Not a very uplifting topic for sure, but there has to be a song or two that you dislike. As in, when you saw them live you went to the restroom when they started it.
For me, this is easy.
1. Liz Reed. No idea why, I just don't like it. Other than it doesn't seem to go anywhere.
2. Rockin' Horse. Warren has beaten this into the ground.
3. Soulshine. Beautiful song but see number two.
Some of us from this site went up to Niagara Falls to see them for two nights in 2006 and one night they played Rockin' Horse and Soulshine back to back.
Everything in Moderation. Including Moderation.
Great topic, and a tough one to admit at times.
I like "Soulshine" but I imagine even Warren is tired of it. He's expected to play it at every show.
I do also hate "Rockin' Horse". To be fair, I liked the funky intro they added around 2010, but then that descending line hits and I'm heading for concessions. It's a Mule song, not an ABB song.
I always thought "Good Clean Fun" was more of a Skynyrd song and one of the weaker tunes off of Seven Turns.
And @lee, I understand you not liking "Liz Reed" (I like it fine) because even though the ABB are my favorite band by far, I have never really liked..... "Whipping Post". I'm cool with the studio cut but I always thought it was a little silly, like a novelty song. The great thing about ABB jams is they usually don't stay in the same place for more than 3 minutes - "Mountain Jam" and "You Don't Love Me" go in all kinds of different directions. I can listen to a 20 minutes "Dreams" any day because it goes up and it goes down like electric Miles jams. But "Whipping Post" is in top gear from the first note, 20 minutes of is too much for me. I appreciate it, the structure is definitely unique as a neo-blues song, but there were times where Warren & Derek it would turn into an exhausting shred fest. It's definitely overplayed by inferior bar bands.
... I always thought "Good Clean Fun" was more of a Skynyrd song a...
First time I heard "Crazy Love" I thought it was the best Skynyrd song I'd ever heard.
I kinda took a break on the band around the time of all the Scooter Herring stuff. There were some great songs, but during this period they never came close to the fire of Duane/Berry line-up. I think every incarnation of the band had its merits but I think that when Warren came on board the ship started to right again. I believe the Warren/Derek/Oteil line-up was on par with the originals.
"Whippin' Post" is probably my favorite song in the world.
IMO, Louisiana Lou and Three Card Monty John from Win, Lose or Draw is one of the weakest tunes ABB ever put to disc. I'm not counting the Arista years because you could find PLENTY more there. I've NEVER owned those two Arista records and have NO interest in ever owning them. I've heard cuts from them and it's like a completely different, commercial pop band. I can't knock them, they were trying their best to put food on the table and survive the disco era. Music biz: The toughest biz.........
IMO, Louisiana Lou and Three Card Monty John from Win, Lose or Draw is one of the weakest tunes ABB ever put to disc. I'm not counting the Arista years because you could find PLENTY more there. I've NEVER owned those two Arista records and have NO interest in ever owning them. I've heard cuts from them and it's like a completely different, commercial pop band. I can't knock them, they were trying their best to put food on the table and survive the disco era. Music biz: The toughest biz.........
I think it’s a fun song with a great solo by Chuck but it has no business being on an ABB album. I think only three songs from WL&D are true ABB songs: Can’t Lose...., High Falls and maybe the title song. The rest belong on a Dickey or Gregg solo album.
Funny, because Liz Reed was what really got me into the ABB along with Blue Sky.
As far as least favorite, here are a few:
Everybody's Got a Mountain to Climb - just don't like it
Heart of Stone (Stone's cover) - doesn't grab me at all
Good Morning Little School Girl - my 'go get a beer' song when they played it live
Instrumental Illness - ok, but not great
Shine It On
There are a few others ... but the great always outweighed the not so great ...
IMO, Louisiana Lou and Three Card Monty John from Win, Lose or Draw is one of the weakest tunes ABB ever put to disc. I'm not counting the Arista years because you could find PLENTY more there. I've NEVER owned those two Arista records and have NO interest in ever owning them. I've heard cuts from them and it's like a completely different, commercial pop band. I can't knock them, they were trying their best to put food on the table and survive the disco era. Music biz: The toughest biz.........
