickey and I was so sad when all that happened but it was more sad to hear the flubs.
@kcjimmy I remember seeing the five man band lineup in North Carolina in 1972 and about 4 or 5 songs after they played One Way Out, Dickey kicked it off again. Then Berry Oakley rush up to Dickey and stood right in front of Dickey and began playing You Don't Love Me on bass at full volume and Dickey realized his mistake and switched over to You Don't Love Me then the rest of the band joined in.
It's a shame Dickey had those problems. I've met Dickey a few times and have his autograph. Dickey was a long time drinker but so was Gregg. Gregg also had shows in the 1970's where he flubbed his way through shoes both vocals and keys. Gregg admitted those days in an interview in the wake of Dickey leaving. Gregg said the band should have sacked him. But Butch wrote that Gregg wasn't a mean drunk. And he was not in the middle of the stage so they would turn down his organ and cut back on songs Gregg would sing and play more instrumentals.
I doubt the Allman Brothers Band would have made it after Duane died if it weren't for Dickey. Their biggest selling album Brothers and Sisters is Dickey's. He wrote 4 of the songs and the ones which got the most airplay. Butch Trucks said on his blog after Dickey left that by the time they got to Brothers and Sisters, they were actually the Dickey Betts band and they had a different sound and that post Duane sound was emulated according to Butch by modern country bands and Butch didn't care for that at all. He critized that several times.
But I took remember when Dickey and Butch seemed to be tight. I didn't know though that Butch had been irritating 1970 that he didn't get a writing credit with Dickey for In Memory of Elizabeth Reed. Butch said Dickey had the melody and the intro but Butch wrote some changes and the drums part at the end.
I myself wrote Butch and asked him did he complain to Duane Allman. Butch said he did but Duane decided the member who brought a song to the band gets the credit and the evolution of the song while being worked up by the band is arrangement of the song.
Butch did admit Whipping Post was a slow ballad when Gregg brought it to the band. Butch changed the time signature and Berry Oakley wrote the bass intro and the bass line but Duane then took said it's Gregg's song alone.
Gregg did share writing credit on Standback with Berry Oakley but the music was brought in by Berry and Gregg wrote the words. Berry called the music Return to Calico or something like that.
Butch was upset about writing credit because Polydor released a Decade Of Hits compilation album in 1991 and it surprisingly sold over 2 million copies. All the tracks were from Capricorn albums so Butch and the band made NOTHING!! But the writers of the songs made a lot of money. Butch said Dickey and Gregg made over a million dollars each and he got nothing. Not getting any writing credit for what he contributed had Butch very upset and publicly so.
Dickey had Crazy Love, Ramblin' Man, Southbound, Revival, Jessica, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, Blue Sky on the release so obiviously Dickey made big money and so did Gregg. If they had put Hot Lanta on it Butch would have gotten something.
Butch said he was going to find ways for him to make money off the band beyond playing in the band. Then a few years later Butch was upset at Dickey for blocking every attempt to involve the band in business ideas Butch had.
It's shocking how Dickey's lifestyle tanked his guitar playing in 2000 because in 1999 the year before, Butch himself was bragging about Dickey sounding the best right now he has since the early 1990's.
Here he is sounding real good just a year before. I show this show and Dickey and Derek played great together.
Check out Blue Sky and Ramblin' Man.
@robertdee I like this:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rDDkDhCnh7E&pp=ygUjYnV0Y2ggdHJ1Y2tzIGRpY2tleSBiZXR0cyBpbnRlcnZpZXc%3D
@kcjimmy That is a great interview with Butch and Dickey. And very moving to hear them discuss the loss of their leader and sparkplug Duane Allman.
Butch and Dickey are certainly good friends and band mates there. Now both of them are gone too and so is Gregg. Jaimoe is the only one left. God bless him.
Did you see how well Dickey was playing at Las Vegas in 1999 on Blue Sky and Ramblin' Man? Just a year before Dickey's collapse in 2000. It's had to understand how he tanked so quickly.
Someone wrote in the comments below this track. "I love Lynyrd Skynyrd but they could only hope to be as good as the Allman Brothers".
I saw several shows in 1970 and 1971 when they played this tight and clean. With good headphones you can hear how they could SWING the music like a big band and the little things Berry Oakley, Butch and Jaimoe do as the song moves along are sensational. Hard to believe musicians just in their early to mid 20's are playing at this level!!!
@robertdee I miss them so much.
I was given free tickets to 1999 show. I hadn't seen them since 96. I didn't realize Warren & Woody were gone until I got there. I wondered who is that kid (Derek)? It was a really good show and Dickey was pretty much on top of his game. As soon as the 2000 tour was announced I bought tickets for Kansas City and St. Louis. Then the fax came.......
I was upset but I listened to the tapes. I REALLY figured they would work things out that summer. But instead the tensions got worse. I am VERY thankful for the music we got from 2000 -2014. But I really miss Gregg Allman singing the blues, Duane, Dickey, Berry & Butch playing them.
@kcjimmy he he. That is Berry Oakley talking at the end of Stormy Monday on Fillmore East.
He says "Brother Gregg Allman singing the blues. Duane, Dickey and (FADE OUT).
Years later an expanded release came out and Thom Doucette's harmonica solo was put back in. Tom Dowd cut it.
Then Berry Oakley said " Brother Gregg Allman singing the blues. Duane, Dickey and Ace playing it" or something like that. Going by my fading memory.
Derek Trucks was suggested by Dickey when Jack Pearson quit. Dickey called Butch Trucks to see what he thought and Butch said the slide playing is there and ready but Butch didn't know about lead guitar.
Dickey played with Derek and was hired after telling Gregg and Jaimoe he wanted Derek Trucks.
Derek Trucks said his dad was playing Fillmore East, Eat A Peach, Layla etc around him as far back as he could remember and Duane Allman was his first big influence and getting to play those old songs with Dickey was very special to him and he was sorry it ended up the way it did. Derek thought Dickey was playing his butt off the first year then Dickey became unhinged and unpredictable and two of the other founders turned on Dickey.
By 2015 Gregg had not spoken to Dickey in 15 years and missed him. Gregg started playing Southbound in his solo band and saying " This was written by Dickey Betts".
Dickey heard about it and he must have missed Gregg too and called Gregg and they talked on and off until Gregg's death.
I understand Dickey never spoke to Butch Trucks again which is too bad.
Warren Haynes said the band had too many people counting on the band to tour every year for their living. If they had been like the Rolling Stones and took long breaks, sometimes a couple of years, off between tours the blow up with Dickey would have never happened.
Warren also said he and Derek felt it was Dickey's gig and one of the other would step down if Dickey wanted to come back but Dickey and Butch Trucks never showed any interest in it.
@kcjimmy Here is the restored version with the harmonica solo and Berry Oakley's banter at the end NOT faded out before Berry says "Ace".
