This article is a list of the greatest live "double" albums of all-time. As one might expect, Fillmore East is listed as #1. Scroll all the way down to the last paragraph of the Fillmore East write-up. It says, "there were also guest appearances on the record, including Bobby Caldwell, Rudolph Carter, Elvin Bishop, and Steve Miller." WHAT??? I have never heard that ANY of those four are on Fillmore East, and I think the author is way, way out to lunch. Not only that, but Thom Doucette is not even listed. Can anyone help me here? Am I the one who is out to lunch?
Never heard of Steve Miller guesting during that March 11-13 run - Elvin Bishop, unsure/hadn’t thought so - Bobby Caldwell, didn’t think so but maybe
Juicy Carter played the horn parts that Tom Dowd deleted from the mix
the fact that the most prominent guest of the run, Ace, isn’t mentioned doesn’t say much for the author
Can’t access the six disc non-stripped out performances at the moment but from memory I think Caldwell is credited on one track and Bishop was absolutely on “Drunken Hearted Boy.” Carter is on several tracks.
"Is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?"
- They are all on there, just not on the original release other than Thom.
- Guest musicians
- Thom Doucette – harmonica on "Don't Keep Me Wonderin'", "Done Somebody Wrong", "One Way Out", "Stormy Monday" and "You Don't Love Me"
- Guest musicians (The Fillmore Concerts and The 1971 Fillmore East Recordings)
- Bobby Caldwell – percussion on "Drunken Hearted Boy" and on March 12 shows starting with "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed"
- Rudolph ("Juici") Carter – soprano saxophone on (only) both March 12 shows, starting with "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed"
- Elvin Bishop – vocals on "Drunken Hearted Boy"
- Steve Miller – piano on "Drunken Hearted Boy"
@Wayne spot on.
Steve Miller was in Elvin Bishop's band, which opened for the ABB. Bobby Caldwell was in Johnny Winter's band and sat in with the ABB all the time during 70-71. "Drunken Hearted Boy" was first released on the Dreams boxed set, but wasn't on a Fillmore release until The Fillmore Concerts in 1992, so as Wayne said, only Thom was a guest on the original double album.
So the author probably just glanced at the liner notes for the boxed set without understanding them.
It's not the "Fly Like an Eagle"/"Joker" Steve Miller. Different guy:
https://cibs.org/events-programs/iowa-blues-hall-of-fame/stephen-miller/
Is the Steve Miller the one who later had his own band or is it Stephen Miller (perhaps referred to as Steve) who was later the excellent keyboard player in Grinderswitch? I don’t recall the Steve Miller (The Joker, Rock ‘n Me etc) playing keyboards. Maybe he did? 
"Is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?"
@rusty Oh that's right, I forgot that - the famous Steve Miller played on Chuck Berry's Fillmore West album and I combined them.
Coincidentally, I remember Toy Caldwell's AP obit stated his hits included "a cover of Steve Miller's 'Fly Like and Eagle'". The author just saw the song title and assumed there couldn't be TWO songs with that title.
@porkchopbob I think this got discussed at length on the old blue site. As a long-time fan of the radio-friendly Steve Miller (Steve) - the guy with those hits - I really wanted for him to have been present during the Filmore days. For whatever reasons, I was disappointed to learn there was another player by the same name.
I first heard Steve at about the time that the Joker album came out (early 70s). I knew his pedigree - that he'd paid some blues dues early on (including playing with Buddy Guy) and that his father had been friends with Les Paul. T Bone Walker and others. Following songs like, "Abra-Cadabra" (and a few other ... Top 40 gems), I wasn't sure I had the right guy. 😉
I've seen Steve Miller (the famous one) a couple of times. He's the real deal live! He made the financial good decision to ditch Blues in favor of radio pop years ago. He still has the former in his pocket at all times!
Yeah, Miller grew up in WI where Les Paul and Mary Ford lived. Having grown up in WI myself, Miller was one of the few rockers the state claimed.
I know he bounced around blues artists in Dallas, Chicago, and SF in the 60s before going in more of a pop direction in the 1970s. Weird pivot but he somehow managed to become blandly ubiquitous - everyone had his Greatest Hits album by default. His cover of Paul Peña's "Jet Airliner" helped Paul survive financially for decades after Albert Grossman essentially killed his recording career, so he's ok in my book.
I remember reading when the Fillmore Concerts was released that those guys came out toward the end of one of the shows after Tom Dowd decided he had everything he needed for the album. But the tape out in the truck was still running so recorded those extra songs including Drunkin' Hearted Boy with Elvin Bishop singing.
Also according to reports, Tom Dowd approached Duane Allman telling Duane he was ready to shut down and go home if the horn players were going to be part of this. Said Ace is fine and he can stay but the horns are out of tune.
I eventually heard some of the tracks with Juicy Carter and I didn't think he was out of tune. But Tom Dowd's ear was very sensitive.
I saw the ABB in High Point, NC at High Point College in 1971 and Juicy Carter played on a few songs and he seemed fine to me. That was my last time seeing Duane.
I've read also that Jaimoe was irritated and disappointed Tom Dowd basically kicked Juicy off the Fillmore East album.
JAIMOE TURNED 80 YEARS OLD JUST THE OTHER DAY 🎈🎉🍰🎂
But the actual original release that went on the sell over a million copies and help the Allman Brothers Band became a commercial success only had Ace playing harmomica on what? Did Somebody Wrong and You Don't Love Me? And none of the others. Ace did a solo on Stormy Monday but Tom Dowd edited it out. I didn't know Ace was edited out of Stormy Monday until many years later.