I think it’s a fun song with a great solo by Chuck but it has no business being on an ABB album. I think only three songs from WL&D are true ABB songs: Can’t Lose...., High Falls and maybe the title song. The rest belong on a Dickey or Gregg solo album.
I feel the same way about "Louisiana Lou" - I don't hate it, but it should have been on a Charlie Daniels album. I also really like "Just Another Love Song", I think it's kind of underrated
Funny, because Liz Reed was what really got me into the ABB along with Blue Sky.
As far as least favorite, here are a few:
Everybody's Got a Mountain to Climb - just don't like it
Heart of Stone (Stone's cover) - doesn't grab me at all
Good Morning Little School Girl - my 'go get a beer' song when they played it live
Instrumental Illness - ok, but not great
Shine It On
There are a few others ... but the great always outweighed the not so great ...
I'm probably one of the few who likes "Mountain to Climb" - even though it's kind of cheesy, there's something about its groove and Warren's slide I dig.
"Heart of Stone" I never understood what they were thinking, it just doesn't work for me. They didn't really do anything with it, just felt like Gregg wanted to sing it (they performed it in the late 1990s). I always thought Hittin' the Note was half a great album. Never liked "Maydell" either.
I forgot about "Schoolgirl" - I never liked their version (which is actually based on Derek Trucks Band's arrangement). Boring and kinda creepy.
@porkchopbob I heard Gregg on a radio interview about 2015, it was after they retired the ABB and he indicated he and the young guns were ready to retire the band in 2009 but one of the old members pressed to go five more years.
And Gregg came out and said he was never into all the long guitar solos and jamming. That was his brother and Oakley and Dickey that went into that and he wasn't that crazy about how they changed and stretched some of his (Gregg's) original material. Gregg said when he wrote Whipping Post it was a slow ballad. Butch gave it a new time signature, Berry the intro and new bass lines and Duane and Dickey keep getting their guitar solos longer and longer and eventually took off on flights where it went into lullabyies and jazz and sometimes train wrecks.
And Gregg said he liked his solo band the best because he is the only chief in the kitchen. I liked his solo bands too but not as much as the Allman Brothers.
I like everything on the first five albums. Even Jelly, Jelly. My original vinyl 1973 copy lists it as Early Morning Blues written by Gregg. Gregg sang new lyrics over the same music track is the word back then on that and later pressings listed it as Jelly, Jelly written by Trade Martin then later pressings still lists Trade Martin and Billy Eckstein.
I like Can't Loose What You Never Had, Just Another Love Song and High Falls off the 6th album. The rest are just so so to me.
Enlightened Rogues. Never been Crazy about Crazy Love. Like the instrumental, Need Your Love So Bad and Blind Love. Rest so so.
The only thing on the Arista albums is Maybe We Can Go Back To Yesterday. Rest of them were duds to me and I played my copies for weeks trying to like those albums. It bugged me Jaimoe was sacked before the second Arista album came out. Then I read Jaimoe only played on three tracks on Reach For the Sky and I knew then why I couldn't hear him on several tracks.
Good Clean Fun is a Johnny Neal song Dickey worked on later then Gregg got it. Epic liked it and thought it was a hit. Seven Turns is the masterpiece on that album. Shine It One surprised Gregg and is special because Shine It On is a phrase Duane said at lot.
Soulshine has worn out on me too but did become an ABB favorite. Something that didn't happen much after Brothers and Sisters.
Shades, Where It All Begins and Hitting The Note have some I like and some I don't. I'm not a Rocking Horse fan either but do like Firing Line.
Actually to me the ABB never made another album as good as Eat A Peach, B&S, Fillmore and Idlewild South. The Arista albums was hitting bottom and actually after Hitting the Note in 2003 they REALLY hit bottom. The last version of the Allman Brothers stayed together for another 11 years and couldn't get ONE new album out the door.
Of course Butch didn't see the point since they were making money off the shows but Hitting The Note didn't sell well. But Gregg insisted they were going in the studio WITHOUT Butch Trucks if need be but......well if that album came out I didn't notice:)
Gregg said in the 2015 interview this version, while not how he wrote it exactly, is closer to what he wanted the song to sound like!
Leave my Blues at Home: The only thing I like about this one is the riff trades at the end.
Come and Go Blues: Love Gregg solo acoustic version, hate the ABB version.
