Hey now. Looking and sounding good. 

I think Kirk West suggested they record this song that Dickey wrote and another guy helped him with the words in the early 80's for their 1994 album Where It All Begins, their best selling album after 1979's Enlightened Rouges. The band never had another new album that out sold Where It All Begins. 

Here is the video linked above:

Written with Dickey's friend John Prestia. Here he is playing it with his own band.

This is one of the few songs I never felt the Warren/Derek lineup got a handle on, especially after they tacked on the filler minor jam at the end.

@porkchopbob Hey that was real good. Liked his voice too. 

He mentions the song sat around for 15 years or so. Supposedly the ABB was going to cover a Bob Dylan song on Where It All Begins and Kirk West had an old demo of this song, played it and talked them into recording it. 

Yes John is right about what a song book Dickey has. They should release a compilation ABB album with just Dickey songs and perhaps a disc 2 with Gregg songs. 

Butch posted on his blog not long after Warren came back replacing Jimmy Herring the ABB was phasing out ALL songs written by Dickey, that if he had it to do over he would have tried to block Ramblin'Man from being on Brothers and Sisters and then said he should have talked Gregg and Jaimoe into voting with him to remove Dickey after Berry died and started over with all new guitar players. 

I doubted Gregg would take any of that seriously and they did have a few years with not many Dickey songs ( I remember one show that didn't have any) but they slowly began playing more and more Dickey songs. 

Sometimes I think instead of bringing Warren back, they should have just folded for a few years. Even Warren said that but Warren also said a lot of people by then were expecting the band to play every year because that is how they made their living. 

But it kinda sucked with Dickey being gone. Like the Stones without Keith. Warren and Derek did a good job with the legacy of the band in what apparently for them was awkward. Jimmy Herring didn't want anything to do with it. He said nobody had replaced a living original member and he just didn't want to be that person. Gregg understood that and said Warren had already been in the band so he wouldn't be seen that way and if Warren had not accepted the job Gregg was going completely solo and move on. Close call for those fans who wanted the band to continue. 

@robertdee I read a story (not sure where) the went Dickey walked into the WIAB sessions and the rest of the band was working up a song. Dickey said, hey that sounds pretty good - who wrote it? Someone said "you did!" and it was "No One to Run With" written in 1980 or there abouts. I doubt they expected it to be such a hit single, it was all over the radio in the mid-1990s.

@porkchopbob Yeah I remember that now that you mentioned it. Kirk West had the demo that apparently was recorded for some solo album Dickey was going to do but  never came out and Dickey had forgotten about it.

The band was set to record Pillbox Hat by Bob Dylan for the first track from the album to be released to the album radio stations. 

Butch was angry that Warren couldn't get Rocking Horse on the album. Said Dickey blew a fuse and said this band is doing Mean Woman Blues and that's the end of it... and Butch said it's not a good song. 

Warren revealed Dickey had another solo album ready in 1988 and Warren said Dickey hired him to play and sing backup on the album and Warren didn't go into any detail but apparently the album wasn't any good as Warren said he was relieved for Dickey when he called and said "I'm not releasing that album. Come back and let's make a rock and roll album" and that was Pattern Disruptive. 

Man when Rock Bottom came out I thought that would put that album in the top 20. But unfortunately the album didn't sell very well. About like the first ABB album did initially. It came out again in 1973 with Idlewild South as Beginnings and went Gold (500,000 plus)

@robertdee Yeah, the case of "Woman" vs "Horse" is a pretty well-known story in ABB lore. "Mean Woman Blues" is pretty generic and my least favorite song on Where It All Begins, but I still think it's better than "Rockin' Horse", which I find aggressively bad.

I've heard the demos from the Dickey Betts 80s country album, and there's some decent material on there, but I'm glad he didn't go that direction. Patterns Disruptive is kind of dated 80s rock, but at least it was a step back in the right direction. "Loverman" was clearly the more upbeat blueprint for "Low Down Dirty Mean" - had more people bought his album, more people would have noticed 😉

@porkchopbob Wow!! I own both of those albums and frankly haven't played either one in a few years and I never noticed how similar they are. I do remember thinking Loverman had a Pony Boy vibe at the beginning. 

Lowdown Dirty Mean is credited to Dickey and Johnny Neel. Loverman is credited to Dickey only.

The coda on Loverman is exactly like Lowdown Dirty Mean. 

