My absolute favourite thing about Allman Brothers At Fillmore East album is the introduction by the MC, Michael Ahern, he sounds like he can barely be arsed as he says, ‘Okay, the Allman Brothers Band’ in the same tone you’d ask for your car to be filled up, or for another carrier bag at the supermarket. None of this whooping and shouting stuff that live LPs sometimes kick off with, nobody screams ‘You wanted the best? You got the best!’, or explodes a 50′ animatronic train through a screen. No. The Allman Brothers Band just didn’t need all that fuss.
Struggling to make ends meet, not assisted by some rather rapacious chemical dependencies, the Allman Brothers Band played over 300 shows in 1970, so when March 1971 rolled around and they found themselves supporting Johnny Winter at the Fillmore they grabbed at the chance to lay down some of their onstage fire and chemistry on wax, ably assisted by Tom Dowd. The production by the way, unlike so many ‘live’ LPs just involved toning down the horn section and the harp player a bit and splicing one track out of two takes – other than that, it’s just as the good lord intended. For the obsessive weirdoes amongst you there are now a plethora of recordings of every night so that you can play hunt the take, I’m not judging you, but you can’t go wrong just sticking with the original At Fillmore East in my view.
Funnily enough I don’t really rate the first three tracks on At Fillmore East very highly, to my jaded old ears they’re pleasant enough but a bit light and inconsequential. The playing is never less than stellar but I don’t hear anything to get excited about on them, give me Taj Mahal’s mighty version of ‘Statesboro Blues’ any day. This is possibly an effect of hearing so many of these tones and licks stolen and refracted through various burned out 80’s dudes that even the likes of ‘Stormy Monday’ just hit a samey groove for me – some bespectacled players out there stole a whole lot from Duane and co.
So bearing in mind that I’ve just airily dismissed three tracks from a seven track LP out of hand, what’s so special about the rest?
Well, At Fillmore East really takes to the skies from its’ second side onwards and ‘You Don’t Love Me’ a 19-minute jam around the old Willie Cobbs number. The band immediately sound energised barreling into a great little shuffling groove and when Duane, after volleying off a whole barrage of scorching licks, starts to solo the whole band just drop away – possibly lost in the same feeling of awe as the rest of us. This is just greatness on wax. What impresses me so much is that Duane and the band never lose sight of the song throughout all this extended virtuosity, they keep cutting back to certain notes and phrases that make it all seem part of an organic whole. The extended quoting from the melody of ‘An Ode To Joy’ at the end of the track just raises it all up a notch on the Sublime-o-meter.
The instrumental ‘Hot ‘Lanta’ is a whole different kettle of fish. The feel is immediately jazzier and progressive, showing off the joint drumming of Jai Johanny Johanson and, the frigging wonderfully named, Butch Trucks at their absolute best. I hear some Santana in there too. What impresses me throughout is the incredible turn-on-a-dime dexterity of the Allman Brothers Band, they always sound really light on their feet to me, like they could, if called upon, flip Zappa-like into a totally different genre at the snap of the fingers.
Best of all for me is the utterly transcendent ‘In Memory of Elizabeth Reed’, named after a tombstone in the same cemetery in Macon, Georgia that both Duane Allman and Berry Oakley would grace only 20 months after this track was recorded. This is such a brilliant track too, the band just glide – Dickie Betts’ guitaring is quite incredible on this one and the Latin rhythms are deployed to true maximum effect, creating a fabulously inspired gumbo of jazz, blues, Latin and rock. The beauty of it all is that it all sounds so natural and unstudied, the band are just flying.
I said ‘best of all’ then but what does that then make ‘Whipping Post’? joint best of all maybe? Duane’s vocals are excellent here too. Do you really need to make me trot out everything I’ve just written over the last three paragraphs again? Good. Given the subject matter* this is a more emotional, heavier blues-based number with some truly elegiac passages, where those guitar strings really get tested.
So, that’s what’s so special about At Fillmore East and why it is such a worthwhile LP. This isn’t just about musical virtuosity, there are plenty of albums out there that plough that furrow, the album really captures a group of exceptional musicians at the pinnacle of their game, letting us marvel at the way they mesh and laying out all their interplay for our delectation. It takes an exceptional bunch of hardened time-served vets to sound simultaneously this together and this free and I really like the way that the band, unlike so many of their peers** don’t just reach for the distortion and heavy volume to punch their way across, this is way subtler.
But, in-depth musical analysis isn’t why you’re here you want to know about the superficialities. I love the cover unreservedly, although I was shattered to learn it wasn’t actually taken out back of the Fillmore East but back in Macon, Georgia. The front cover is so great because of the fact that all the band are genuinely amused that Duane was hiding a stash of bad things in his lap that he’d got from a dealer friend of his during the photo shoot – it was one of those heaven sent moments because it shows the band looking as free and natural as the grooves within. The back cover is also just perfect, showing the roadies drinking their payment for moving all the gear outside – you wouldn’t want to mess with those gentleman is all I’m saying. The dude in the inset picture? tour manager Twiggs Lyndon Jr. The reason he wasn’t sat on the cases? he was awaiting trial for stabbing an unarmed club owner who owed the band money. He walked. You wouldn’t want to mess with these gentlemen, indeed.
‘Okay, the Allman Brothers Band’ .
659 Down.
*one of them mean mistreating woman types. You know the sort, the type that’ll do you wrong twice before breakfast and once after lunch on an average day.
**most of whom I love for the fact.
Otherwise nice article, but 1) Duane did NOT sing “Whipping Post.” 2) The musical riff quote at the end of YDLM is Handel’s “Joy to the World,” NOT Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” Cheers, MonkFish
Thank you, I stand corrected; I am still an Allman apprentice.