Gregg said in the 2015 interview this version, while not how he wrote it exactly, is closer to what he wanted the song to sound like!
I always loved this version, even if it is essentially Johnny Jenkins' "Gilded Splinters". I actually think Jonny Sandlin arranged it - which makes sense since he produced Ton-Ton Macoute.
I read Johnny started producing the album for Gregg, but Gregg was unhappy with the mix and re-did it with another producer. Here's the Duck Tapes mix which is essentially the same except Gregg sounds less good.
@porkchopbob Interesting. Yes Gregg is not as good on this mix.
Jack Pearson I think is the slide player.
Apparently Gregg got Tom Dowd to produce part of it. After recording 20 songs it says on Wikipedia over 2 and 1/2 years. Gregg cut the list down then decided it was cut too far. And Gregg had just completely quit all alcohol and drugs and suddenly didn't like was he was hearing on some tracks and talked Tom Dowd into going in with Gregg at a studio in Berkeley, California. It indicated they only used two from that session.
I bought it when it came out and enjoyed it. Rarely play it now. Also in 1997 when this album came out I remember Gregg said he couldn't get the Allman Brothers to show any interest in his new songs and the songs Dickey brought into the band then were not that good according to Gregg yet Dickey bullied those songs into a rehearsal then into the ABB set so just as he did with Laid Back, he had to put out a solo album to get his music out. I guess Gregg was talking about Tombstone Eyes which Dickey reworked and changed the title more than once and J. J.'s Alley must have been another. Gregg apparently thought neither of those were good enough to be in the band's sets.
But on the plus side I saw the Allman Brothers Band smoking hot after Jack and Otiel joined in 1997 and 1998. They were hitting the note just as strong or stronger than the Warren/Woody lineup from 1989 to 1994.
A Raleigh, North Carolina show in summer of 1997 was about the best post Duane ABB show I've seen. Dickey and Jack playing big time guitar and all of them seemed to be into it.
I still remember having the equipment making me feel a bit odd until I could care less because they were so good and what it was..was after so many shows and years this was the first Allman Brothers show I had attended where nobody played a guitar or bass made by Gibson. That struck me as odd for this band. Otiel and Dickey played Fenders and Jack had a G & L Strat type ax.
Never been a fan of Ramblin Man as ABB song. Always felt it belonged on a Betts solo album.
Liz Reed from the Fillmore East March12th first show is a favorite to crank while sitting on my deck with a glass of wine unwinding staring at the clouds while barbecuing. That version just has a raw energy and I dig the sax and Bobby Caldwell's percussion.
Also love Rocking Horse and Soulshine but can understand why some don't see them as ABB songs. YMMV
Louisiana Lou and Three Card Monty Jon was embarrassing filler.
The Arista Albums- during the Stalinist era, people were disappeared by modifying pictures and erasing records. I wish these albums could rounded up, melted, and purged from memory. Their only redeeming purpose is to show how far the band declined over a decade.
Tombstone Eyes - the 96 version wasn’t bad but got progressively worse.
Liz Reed/NLTRW - got really stale when they closed every show with this combo especially Dickey’s Liz Reed solos. Really started to phone it in. I recall a show at star lake in 97 or 98 where he was upset with his guitar or amp and just quit after 30 secs or so.
Cant get to heaven on a ten dollar bill - why?
Old Before my Time - lacked energy
JaBuMa.
Good excuse for a beer break though.
@tori Dickey did the same thing in 1994 on Whipping Post. About 30 second solo. Dickey had them looking at his amp a few times that night. I have an audience tape of that show. It was the first time I saw Dickey with his new Paul Reed Smith guitar but I think it was the amp. Saw them again in a few days at Raleigh and two tracks from that show were on 2nd set with Jessica winning a Grammy. It was a good Warren/Woody era show but Paul Riddle was filling in for Jaimoe whom Gregg said was out with a bad back.
Win, Loose or Draw of course was disappointing after the success of Brothers and Sisters. We later found out how miserable the recording of that album was and Gregg's refusal to participate at one point. Johnny Sandlin had to fly to Los Angeles and coax Gregg into a studio there to get the album finished. But it has a couple of tracks that were as good as Brothers and Sisters.