Everybody's Got A Mountain To Climb is another one that I never really clicked with. It has most of the band members singing backup. 

But there are some tracks on the album that I really like. What's Done is Done is a good song. Allen Woody wrote it but it needed some work and he gave it to Gregg and Gregg put the finishing touches on it. 

Change My Way Of Living is another good song on the album. 

Posted by: @robertdee

Everybody's Got A Mountain To Climb is another one that I never really clicked with. It has most of the band members singing backup. 

But there are some tracks on the album that I really like.

It's my favorite album from the Warren/Dickey lineup. And though I admit "Mountain to Climb" is kind of simple, I've always had a soft spot for it - fun groove, upbeat, major key, Warren's playing some melodic slide, quoting Rev Pearly Brown, it just kind of fit on that album.

@porkchopbob I have a friend who really likes Mountain To Climb. If I remember correctly everyone but Marc is singing on the track. 

Well Where It All Begins out sold Seven Turns, Shades Of Two Worlds and Hitting The Note. And the four new live albums. An Evening With, 2nd Set, Peakin' At The Beacon ( their lest selling new album) and One Way Out. One Way Out was the last new ABB album. It didn't sell well either. 

Where It All Begins was the only new album released after the 1989 reunion to go Gold. Yes it is one of the band's best. 

It was recorded on a sound stage owned by Burt Reynolds in Florida so they could set up like they were on stage doing a concert. 

@robertdee

Yeah, that's all pretty well-known ABB lore. Burt Reynolds' Ranch was in Jupiter, just 40 minutes north of where I live. After Burt Reynolds died the land was sold and is now a housing development. So if you have the money, you can buy a big house where Where It All Begins was recorded.

@porkchopbob Have you heard this? It's audio only but surprisingly good audio of an August 1997 show with Jack Pearson. 

@robertdee I have spun that one before, lots of great Jack P-era shows out there. Be nice if they clean one up and release it proper.

@porkchopbob Yes indeed. After the band closed up shop in 2014 Bert talked about plans for various live archival releases they have on the shelf and one would be a Jack show and there are several good ones so they planned to let Jack pick it. Here we are 7 years later and ho hum nothing so far. Maybe before I turn 100. Hope senior Jack even remembers being in the band by the time he gets to pick one and I am allowed a CD playing in the nursing home. 

@porkchopbob

Nice singing from Jack here but I would rather have a different show as I'm very familiar with this show. It's been on YouTube for several years.  But a nice DVD release of this show would work for me. 

Thanks I had never seen this one and I always loved No One To Run With

I’m sorry, but the linked performance, especially on Dickey’s part, is horrific.  We all know it is, I’m not sure why this thread has devolved into a retelling of the same old “Dickey recycled a BHLT tune for WIAB” that gets told over and over.  Great story, but the linked performance is terrible.  

For anyone with their hackles up, compare to Dickey/Warren NOTRW 94-95’, or any version with Jack.  In this Jazzfest 2020 performance, Dickey was straight lost, even the Acura stage crowd knows it.

For anyone who has played live music in a band setting, the DRAG that exists when one of the members can’t keep up is borderline suffocating.

Dickey was THE MAN for years, but in May 2000, he just wasn’t.

@monroewatson I agree it's not great, part of it is the lousy audio quality. Here's a better version from this lineup a year earlier.

@monroewatson Ah man that version isn't all that bad. It's Dickey's song so he can play it anyway he wants. 

This isn't as bad as some of the shows I saw in 1974, 75, 76, 79,:80, 81. Some of it then was coke but the one who was dragging and sometimes forgetting lyrics or trying to sing at the wrong place was Gregg. 

Gregg admitted in a 2004 interview he should have been fired back then for playing in that condition. 

When they did fired ( refuse to work with him) Gregg in 1976 it wasn't because of being drunk and smacked out on stage, it was because of testifying against a roadie in a drug trial. 

But don't get me wrong. I saw some hot shows during those years too with Gregg doing good. 

3 years back and Jack Pearson is there and this version is tight and snappy. Jack and Dickey guitars are strong. 

@porkchopbob  Slight diversion here but!! Who wrote this song? I Know I Ought To Leave.

And interestingly Warren and Woody had let the band know they were leaving at the end of this Beacon run in 1997. And the title of the song fits perfectly for a Warren vocal. 

But Dickey's melody sounds exactly like a song from his 2001 solo album Let's All Get Together!??

Excuse the crummy audio.