@porkchopbob Not familiar with Paul Pena, so I did some Googling. His story reminds me a little of Eddie Hinton. "Hard luck guy" - never in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. His albums are loaded with heavyweight players! Here's his version of "Jet Airliner".
Pena was part of the late 60s SF music scene. His two albums from that era are fantastic, Susan and Derek both covered songs from them.
"Jet Airliner" was on his 2nd album, New Train, which Albert Grossman refused to release or let Pena out of his contract, essentially stopping his career in its tracks. WI native, Ben Sidran, produced the album and shared the song with Steve Miller and Miller's cover was some of Pena's only income for years. Pena being blind kept him from touring.
"Gonna Move", which dTb and STB both covered often was on that album
I discovered Pena when this documentary was released in 1999 about Pena visiting Mongolia to learn Tuvan throat singing
That lead to people rediscovering his music and an appearance on Conan in 2001.
"The story of this album is like a modern epic; here's just a sample: Paul, who was blind, did not want to live on the East Coast any longer (the weather in winter was too difficult for him to deal with) but he was recording for Albert Grossman's Bearsville label (located in Woodstock) and Grossman wanted Paul to move there to be part of his stable of artists. Paul refused and wrote a song about the experience ("big old jet airliner, please don't carry me too far away...") and, in the end, Grossman refused to release the album, leaving Paul out in the cold; but when I played the song for Steve Miller, he immediately grasped its potential and after he recorded "Jet Airliner" Paul was never out in the cold again."
Les Dudek included a cover of "Gonna Move" on his "Ghost Town Parade" album in the latter part of the 70's. When Dudek, Finnigan & Kruger formed around '78, they always included it in their setlist.
"Is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?"
@oldcoot that makes sense since Dudek also played in the Steve Miller Band. Looks like he was the first artist to release "Gonna Move".
Actually Les recorded with Miller (on several releases) but wasn't in his band. Les was with Boz Scaggs and those two groups toured together all around the country. James Cotton was playing those tours with Miller. Boz opened, then Miller and when that set was done Boz, Les and Joachim Young (from Boz's band) would join Miller & Cotton and those players would do some blues tunes to end the show.
One very unique show I have is Steve Miller at the Knebworth Festival in '75. It's Miller joined by Les on slide, Doug Clifford of CCR on drums and the bass player's name won't come to me right now. Very blues oriented set. Miller told those guys (everyone was in LA at the time) to bring their instruments (maybe not Clifford's drum set) that they would be flying to a show, didn't tell any of them where. They ended up in England. Great set.
Steve Miller 7/5/75 Knebworth
Feel So Good
Mercury Blues
Boogie Chillin'
Freight Train Blues
Stagger Lee
The Window
Livin' In The USA
Space Cowboy
Shu Ba Da Da Ma Ma Ma
Rock 'N Me
Come On In My Kitchen
"Is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?"
Thanks to PorkchopBob for all the insight, thumbs up Brother!
This article is a list of the greatest live "double" albums of all-time. As one might expect, Fillmore East is listed as #1. Scroll all the way down to the last paragraph of the Fillmore East write-up. It says, "there were also guest appearances on the record, including Bobby Caldwell, Rudolph Carter, Elvin Bishop, and Steve Miller." WHAT??? I have never heard that ANY of those four are on Fillmore East, and I think the author is way, way out to lunch. Not only that, but Thom Doucette is not even listed. Can anyone help me here? Am I the one who is out to lunch?
Robslob: I might suggest you buy lunch for the author too (if, in fact, the names of Fillmore guests are foreign to you).
@dovetail to be fair to @robslob, the list the author curated is of "1970s double live albums" and none of those 4 musicians he listed actually appeared on the original double album. The cuts they appeared on weren't released for years after the 1970s were over, so if you only ever had the album in its original version you'd have no reason to be aware those musicians took part. The author clearly looked over credits for a later release, probably the 2014 boxed set or 1992 Fillmore Concerts.
So the author's trivia is technically wrong, no lunch owed.
@dovetail: As porkchop alludes to above, all I have ever owned is the original release. My mistake, but I am not in the habit of buying subsequent releases of ANY record that I already own. And even owning only the original version, the author is still partially wrong because he left off Thom Doucette, who IS credited on the original.
Thanks for all of the background info guys. Some of it I knew, some I didn't. Ironically, Steve Miller is playing right now at Wrigley Field and I can faintly hear it. Clear evening here. I love him and have some cool stories of seeing him.
Oh, he is opening for Def Leppard and Journey. My Gawd...
Everything in Moderation. Including Moderation.
@lee: Every time I hear Def Leppard I wish I was deaf. Here's Steve Miller with Peter Frampton doing some great blues:
@robslob Ratifying as it does my general perception of this community, this thread is SO enlightening in SO MANY different ways!?!
After thinking about it I believe I found out Thom Doucette was edited out of Stormy Monday when the Fillmore Concerts was released in 1992.
Also read at the end of Stormy Monday, Berry Oakley says " Brother Gregg Allman singing the blues..Duane, Dickey and ( fade out by Tom Dowd)"
On the restored version that has Thom Doucette's Harmonica solo after Dickey's solo, Berry says " Brother Gregg Allman singing the blues. Duane, Dickey and Ace playing it".
@robertdee It is edited out on the original release, no harmonica solo by Thom on it. Believe it was done for time purposes on that side of the album although his solo is only about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes long.
@wayne Okay. I didn't know Ace did a harp solo on Stormy Monday until years later. I wondered why Tom Dowd edited out that solo. I've heard the restored version and Berry Oakley speaking at the end without being faded out.
Dowd fading Oakley out while he is saying "Brother Gregg Allman singing the blues. Duane, Dickey and Ace playing it" Oakley is faded out as he says Ace so we don't hear Ace on the original album.
