Guest Book

Thank you for that post, Buppalo. Great stuff! I was just a young pup when Duane died, but I still remember it like it was yesterday. In 1971 I had drifted into a loose kind of biker gang, which was every kid in the neighborhood who had a motorcycle. Every day after school we would ride down at "the ditch" until it got dark. Yamahas, Hondas, Suzukis, Huskys, even a Bultaco! Man, we had fun! This was Houston, Texas. Anyway, one night after it had gotten dark, we were sitting in one of the guys driveways, outside the garage and his mother came out and said Duane Allman had died.... I didn't know who he was yet, but I remember how some of the older guys, say 16 or 17, reacted. Man, it was like the president had been assasinated. It's just one of those things you will never forget. Sometimes now, as kind of a gag, I answer the phone at work and if somebody asks, "Who's this?" I say "Duane Allman." Nobody seems to even knows who he is! I'm waiting for a smart assed answer back like, "Oh, I thought you were having lunch with Clapton." Or a chuckle. Something. This is the second best guitarist of ALL TIME according to Rolling Stone, right behind Hendrix! Just as amazing to me is the overall lack of footage with Duane and the original band in general. Aside from the music he left us, he seems to exist mainly through recollections and stories people tell.