Louisiana Lou and Three Card Monty John was one that wasn't good. It sounds like Phil Walden or maybe Dickey himself wanted a follow up to Ramblin' Man. Straining to create another hit single just as they did on the Arista albums because Clive Davis was pushing for some hits and Eat A Peach, Brothers and Sisters level album sales. The ABB NEVER had album sales like that again! Only one of the Epic albums went gold (Where It All Begins) and none sold over a million copies (Platinum) like Brothers and Sisters, Eat A Peach and Fillmore East did. Their last album Hitting The Note wasn't on Epic but it didn't sell that well. Close to 200, 000 copies. Got to sell 500,000 to get a gold record.
My favorite band by far after 1973 just didn't sell a lot of albums. But in the 1990s through the end especially on the east coast, they drew big crowds for their live shows. Maybe the Grateful Dead would be another with huge crowds but generally weak album sales.
Trying for another Ramblin' Man!
They couldn't find Jaimoe and Butch when Dickey showed up in Macon to record this and Sweet Mama so Bill Stewart and Johnny Sandlin played the twin drums. Supposedly Gregg isn't on either track as he was in LA but I hear an organ on Louisiana Lou. Could be Chuck. Or dubbed in later in Los Angeles.b
@porkchopbob: Glad to hear some love for Just Another Love Song on WLD. I always LOVED it, thought it was very underrated as you said. VERY pretty tune by Dickey!
Never been a fan of Ramblin Man as ABB song. Always felt it belonged on a Betts solo album.
Agreed. Unfortunately, when the ABB are referred to in MSM, it's always the song mentioned 1st because it was their only one to debut on the top 10 chart.
@robslob Just Another Love Song is indeed a pretty song from Dickey. It could have easily been on Highway Call if he had it then. Love Dickey's tone, phasing and bends. Nobody sounded like Dickey!!
Back in the mid 70's the word was it's another song Gregg isn't on from Win, Loose or Draw. Gregg isn't on three cuts unless that's him on organ on Louisiana Lou. Chuck Leavell did the backing vocals on Just Another Love Song and Louisiana Lou. I can't remember if this is also a track with Johnny Sandlin and Bill Stewart on drums but I think so as well as Louisiana Lou and Sweet Mama.
Of course Can't Loose What You Never Had and High Falls on this album are excellent.
After having such a hot album, number one for FIVE WEEKS and over FIVE MILLION COPIES sold it is amazing the Allman Brothers Band had such a mess and time getting the next one together. It's as if some of them just didn't care. Supposedly Chuck, Jaimoe and Lamar were always ready at the studio in Macon and days and days would go by and nothing got done and Gregg was completely uninterested. Cher must have seen something!!
How could a band go from the number one album and the number one live draw in American to this in just two short years???
Sex, booze, drugs and rock 'n roll living I suppose!!
When Butch Trucks told a reported in 1975 about the problems with the anticipated next album "You can't count on Gregg Allman for anything. I mean anything!" I was worried the album wouldn't be finished and they wouldn't tour again.
@cyclone88 I agree. Ramblin' Man is another one that can get tiring. Gregg didn't care for it and wasn't expecting Brothers and Sisters to do as well as Eat A Peach. Butch didn't like Ramblin' Man at all. And stated he thought it was going to be a demo for Haggard then we he found out they are wanting to put it on the new album he thought "It has that long guitar solo at the end and that sounds like us so okay" But in the same interview Butch said if he had it to do over he would have tried to block it from being on the album.
Jaimoe, Lamar and Chuck really step up on this live track and make this version a hot stretch of playing. This is one version of Ramblin' Man I like a lot. Jaimoe, Chuck and Lamar are right on it big time on this.
Hard to comprehend they were so big.
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Never liked Ramblin Man. Ever.
I liked all of the songs they performed live. I like Melissa and Midnight Rider but if I never heard them again or saw them live that would be OK
@cyclone88 I agree. Ramblin' Man is another one that can get tiring. Gregg didn't care for it and wasn't expecting Brothers and Sisters to do as well as Eat A Peach. Butch didn't like Ramblin' Man at all. And stated he thought it was going to be a demo for Haggard then we he found out they are wanting to put it on the new album he thought "It has that long guitar solo at the end and that sounds like us so okay" But in the same interview Butch said if he had it to do over he would have tried to block it from being on the album.
