Allman Brothers - "Whipping Post": C/D?

I thought of you last night cuz I played Rush's Moving Pictures last night for the first time in ages. I'd forgotten how great "YYZ" was! Man, those guys were funny. Too bad the album bogs down on side 2 because side 1 is fucking flawless.

Actually I take back what I said about "Dreams"; I'm listening to 'em now and they've got so many damn good songs I could never pick just one. God what a great band.

Also I just offered that comment to Sundar as an aside but it struck me that Rush and the Allmans have stuff in common, the attention to musicianship, weird time signatures, both wrote instrumentals ... I always loved hearing Allmans instrumentals on classic rock radio growing up ... "Jessica", "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed"...

Nevertheless I would still say that Eat a Peach is one of the records one really ought to know.

The first four Allman Brother's albums when Duane & Butch Trucks were alive are quite good. Duane Allman could flat out play the guitar. There is a compilation of some of his sideman appearances that is worth picking up, especially if you find it cheap on vinyl.

Some of the extended pieces get a bit much like "Mountain Jam", but they could really get it on some of those old blues songs without coming off fake, which is just about impossible for most.

I saw them live in the early 90s before Warren Haynes left to form Govt. Mule and they were suprisingly pretty good, better than I expected and much better than many of their peers at that age in the game.

Agreed, and agreed. But what I'm more interested in knowing is, how the hell are you, John Darnielle? I feel like I just bumped into you at a party, and I feel a little flustered. You're so cool.

The rhythm line from "Midnight Rider" ain't half bad, either. In fact, it's amazingly effective. And Greg Allman's voice carries twang, but not in that Nashville way, and it carries weariness, but not in that manufactured way. What doesn't get said about Greg Allman enough is that he's a fucking soul singer, and a great one at that, with all that that implies. The man's voice can make me cry, and add that to the wide-open-spaces-with-mountains-in-the-background sound of the band, and you have something truly worth checking out.

I'm talking to you, Ned.

C'mon! Shout, shout, let it all out.

I must have been tired last night.

"Saturday Night Special" is sooo much better!

I like the ABB a lot. "Revival" is my favorite, every bit as good a celebratory song from that era as, oh, prime Sly & the Family Stone.

Also, "Blue Sky", another total classic from the record, sung by Betts.

It's a weird record for the way the live stuff breaks it up, but I'm sure at the time they felt it was really important to get it on there; as sort of a tribute to Duane.

I also discovered they started self-releasing archival live stuff a la the Dead, and decided to punt on American University. It's a pretty ripping, engaging performance (incl a rare live version of "Leave My Blues at Home" from Idlewild), but this band was never quite as peaked as the Dead at their best. At this point, I'll file it next to Fillmore and Ludlow Garage and call it a collection.

I too have considered picking up the box. It's one of those frustrating cases where I'm not sure there's enough otherwise unavailable material to justify it, but shit there is a good dozen tracks worth of early, pre-Allmans material (which may or may not be the same stuff Duane has; it's credited to "Allman Joys" and various other monikers) that I think I need to hear. If only to kind of suss out how they were able to shoot out of the gate so sharply and confidently on the debut.

But fuck yeah, great band.

Agreed; the movement/continuity between time sigs is just awesomely fluid, especially when the "intro" riff segues into the big solo section. Love the triplet leading into the chorus, too.

This really is so much more than a mere "jam".

'At Fillmore East' is a pretty unique live record in rock music in how many different versions of the same show have been done and really the mixes are quite different on different releases.

I listened to the original mix and then the later 'Fillmore Concerts' in back to back evenings and beyond the differences in edits, it's kind of startling how different the mixes sound. Not that the later mix/edit is bad, it's a good album, but has a quite different sound to the mix. It's much more open with more stereo separation and space in the mix.

Anyone actually heard the old 70s Quadrophonic mix of this record? That seems like something that should be a bonus DVD add in at some point or maybe released when they go to some modern 24 bit master down the line.

Haven't got the later 2CD full show, original mix compilation that came out, but I love the record enough to definitely pick it up if I can find it used.

sometimes i feel

They're like an R&B version of Yes; what the hell's not to like?

oh shit

also you know what. this band was. great

they were!

Brad we often connect on music and I'm glad to hear that's the case here too, something soooo sweet about the Allmans when they're in the pocket

never realized how different Tom Dowd's mix on Beginnings is from the original mix on the debut album

Motorpsycho does a really cool half-cover of this song. It's the same bass line over an Allman Bros. style guitar jam. One of my favorite tracks of theirs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMb5dGmXm1Q

ummmm DUHHH! CLASSIC

They're like an R&B version of Yes; what the hell's not to like?

this is perfect, ty

'you guessed it'

https://instagram.com/p/BgzfG9qnK3M/

almost 50

I don't know why I assumed a lot of ilxors wouldn't be into the Allmans, clearly they are. I say classic, both Whipping Post and the band, although I'm not like a true head or anything. I was in a covers band that did a version of Elizabeth Reed and it was really fun to learn the guitar part. We also attempted One Way Out with me on vocals but I am not meant to sing bluesy/gritty and feel very uncomfortable doing it.

The Derek and Warren version of "Whipping Post" on that 'Cream of the Crop' extended live album from 2003 is pretty awesome.

Recommend listening to the new Manley Field House '72 release if you want to hear what an absolute monster Berry Oakley was in detail - he's mixed really high and I'm here for it.

This was used in the latest season of Fargo to end an episode.

There’s a lot of the musical note “a” in this song. Perhaps too much

be-yoo-tiful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=744IoFceUVk

indeed. as a cowboy chords-level guitarist, one of my fav songs to strum — love love that rise in the middle of the bridge.

having never come across this thread before i had to scroll up and see if any posters back in the day dared to label whipping post a dud. was very gratified to see that even in challopsy ilx of yore no one was that deranged.

Sorry for the Zappa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu32TgPeXM8

dude. i dialled that zappa cover up a few weeks ago and my face melted. it's cool seeing him and his band do something so unabashedly scorching. even if they can't help themselves and break into a reggae rhythm for a few bars. zappa's solos are always so interesting to me. it's like the place where he lets himself be expressive and beyond-words in a way he couldn't allow himself elsewhere. he interrupts himself, yowls, yearns, pants, screeches - there's a balance between head and heart - or the fact that there IS a heart AT ALL is some kind of victory. anyway even if you don't like his soloing or zappa at all, or the slightly too-fast tempo it's worth it for the climax of the song, beginning around the 4-minute mark where Bobby Martin absolutely nails it. apparently they closed the show with this song for years.