My "go to" version ever since I first heard it. Dickey is locked in during this entire show. His jazzy solo on Liz Reed is also exceptional. All available on the deluxe Brothers and Sisters release.

My "go to" version ever since I first heard it. Dickey is locked in during this entire show. His jazzy solo on Liz Reed is also exceptional. All available on the deluxe Brothers and Sisters release.

These are also the same versions included on Wipe the Windows. I had a bootleg of the whole Winterland show, but really glad it was included on the B&S Deluxe Edition.

Chuck, Lamar and Jaimoe are outstanding too. The entire band is rolling.

Johnny Sandlin and Sam Whiteside co produced Wipe the Windows with the band and later Chuck also was involved in song selection. Most of the tracks including Winterland was first recorded for a radio broadcast and I have a copy of the tapes. When Wipe the Windows came out, Johnny or Sam ( I think Johnny had a run in with Phil Walden and Sam Whiteside took over and finished the album and Dickey had left Capricorn by the time they decided to have one more new album from the band) and there is an edit in Dickey's solo on Ramblin' Man that isn't there on the B&S Delux edition. On Wipe the Windows Dickey's long solo begins further in. The actual beginnings on the solo was edited out.

In 2013 Chuck said in the press he knows the original lineup is what most people want but in 1973 this line up was really smoking and he was glad and proud of his playing and the band too and that when they were putting together Wipe the Windows it was after the band walked over the Scooter Herring situation so Chuck was involved in representing the band and Capricorn was opposed to including another live version of Liz Reed but Chuck thought this was such a different interpretation and more in a jazz style that he wanted it on the record and they finally agreed.

Great version, but my favorite is from the 5/1/1973 archive release. Dickey’s solo is longer and even better on this one IMO.

That pure guitar tone is unmistakable

The long guitar solo at the end is very clean and pretty too.

If you listen let me know what you think.

[Edited on 1/18/2020 by blackey]

I agree. The slower pace lends itself well to this tune. He really gets started about the 4:10 mark and at 5:20 he takes it to the next level. The drummers and Lamar are going all out and the keyboardists are swirling around everything. This lineup made some incredible music.

The slower pace lends itself well to this tune.

The studio version is pretty sped up. On occasion I'll be playing with musicians who aren't aware that happens to studio recordings, but still want to play just as fast. I'm like, dude, they didn't even play it that fast!

Johnny Sandlin actually tells a story in his book about sitting down with Dickey to get the speed where he wanted it. Something about Dickey maybe being a little coked up at the time, and then later upset when he heard how high his voice was on the released version.

11-2-72 Hofstra University with Berry Oakley and Chuck Leavell....just another Home Run!!

You are right Porkchopbob. Dickey thought it was too fast and Butch though it was way too fast plus he didnt like the song. Butch thought it wasn't an ABB song. But Capricorn thought it was a hit and they were right.

Butch thought it wasn't an ABB song. But Capricorn thought it was a hit and they were right.

Most accounts I've read, Butch's sentiments were after the fact, decades after it remained their big radio hit over Fillmore and Duane-era tunes. No one likes to get pigeonholed. Dickey was the one who didn't think it was an ABB song, he tried to shop it around Nashville, but the rest of the band convinced Dickey it fit and to put it on the ABB's next album. The song Butch rejected for B&S was "Queen of Hearts", so Butch's account of his sentiments at the time seem a little revisionist.

Yes porkchop there is an old interview of Butch and he complimented Dickey's lyrics " trying to make a living and doing the best I can" as fantastic. As to Queen of Hearts, Butch much later after Dickey was gone said it's a good song but Gregg was drunk and that is why he didnt like it at the time. Butch said several things especially in the early 2000's and some on this site, I thought was strange. Butch said that after Duane died, Berry Oakley was so messed up and unable to live in a world that didnt have Duane Allman in it that Butch thought about calling a meeting to suggest they vote Berry out and hire someone. I doubt Butch was thinking that and the 5 man band played 95 shows and while there was a big hole on the stage, they did some strong shows.