Jaimoe, Lamar and Chuck really step up on this live track and make this version a hot stretch of playing. This is one version of Ramblin' Man I like a lot. Jaimoe, Chuck and Lamar are right on it big time on this.
I love Ramblin Man. An iconic song. The studio version is wonderful with the twin leads and the ending with the slide. This live version is incredible. Dickey takes it to the stratosphere with his solo and the rest of the band are rockin right with him. Get the remastered version, really cleans up the sound, especially the drums. This song shows the unique diversity of the band, from Whipping Post to Stormy Monday to Ramblin Man. Embrace it.
Good topic and interesting responses.
Not that these are bad , just tend to skip over, but the guitar work is top notch. Just the song in general.
I might get torched!!!
Some of the "Blues By Numbers" I get bored with at times.
YDLM
Who To Believe
Woman Across The River
Temptation Is a Gun- I always thought should have been on a Gregg solo album.
Pegasus- As much as a Dickey fan I am, this really never did anything for me.
Everyone has a plan, till you get punched in the face,
One more song I always forget because I skip it every time and sounds like one of those bland late 1980s movie songs Gregg would do - "Bad Rain". It's so generic, sounds like it was written by a bot.
Ramblin' Man is a great, fantastic song - it just doesn't fit alongside anything else in the band's catalogue (not even Blue Sky, really). Bob Dylan once said (words to the effect of) that he could've written the song and that he wished that he had written it. What ... irks me about Ramblin' Man - when you meet someone who is not a fan of the band or who has no real knowledge of the music of the ABB - and you tell them that you ARE fan ... they start singing Ramblin' Man. It's like when Gregg died and all the national newscasts actually played the song and referred to him as "the ramblin' man". It's enough to make ya puke.
@rusty That is true!! The live version I linked above from 1973 is one of the few versions where it kicks butt like the Allman Brothers Band especially when Duane was there. I don't know if Duane would have let it in the band. Butch later said he was sorry he didn't try to block it from being on the album.
But when Gregg died the paper here said " Ramblin'Man Gregg Allman dead at 69".
And when having his obit on the local album rock station: Ramblin' Man, Midnight Rider and Melissa is what they SPLICED together then Chuck's solo from Jessica played over the reading of the obit.
Real fans like us get irked by that.
@porkchopbob I think Bad Rain is one of the songs Dickey and Warren wrote when Dickey had Warren spend a few days at Dickey big house in Florida to write for Seven Turns and Bad Rain is one that didn't make Seven Turns. Perhaps it shouldn't have made Shades either.
Dickey wrote Seven Turns at the studio in Miami Florida. It just flowed out one day and became the title song. That is how great songs sometimes come together.
@jszfunk Here is a version of YDLM that isn't blues by the numbers. I can hear Juicy Carter on sax. This one kicks butt and I wish you could have seen the original lineup. I've heard they phoned in a few shows but everytime I saw them they kicked butt and pounded the ground and left a trail of smoke on the stage. Duane inspired them boys !!
Put on some headphones and check this out.
It's not the version on Fillmore East.
Well jszfunk I take that back. I'm glad you didn't see the original band. You'd be on old man now like me. But I know they would have rocked you good!!
Ramblin' Man is a great, fantastic song - it just doesn't fit alongside anything else in the band's catalogue (not even Blue Sky, really). Bob Dylan once said (words to the effect of) that he could've written the song and that he wished that he had written it. What ... irks me about Ramblin' Man - when you meet someone who is not a fan of the band or who has no real knowledge of the music of the ABB - and you tell them that you ARE fan ... they start singing Ramblin' Man. It's like when Gregg died and all the national newscasts actually played the song and referred to him as "the ramblin' man". It's enough to make ya puke.
Pretty much how I feel - it's a wonderful song, maybe shouldn't have been the single. I rarely listen to it. I'm sure they were all surprised by what a smash it was. So many bands are defined in the general public's eye by songs that don't necessarily represent them. But that guitar orchestra at the end is pretty epic. I read Dickey was coked up when he sat down with Johnny Sandlin to determine the speed of the tune and was pissed when he heard how high his voice was on the LP. It's almost a half step up.