This is a good record. I listen to it more now than I use too. So that was why Duane had that shit eating grin on his face. You are a wealth of information
You really captured everything that’s great about this album. Glad we agree that “…Elizabeth Reed” is the cornerstone of the record. The original version of this album is still the best, although the 2-CD “The Fillmore Concerts” set from the ’90s is a nice alternative. Much as I love them, 6-CDs of every note they played is a bit of overkill.
I once had an argument…well, more like a heated but respectful discussion…with a friend who didn’t believe the Allmans were a blues band. He kept saying, “they’re Southern Rock,” and to him that wasn’t a good thing. Sure, they were there at he formation of Southern Rock but I still think of them as one kick-ass blues band. And it’s not their fault that many less-talented jam bands followed in their wake.
Thanks Rich, that’s kind. I agree totally, they are a blues band – that’s all that Southern Rock is when you boil it right down to the basics. But where I think these guys score is the jazz elements that creep in too, it’s a rare album for me because every single time I listen to it, I hear something else new.
Did you stump up for the 6CD set?
Didn’t buy the 6-CD version. If I ever find a copy really cheap I might pick it up but my guess is there’s very little truly astounding material from those shows that didn’t make the original album or”The Fillmore Concerts” 2-CD set.
That’s always my view too Rich, these artists aren’t stupid they (nearly) always put the best stuff on the original commercial release.
“This isn’t just about musical virtuosity, there are plenty of albums out there that plough that furrow, the album really captures a group of exceptional musicians at the pinnacle of their game, letting us marvel at the way they mesh and laying out all their interplay for our delectation.”
NAILED IT.
Thank you – that’s always the bit that astounds me, i can understand how someone get very good at an instrument him or herself but when you take that and multiply it by 6, that’s the magic.
Y’know, I’ve still never heard this album all the way through. Always meant to rectify that … nearly done so a few years back, but … y’know … stuff.
Anyhoo, I think I need to prioritise getting this one now. Damn you (again).
Just check out the cover – it would be worth it for that, even if there was no music on it at all.
This is the only Allman Brothers album anyone needs to own. Even ‘Eat A Peach’ pales in comparison. Until I heard this record I pretty much dismissed them because of the radio staples. Once I strapped in for this album Duane Allman won me over. One of the best slide players to don an SG.
Good stuff.
Nobody screams ‘You wanted the best? You got the best!’?? Well, screw this record then!
Haha, you’re just saying that because every single album you own starts that way!!
No! Just every single live album.
So just the 384 CDs then .
Plus all the Instant Live ones.
This Allmans record though quite honestly blows away any that the face paint guys did.
Cool review dude! You know I love my Southern Rock and the Allman Brothers were the founding fathers of it. This album proves why. Thanks for taking me back to my roots.
Thanks fella! I’ve played this so many times in the last few weeks, I feel like I was there.
My mate Steven (Sunbury post, late last year) WAS there. How about that!
Wow, really?
Yep. His father was working in the US for a period and the family were living there.
That’s a real ‘wow!’.
It would probably feel more so if you had some of the stuff that Duane has in the photo.
No comment!
One of my very favourites. I’ve got a couple of the expanded versions but I totally agree that this is the one. Even with the long songs on it, you end up knowing them by heart, note-for-note. The climax of You Don’t Love Me is one of my absolute favourite moments of music ever made… definitely puts my sublime-o-meter into the red.
Great read. Really enjoyed it!
I can see that. I am just brilliant though, sort of like Duane Allman but with a keyboard.
Cool, I had no idea you were so into this. It’s the intricacy of it all that’s unsurpassed. That and the totally brilliant cover.
Been a big Allmans fan since the 90s. Zakk Wylde used to mention them a lot so that’s why I gave them a go. Was into Skynyrd too but I wore them out over time… the Allmans still do it for me though.
Hot damn, this is yet another LP from ’71. Good vintage.
Cracking look back at an awesome album. Great words on the songs and then the album cover revealed just suns it all up. They should hire you for the sleeve notes for the next reissue.
That’s really kind Paul, thank you. One day I’ll be ‘discovered’ and I’ll get to ride limos and hang out with rock stars – or at least I think that’s the way it works.
Terrific review of an enduringly wonderful LIVE ALBUM*. There was a CD re-release that added a couple more longish tracks and I have to say that I was tempted by the 4-LP vinyl re-release a year or two ago, but resisted. Partially through the restraint I’m famous for, but mostly for the reasons you outline so persuasively in your post. It is very very good just as it is.
In an alternative universe, I’m called upon to sing ‘Whipping Post’ when the band’s vocalist calls in dead. I nail it with all the passion and restrained agony worthy of a blues master. True story.
* LIVE ALBUMS; you know, the ones you hate.
You seem to making some kind of point about my hypocrisy? I’m not sure what you’re getting at, it’s all a bit subtle for me!
Thanks Bruce, I really got into this beauty again. I didn’t like it at all when I first heard it, I just wanted it to be heavier. I am a moron though.
I think that’s why your restraint is so internationally admired. Plus I really like your fantasy – I have a similar one which involves me standing in for any number of rugby players.
All friendly chiding aside, I really am delighted that you love this album. When we eventually get to sit around drinking wine and talking shit about music, this is ON the list.
We can put this beauty on in the background.
The reason I reviewed this one now was because I was reaching for the All India Radio album and this was next to it.
22 minutes of Whipping Post! Midnight Radio Dj’s loved these kind of tunes! They could snort n smoke and still have 15 minutes…hahaha…great story love the pic of the Tall Boy Cans Of Lager….was Lego man detoxing when that shot was taken…
Haha, totally – DJ piss break tunes! Lego man just wasn’t mean enough to hang out with the roadies.