Humanities & Classics 3270
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Sixties Forum
Humanities & Classics 3270 |
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Some of the following information was obtained from the CD "Duane Allman an Anthology"
Duane Allman was a special musician. His guitar playing moved everybody who heard it, from the people he played with to the fans. Duane Allman was born in 1946 in Nashville where he and his brother Gregg grew up. They moved to Daytona Beach, Florida when they were 12, where they learned to play music. Duane and Gregg listened to a lot of R&B radio and learned from records by older blues greats. According to Duane "The social scene in Daytona was pretty simple back then, white cats would surf and black cats would play music" Duane played in a lot of different band with different people while he was growing up, One in particular was the Allman Joys, a 4 piece group that cut their first single and gained some regional success but nothing special. Duane and Gregg were tired of playing other people's music and began to write their own. They took their new stuff to a producer. (In Duane's words)- "He listened to the tapes and said 'No man, you cats better look for a day gig - you're the worst I ever heard"
They continued to look for the sound that would bring them success. One day drummer Johnny Sandlin recalled their first gig at Peppy's-A-GoGo in St. Louis. "The bass player was meeting his old lady at the airport where he fell into a conversation with some people. It turned out to be the Nitty Gritty Dirt band- they were invited to the club" They came to the show and liked what they had heard and invited them to come to L.A.. They went to L.A. where they became The Hourglass. They toured around L.A. and San Francisco but weren't that satisfied with the sound they were getting so they headed back for St. Louis. They did some studio work and brought what they thought was good stuff back to California to record producers where they were told "the tapes are useless and terrible" and the band drited apart.
Gregg stayed in California and Duane went back to Florida. One day Duane got a telegram from a producer to come to a Wilson Pickett session. Duane remembers "I ended up playing on Pickett's whole album. Rick (the producer) liked my playing a lot" He said "why don't you go home and get your gear and move up here" So he did. Duane's playing with Pickett got the attention of other musicians such as Clarence Carter, King Curtice, Arthur Conley, and Aretha Franklin, all of who Duane played with. He also got the attention of producers.
One producer, Jerry Wexler remembers Duane: "He was a complete guitar player, he could give you whatever you needed, he could do everything. Play rhythm, lead, blues, bassa-nova, jazz, acoustic, and slide. Duane was one of the greatest guitar players I ever knew" He said.
Duane was finding a lot of success with Pickett. Duane would make periodic visits back to Florida where he would jam with different bands. Some of the guys he was jamming with were Barry Oakley, Dickey Betts, Butch Trucks, and J.Johanny Johnson. Duane recalls "We set up the equipment and whipped into a little jam that lasted for 2 1/2 hours. When we finally quit nobody ever said a word, man everybody was speechless. Right then I knew that this is really what I want to do, here is the sound I've been looking for" So Duane quit his studio work with Pickett and moved back to Florida.
Duane wanted to get Gregg back into the picture so he called him up and invited him to come play with the group. Now the Allman Brothers Band was born! The band made a few albums that were praised by the music world. The Allman Brothers Band gained success and popularity throughout the country. They began to play at large and small halls all over the country. Duane Finally found exactly what he was looking for. A great sounding successful band with his brother, that was all he could ask for.
On October 29, 1971 Duane left the band's big house where he was visiting friends. He was on his motorcycle and he swerved to avoid a truck that turned in front of him (Intentionally or accidentally is unknown - remember Easy Rider- A long haired guy on a motorcycle in the south) anyway- the bike went out of control and landed on top of Duane. His helmet was knocked off and he was pronounced dead 3 hours later from internal injuries.
Duane's death was a huge shock to the music world. Duane isn't playing gigs anymore but his spirit is around, and he left a lot of his soul for us to hear.
In spite of the loss, The Allman Brothers Band have gone on. In fact much of their success came after Duanes Death. The Allman Brothers Band still plays 50 - 100 sold out shows a year. Everyone wants to hear the band that was so directly influenced by Duane.
If you made it this far- thank you.