this might be the craziest version of Ramblin Man i ever saw

here is the whole show. I must say-- the band was crazy up and edgy the whole show. They were on fire

God I miss that venue. Jersey's Beacon and one of the ABB's fav's back in the day. The Gents talk fondly of it on Brother's Of The Road. Many ABB/Solo memories.

Yeah!!! Great one!!!

Holy smokes that verse that the harp guy (essery?) AND Gregg took were piss-poor lol. Bunch of noise imo... but u gotta love the “energy” haha. A mountain of cocaine...

here is the whole show. I must say-- the band was crazy up and edgy the whole show. They were on fire

Thanks for posting this. Sure did bring back memories from that era and DT sure was a good player too.

Though I think of Gregg as a deep, gravely blues voice, when I go to sing his songs, I have to be down a few steps. He did a really good job on Blue Sky in 2004-2005 when the brought it back out (less so in later years so Warren took over). That's one I thought would have been out of his typical range, but he sings it in normal voice.

Here he is singing Blue Sky for the XM performance of Eat A Peach Sept 2004.

And Gregg singing Blue Sky 9/25/04 at the Fox. Never thought I'd hear him do this one:

And this one is a hell of a performance. You can hear the crowd reaction at the beginning...shock and excitement.

Yes that year I was in shock too. Being a regular reader of Butch's postings on this website ( Butch was the only member of any famous band I know about who would post on the band's website and even answer fans questions), Butch confirmed what Gregg said in an interview that with the exit of Dickey, they had pulled the band apart. The Betts part was gone and they would never do any of Dickey's songs again. They were through with the country side that Betts brought into the band and returning to the vision the original band had with just blues and jazz type rock. Then Butch criticized Ranblin' Man as being a huge mistake for the band and they should have voted Dickey out back then rather than allowing him to dominate the band with his musical tastes with Brothers and Sisters.

Someone posted Brothers and Sisters was the band's biggest selling album by far. Butch said it was because Ramblin' Man lucked up and became a hit singles and a lot of hit singles are catchy and sell a lot of records but musically is just crap as far as a serious musician is concerned and the ABB doesn't care how many copies an album sells as long as its music the band is proud to be part of and that if he never heard Ramblin' Man again it would be a week too soon.

So I was thinking things will be like it was with the first album now. No Dickey Betts songs. But after just a few shows they went back to doing Jessica and Liz Reed and Butch said too many people want us to play those but we said NO to anything Dickey sang. I began to feel this inhouse jealousy and butt hurt anger Butch had for Dickey was ruining the band and they might as well break up. Well in 2002 Gregg said if Warren had not come back he (Gregg) probably would have quit. BTW Gregg did quit the band in 1982.

So when they began playing Blue Sky again it was a shock. Butch posted they did it because they wanted to play Eat A Peach in its entirety and the crowd went nuts over Blue Sky so Butch said he was opposed but the rest of the band wanted to keep doing it and Gregg said he wasn't afraid to sing it but Butch posted that Ramblin' Man is absolutely out of the question and Butch would not agree to play that song. They agreed to record that to send to Merle Haggard but Capricorn wanted to put it on Brothers and Sisters but that turned out to be a mistake as far as Butch was concerned.

As much as BT went on about DB,
People here who can't stop going on about it are far worse.

DBs no angel. He shoulda done that song country style

i don't want to talk ill of the dead but butch trucks seems like a very disgruntled person. to say dickey just brought a country influence and the rest of the band wasn't on board is silly. most of the instrumentals aren't county. if dickey had been voted out in the early 70's then butch would have never had a career as big as it was.

to say dickey just brought a country influence and the rest of the band wasn't on board is silly.

I'd take a lot of this with a grain of salt, a lot of the statements that blackey references were said decades after the fact. No one in the band loved "Ramblin' Man" as a song as much as they loved the money it brought in. They consciously dropped it from a lot of set lists when trying to reestablish themselves as a legit act rather than a nostalgia dinosaur band in the early 1990s.

Dickey tried to sell "Ramblin' Man" to Nashville before he brought it to the Brothers and they, at the time, said it fit. Meanwhile, Gregg says it was Butch who said during the very same sessions that the very jazzy "Queen of Hearts" didn't fit the ABB and inspired Gregg to record his own music. So again, hindsight is 20/20.

i don't want to talk ill of the dead but butch trucks seems like a very disgruntled person.

I think he was just stubborn as a mule and was frustrated by not having the control that Dickey or Gregg as songwriters and front-men had. I recall Levon Helm talking about wanting to continue to play and tour (regarding their leaving the road in 1976), but couldn't really do it without the front line of The Band, being "just the drummer".

to say dickey just brought a country influence and the rest of the band wasn't on board is silly.

"Silly"?...I think Dickey's heart is and has always been "Country, bluegrass 'tinged'". The Tour he did in '74 with Vassar was awesome and you could tell he was enjoying himself immensely while on stage. Trying to bring that flavor to the ABB is why I feel Chuck and Lamar left. This brings to mind the "Southern Rock" discussion, they were a Blues band that explored other genres with "Blue Sky" dancing with the perfect balance. "Ramblin' Man" as big a hit as it was for the band, was the beginning of the end.....

to say dickey just brought a country influence and the rest of the band wasn't on board is silly.

"Silly"?...I think Dickey's heart is and has always been "Country, bluegrass 'tinged'". The Tour he did in '74 with Vassar was awesome and you could tell he was enjoying himself immensely while on stage. Trying to bring that flavor to the ABB is why I feel Chuck and Lamar left. This brings to mind the "Southern Rock" discussion, they were a Blues band that explored other genres with "Blue Sky" dancing with the perfect balance. "Ramblin' Man" as big a hit as it was for the band, was the beginning of the end.....

I think he meant the part I put in bold was the "silly" part, not that Dickey liked country and string music. Duane and the band played the hell out of "Blue Sky" and those are pedal steel licks Duane plays on "Midnight Rider".

There is a grainy video out there (that I can’t find) of Greeg playing piano on Ramblin Man. He does a pretty darn good job too!