Brer,

I'm not sure what you need me for here. This is a perfectly fun and reasonable hypothetical. There's no way to know. This bigger question is why and how did the ABB never have the big re-breakthrough in the early 90s.... luck was always a little off... just missed the Unplugged craze, because they played it too early and only did a half hour set, partly because of paranoia that if they played longer new songs would just be cut... and other stuff... There's no doubt that in 73-75, the Allman Brothers were far more mainstream and popular. I think with a little bit different luck and approach, they could have had a major resurgence and hit some peaks...

Dickey would not vary the setlists, which drove Warren and Woody nuts and was a major source of tension... and definitely discouraged any but the hardest core from going to multiple shows... just one example.. I'm riffing.. could discuss this endlessly.

Really can't comment on the GD since they are not my cup of tea .

Interesting thoughts on the 90's era re break through. To me it seemed liked it really was building in the early 90's and kind of peaked around 94 when they did the Horde and into 95 and 96. I saw them quite a bit during that time and you could see the crowds really building at shows, just getting bigger and bigger. It seems like they were right there on the edge of exploding a little more. Maybe if they had another release to follow it up(Where It All Begins)....not sure, or that whole jam band faze shifted more towards phish and DMB.

I hear you about the set lists. I really did not notice a change until I saw them in 1997. They added the Franklins Tower intro to Blue Sky, Stormy Monday came back in and High Falls, and maybe a few others they would rotate in and out, but not like we saw through the 2000's.

Always enjoy reading your insight and if you have any other thoughts on the 90's resurgence era that would be great. Thanks

I think we all are in agreement that for a brief time the Allmans were the biggest band in the world.

Mmmm, really??....I think you could easily make a case that during the '72 thru '75 era, Zeppelin and Chicago were just as huge if not bigger that the ABB in terms of record sales, radio play and mass appeal....Those two bands were HUGE back in that timeframe from what I remember....And on a "global" scale. Nothing to do with whether you liked their musical styles or not, but I think either of those two groups could vie for the "biggest band in the world" title at that time before the ABB could....Maybe even throw in the Eagles also....But again, apples and oranges, not trying to compare their musical styles, but just their mass appeal.

While there's no doubt ABB achieved large mainstream success with Bros. & Sis's, it was not anywhere near as sustained as Zep and Chi's success....Again, this is just my recollection of that era so feel free to bash my opinion, but methinks it's a pretty good argument. None the less, ABB WAS a large draw for an albeit brief period during that era.

And while ABB's songwriting and musicianship are never in question and in a lot of ways remained truer to it's original intent than either of the above mentioned acts, I think that possibly another contributing factor to their short-lived mainstream success was that a lot of people were really "pulling" for the band to do well after all the downright tragedy they endured from what I recall....You really wanted to see them succeed in spite of it all because they had so much potential and momentum from early on. But it was pretty much done by late '75 or early '76.

[Edited on 6/24/2017 by MACONMUSIC]

[Edited on 6/24/2017 by MACONMUSIC]

Pretty sure what he meant was that the ABB were ruling the roost for a while here in the USA. The period in question was pre-Eagles. Zep, well... yes probably the biggest band in the world at some point, but this is isn't really about record sales.

Now Zep for sure built FM radio. Not by themselves of course. Just because I said the Allman Brothers built FM radio didn't mean they literally built FM radio, just that they were an FM staple, at a time when FM was taking off and was a rock domain.

Kind of like how Jefferson Starship didn't actually build a city when they claimed they "Built This City on Rock and Roll". Leaving aside the obvious fact that Rock and Roll could never replace good old fashioned infrastructure, like sewers and foundations and the like.

Kind of like how Jefferson Starship didn't actually build a city when they claimed they "Built This City on Rock and Roll". Leaving aside the obvious fact that Rock and Roll could never replace good old fashioned infrastructure, like sewers and foundations and the like.

Haaa, funny!! But all that good old fashioned infrastructure seems to be severely crumbling nowadays, so maybe a "Rock-N-Roll" foundation would have been a better choice....It lasts forever!! 😉

Maybe so! Can't say how I would feel in twenty years or so, if I live that long, but right now I would still prefer to drive across the bay on the Golden Gate Bridge rather than try to float across on Johnny B. Goode!