Customer Reviews

Macon City Auditorium 2/11/72

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Man, I just discovered the CD and it is almost like listening to Fillmore East for the first time. Yes, Duane is missed here, but, damn - this five-man band is HOT. I never even knew they played all these shows while Berry was still alive, and before they added the piano player. No offense to Lamar, who became the band's bass player after Berry died, but Berry Oakley was THE greatest bass player in America. He plays bass the way Duane played guitar. Not only does he hold everything down with his thundering bass, he actually plays it so melodically that he is like another guitar, harmonizing with Dickie Betts. To have lost Duane and still be able to carry on like this just blows me away, and I think that has a lot to do with Berry's presence. How they carried on after losing Berry, well, that's a whole 'nother story. But in this recording, at least, the Spirit of the Allman Brothers is alive and well.

I am trying vainly to avoid the tired cliches but you have to hear this ABB --some of the most tuneful and soulful that I have heard. This is the balance of the original line up playing just four months after inspirational leader and slide & lead guitarist extordinaire Duane Allman died in a motorcyle wreck.

According to the liner notes, this was the 24th show after carrying on as a five man band and there is plenty of room in the mix for all five performers. They sounded amazing with tons of energy and with something to prove, again.

It would be easy to dismiss this period of the band, (the Chuck Leavell/Lamar Williams edition of the band evolved during the 6 to 10 months after this recording) but then please explain to me why I keep finding that this cd is playing again (and again) -- from my collection of 40 different ABB discs to listen to.

There are some tape "outs" early in disc one, where one channel suddenly dissappears for an instatnt. Both cds are fantastic, it's among my favorites and you won't be sorry for taking the risk.

Eric Clapton was still seeing "Clapton is God!" spray-painted on subway walls worldwide when he began jamming with the Allman Brothers' lead guitar *genius* Duane Allman. Clapton was held in complete awe of Duane's skills. Eric publicly called Allman "the greatest guitarist in the world". Together, as a side project, they formed Derek + The Dominoes, recording one album together, "Layla + Other Love Songs", (1970), before Duane died of massive head injuries in a 1971 motorcycle wreck. (I've hated motorbikes ever since. Damnable death-traps!)

The Allman Brothers themselves rank as my favorite American band. Today's lineup of the ABB (2010) is very, very good. Yet for a few years after Duane's 1971 death, they largely just stumbled along by comparison, period, as this recording shows.