Beginnings [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Allman Brothers Band | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 14, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Island / Mercury
• ASIN: B000003CMA
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,407 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #21 in Music > Blues > Slide Guitar
  • #28 in Music > Rock > Jam Bands > Rock Jam Bands
  • #32 in Music > Classic Rock > Southern Rock

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The beginning of the legend, August 15, 2003

By 

John Alapick (Harveys Lake, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beginnings (Audio CD)

Beginnings is the first two Allman Brothers Band albums, their self-titled debut and Idlewild South on one disc. This collection is a masterpiece, not aging one moment since its release. Several of the tracks here are still album rock standards. It also shows the band's incredible diversity from the classic blues of their first album to their more acoustic and jazz roots on Idlewild South.

The first half of the disc begins with the jazzy instrumental "Don't Want You No More" featuring an excellent organ solo from Gregg Allman and a very tasty guitar solo from Duane Allman before flowing into the slow blues of "It's Not My Cross To Bear." Gregg's vocals are fantastic, already possessing one of the best blues voices ever, which is amazing considering he was just 21 when they recorded this album. This is clearly one of his best collections of songs as his compositions "Dreams" and "Whipping Post" have become blues classics with the latter taken to new heights on their live album At Fillmore East. The other tracks, "Every Hungry Woman", the percussion heavy "Black Hearted Woman", and their killer version of Muddy Waters' "Trouble No More" are all fantastic. The fact that they still play every one of these songs live attest to the excellent material here.

The second half of the disc is best known as the emergence of guitarist Dickey Betts as a composer. His two contributions are among his best work. "Revival" with its memorable melody and its hippie lyrics has become one of their most popular songs. The jazz instrumental "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed" is perhaps the best instrumental track released in modern rock music. This track, written as a tribute to Miles Davis, also lead to Betts contributing several other instrumental tracks in their career such as "Jessica." The most popular track here is Gregg Allman's acoustic "Midnight Rider", which would become his biggest solo hit and has remained as one of their most enduring tracks. "Leave My Blues At Home" and their version of "Hoochie Coochie Man", sung by bassist Berry Oakley, are among their best blues tracks. The lesser known ballad "Please Call Home" and "Don't Keep Me Wonderin'" are also excellent tracks. The slide guitar playing of Duane Allman is among the best ever recorded and the aggressive drumming duo of Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny Johanson, now known as Jaimoe, only add to the intensity of this stunning collection. Highly recommended to all fans of blues and classic rock.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beware! First album remixed, January 3, 2009

By 

Rock fan (Cedar Rapids, IA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beginnings (Audio CD)

I purchased this in the hopes that these remastered versions would yield a significant sonic improvement over the poor quality earlier versions of the first two ABB albums on CD that I already owned.

What I wasn't expecting was that the contents of the first album have been remixed here. (Idlewild South does not appear to have been remixed.) The albums themselves are both five stars in my book. However, I must "ding" this release at least one star for being a remix but not advertised as such.

Among the differences between the original "ABB mix" and the "Beginnings mix" are:
--Intro to "Every Hungry Woman": Original mix has the guitar in the left channel and a faint hi-hat pedal stomp counting out the beat in the right. The remix has the guitar more or less centered, and the hi-hat deleted.
--End of "Whipping Post" fades out in the remix, as opposed to a "cold" end in the original mix. The fade out cuts off the snare drum shots that close out the original mix.
--On several tracks, bass guitar has been moved from center to the left channel and increased substantially. This mimics the approach used on several "Idlewild South" tracks, suggesting that this remix may have been an attempt to apply the "Idlewild South" mixing strategy and lessons learned to the "ABB" session tapes.
--On several tracks, especially where two lead guitar parts play note-for-note harmonies, the positions of the two guitars (one panned 100% left, the other panned 100% right) have been reversed in the remix, while drums and percussion have their positions unchanged (e.g maraccas panned 100% left).
--Vocals in the remix tend to seem a bit "cleaner" and more forward as opposed to the original mix. I haven't yet determined whether this is simply a volume issue, or whether the reverb was cut back.

As a personal preference, I tend to avoid remixes. I view recordings as a document of the times in which they were originally produced. The Allman Brothers Band still had a lot to learn when the were cutting ABB. Given the timing of the release of Beginnings (sometime in 1973), after the deaths of Duane Allman and Berry Oakley in late 1971 and late 1972 respectively, it's quite likely that the remixes took place after one, if not both, of their deaths.

How would this bit of information affect your buying decision? If you're an ABB completist and want to learn more about the music by studying the differences between the remix and the original mix, or don't care about the remix and are looking for the best value, then pick up this package and you won't be disappointed. The vocals and bass are for the most part clearer than in the original mix. But if you do care whether or not you're listening to mixes that were made before the deaths of Allman and Oakley, you'll need to buy the first album individually. Since "Idlewild South" does not appear to have been remixed here, you might consider purchasing both "Beginnings" and the first CD if you want both mixes of the first album plus "Idlewild South."

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Uncover the blues rock from the South, September 22, 2003

By 

Manny Hernandez "@askmanny" (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Beginnings (Audio CD)

I just keep running into more and more incredible music as I continue to dig deeper. In trying to learn more about blues music and great blues guitarrists, I ran into Duane Allman, and this album by the Allman Brothers Band, which combines the music from their two first works. What can I say about it? Let me just put it from a perspective of a newbie into Blues and Southern Rock. This band is unbelievable. The soul they pour into each track is just impossible to describe. Two tracks, as a reference: "It's not my cross to bear" and "Midnight Rider" are so touching that every time I hear tham I am transported. Though lacking some of those 15-20 minute long solos (grab the live "Fillmore..." album for some of that), this combo album reminds of the best British Blues of the sixties (Yardbirds, Cream, Clapton, Beck, Page).