Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Allmans At Their Matchless Best!, August 19, 2000
How does one introduce an album one has had to replace twice before finally getting it on CD? Byu admitting that it provided a constant accompaniment to his life for more than two decades, that he remembers hearing the echoes of "Blue Sky" wafting into the rafters at his wedding reception in an expansive old mansion beloinging to a friend's parents, or that he felt more at home when listening to it on a Sony Walkman in strange motel rooms all over the country when traveling on business? It seems to be a permanent part of my life, like Sgt Pepper or Bookends. This is the album released at the apex of their rise to fame and fortune, a studio album completed after lead singer and slide guitar magician Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident. This is s spellbindingly good collection of an under appreciated band at their very best. You will find most of the songs included here on their various "best of the Allman Brothers" collections, and for good reason. Whether it is for the matchless "Blue Sky', or for the blockbuster sound of "Ain't Wasting Time No More", this is an album so terrific, you will play it again and again. I especially like their guitar instrumentals. Gregg Allman and Dicky Betts perform absolutely magically here, and it is all captured for your endless amusement and entertainment. Enjoy!
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Brothers Shine - With and Without Duane, February 25, 2006
Released in February 1972, less than four months after Duane Allman's death, EAT A PEACH gathers together the final tracks laid down by the original Allman Brothers Band, the only studio documentation of the short-lived five-man, one-guitar ABB lineup and the remaining performances from the concerts which had yielded the epochal AT FILLMORE EAST album. Far from being a stereotypical posthumous odds and ends collection, however, EAT A PEACH is a treasure trove containing much of the Brothers' best work, and stands right beside FILLMORE at the very apex of their stupendous body of recordings.
Opening with the post-Duane tracks, EAT A PEACH demonstrates from its very first notes that there was - and is - far more to the ABB than one amazing guitarist. Brother Gregg's "Ain't Wastin' Time No More," though written before Duane's crash, is an effective and all-too-poignant rumination on uprushing mortality with excellent playing from the whole quintet. Dickey Betts, tossed into the unenviable position of sole guitar player in rock's most celebrated two-guitar band, more than holds his own here, contributing top-notch picking on every track - most notably his own thunderstorm instrumental, "Les Brers in A Minor," which starts out as a grinding tribute to amplification before morphing into a Santana-esque Latin funk workout liberally spiced with impressive displays of chops all around. "Melissa," a beautiful old ballad co-written by Gregg which the Brothers had first recorded with their previous group the Hourglass, is by contrast epitomally delicate and genuinely moving; Dickey's ethereal lead is a dream.
Next up: thirty-three minutes of "Mountain Jam," longest of the ABB's many long onstage workouts, the Duane-drenched final third of which is at least the equal of anything on FILLMORE and makes me wonder why that album wasn't simply released as a triple, with this LP-length track included, in the first place. Also recorded during the Fillmore East engagement, "One Way Out" and "Trouble No More," which the Brothers had first tackled on their 1969 debut album, are solid blues jams in the classic Allmans vein.
Finally, there are the last three studio tunes featuring Duane, which with fitting irony point to yet more new directions this band might well have explored had it only had the opportunity. "Stand Back," a bouncing number from Gregg, would've been equally at home on IDLEWILD SOUTH; but Dickey's sublime country ballad "Blue Sky," with its brilliant solos from both guitarists, and Duane's only ABB composition, the brief dobro/guitar duet "Little Martha," mine and master new territory and suggest that a more varied range of material, from an expanded group of songwriters, would have kept this band firmly at the front of the pack through all those gigs that might have been.
More than thirty years later, the original ABB's handful of recordings remain one of the great listening experiences to be had anywhere. EAT A PEACH and AT FILLMORE EAST are the very best of the great, which really leaves nothing to say.
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31 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the Best Southern Rock Albums Ever, April 9, 2002
Along with Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Street Survivors," The Allman Brothers' "Eat a Peach" is one of the defining albums of Southern Rock. It is also the high point of this troubled band's recording career. That said, its also an interesting mix of songs, with the live track "Mountain Jam" checking in at over a half an hour, or nearly as long as the rest of the album combined. Yet it is a great half hour, an amazing feat in that it is not at all repetetive or boring. The rest of the songs are almost all Allman classics, including "Blue Sky," "Ain't Wasting Time No More," the ballad "Melissa" and the amazing Duane Allman guitar solo "Little Martha" that is made even more poigniant by the fact that he died not long after recording it."Eat a Peach" is a must own for any fan of southern rock. It is simply the Allmans' finest hour.
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