Butch said he thought they were doing a demo for Merle Haggard and after the guitar stuff at the end of Ramblin' Man did make it sound like the ABB, he went along with it being on the album. That isn't exactly how that happened according to other versions.

That if he had it to do over, he would have tried to get Gregg, Berry and Jaimoe to vote Dickey out of the band after Duane died because B&S is the Dickey Betts Band. It didn't really sound like us. And moving forward we got further away from the ABB sound and into a Dickey Betts sound. That all the modern country bands have these Allman Brothers influenced things and its really Dickey. That the original ABB didn't play that way at all and Butch wasn't proud of how the Brothers influenced these modern country bands.

Duane Allman allowed Blue Sky on their next album but Dickey wanted Gregg to sing it but Duane insisted Dickey sing it himself. And Revival has that Dickey happy sound and that was on Idlewild South. If Duane had lived I think we would still have gotten more and more Dickey songs with Dickey singing. I bet Brothrrs and Sisters would still had Ramblin' Man on it but Queen of Hearts too. If Duane had lived Laid Back and Highway Call probably wouldn't have been done and Win, Loose or Draw would have been a much better album but High Falls would have been on it.

It was exciting to have Butch on the site for many years answering questions. In the 70's I got most of my inside scoops from Capricorn record promoters through my broadcasting job and roadies and occassionally I got to speak with Dickey or Berry or Jaimoe. Usually Berry was the one that got around the fans and talked and after his death Chuck would come out and hang with fans and broadcast people that got back stage.

Dickey, for example, told me about Revival. Idlewild South does not say who is singing the harmony vocals on Revival so I ask the man who wrote the song and Dickey said " I know it doesn't sound like it but that is everybody in the band. And I said you mean Butch and Jaimoe too and Dickey said yeah all of us. Dickey remembered them clapped during the session too. I asked Butch on this site years later and Butch confirmed it and said they all did the chant on Black Hearted Woman too and that is Berry Oakley laughing at the end of the chant that mirrors the guitars. On stage only the guitars played that passage of the song.h

Butch was great but especially after Warten and Allen quit some of his statements struck me as revisionist and as if he had sour grapes. And in the mid 1990's Butch was irritated that Gregg and Dickey made millions off of 1969-1979 A Decade Of Hits which sold over 2 million copies and thanks to Phil Walden, Butch got NOTHING. Only the songwriters cashed in. That means the estate of Blind Willie McTell made a lot of money and Butch and Jaimoe got nothing. If Bill Levinson had only put Hot 'Lanta on it Butch and Jainoe would have split the credit on that song 6 ways.

Thanks for the post.
Will have to pull out my deluxe copy and give it a spin tonight while on the treadmill!

This is the Wipe the window's version...I love that album especially Chuck's E Reed solo

They did perform "Ramblin' Man" on occasion in the 1990s, even a quick Warren slide solo:

This gets my vote as one of the top three live versions of Ramblin Man....with the first pass of Great Southern. Dickey is absolutely at the top of his game in terms of confidence, swagger and phenomenal stage presence and musicanship

Never a big fan of this song but the version posted from 73 might change my mind. I do like the acoustic version from 9/7/92.

Yes Tori that November 1973 version at the Winterland Ball Room is exceptional. Gregg, Chuck, Lamar, Jaimoe and Butch are all incredible backing Dickey. Dickey is always in the spotlight as he sings and does all the solos but if one listens to the entire band it's a wonderful team effort.

And NOBODY can play those solos like Dickey Betts. Dickey had is own style with wonderful phrasing, vibrato and tone.

Agree with Blackey as well as Babe, both versions are great. Hofstra version provides a cool glimpse of
Barry on a good night. I wish that entire show was available.

Yes that is a good version. From Austin City Limits. The second solo is much shorter but Dickey rarely stretched it out on Ramblin Man in the 90's. Middle solo usually longer than album version plus a Warren slide solo.

Blue Sky at this show is outstanding.

Same Austin City Limits show as the above Ramblin Man. This is Blue Sky. Fantastic solo from Dickey on his 61 Gibson ES-335 dot neck.