Play All Night Playlist Project Chapter 5 Duane Returns South for Good

“Stick your papers and contracts up your ass. We’re out of here.” Duane Allman

Welcome back to Long Live the ABB: Conversation from the Crossroads of Southern Music, History, and Culture.

I’ve just returned from a truly amazing time at Roots Rock Revival, what i can best describe as a weeklong musical adventure, a participatory music festival founded 10 years ago by Allman Brothers Band Butch “the Freight Train” Trucks.

I will post more on this incredible experience, but suffice it to say I’ve never met so many people who carry the spirit of what I think of when I say “Long Live the ABB.” The Allman Brothers Band didn’t end with Duane Allman, it was just a beginning.

Here’s one example… This is Amitav and Karan, they traveled from India to attend Roots. And they ABBsolutely RIPPED on guitar.

I’ll share more later in the week.

9th Installment of the Play All Night Playlist Project

• Youtube

• Spotify

The other eight are here:

Play All Night Playlist Project

Stick your papers and contracts up your ass. We’re out of here.

Duane Allman

This quote really sums up Chapter 5 for me. It covers a pretty active five-month stretch in Duane’s career—April through September 1968–when he abandons Los Angeles/Hour Glass and moves back to the South for good.

What precipitated Duane’s departure from California happened dur­ing a spring 1968 tour in the East and Southeast. The band opened for Big Brother and the Holding Company in St. Louis, a mainstay on the Allman Joys’ touring retinue. The tour took them as far north as Cleveland and as far south as Jacksonville.¹

In April the band pooled its money and visited FAME in Muscle Shoals. It was familiar turf for Paul Hornsby and Johnny Sandlin. Their old bandmate Eddie Hinton was on staff, and Sandlin had played at FAME before joining Hour Glass.

Liberty Records hated the demos causing Duane to quit the band in frustration. By the end of the year, he secured a permanent position for himself at Rick Hall’s FAME studio in Muscle Shoals.

My thoughts on the tracks are below

Here’s a small slice of Duane’s work between April and September 1968, when he finally got his foot in the door in Muscle Shoals.

Hour Glass “B.B. King Medley” Between this session and “Hey Jude,” Duane figured out some of the final pieces of his musical puzzle, particularly having the freedom to create. You can almost *hear* the Allman Brothers in this track. Listen closely and you’ll hear Duane count the song off.

B.B. King “Sweet Little Angel” “It’s My Own Fault” “How Blue Can You Get?” It’s readily apparent that Duane and Gregg studied King’s Live at the Regal religiously. Their arrangement hews pretty closely to this, from King’s November 21, 1964 performance at Chicago’s Regal Theater.

“Been Gone Too Long” A Gregg original that they recorded at FAME in Muscle Shoals. When listening to it compared to Hour Glass’s studio records², I can tell why Duane and the entire band were so frustrated in Los Angeles. The song didn’t end up in Gregg’s repertoire beyond this, but it’s a nice, languid, southern R&B groove. I love the sparse production and the harmony vocals behind Gregg.³

31st of February “Morning Dew” The 31st of February had potential contained half of the original Allman Brothers Band lineup: Duane, Gregg, and Butch. Like Hour Glass’s “B. B. King Medley” recorded that spring, “Morning Dew” previewed the future Allman Brothers Band’s sound. Duane’s guitar features prominently throughout, including a blistering mid-song solo. Yet the real difference maker was Butch Trucks. Butch hit the drums hard, providing a heavier rock foundation than Johnny Sandlin’s rhythm and blues swing. Something else stands out to me and that’s how connected Butch and Duane are. He seems to anticipate Duane’s moves, sometimes following, sometimes pushing. The drummer propelled the song forward with a force that would later earn him the nickname “The Freight Train.”

Jeff Beck Group “Morning Dew” When the question is “More Jeff Beck?,” the answer is always yes. I’m guessing this is where Duane and the 31st of February found their aggressive arrangement of Bonnie Dobson’s original.

Bonnie Dobson “Morning Dew” The original version. Check out how vastly different it is from Beck’s rock-heavy arrangement. Way more similar to the version the Grateful Dead made famous on Europe 72.⁴

31st of February “Nobody Knows When You’re Down and Out” “Melissa” The Allmans’ stint with Butch’s 31st of February lasted about 3 weeks. They were productive. Duane never rerecorded “Melissa,” though the ABB did on 1972’s Eat a Peach. This version is Duane’s first recorded slide solo.

Derek & the Dominos “Nobody Knows When You’re Down and Out” In 1970, Duane recorded “Nobody Knows” with Eric Clapton on Layla.

Some final thoughts

This is a short playlist, as it really only represents about 5 months of Duane’s career: April to September 1968. But man was it a prolific time period! Particularly September, when he arrived in Florida from LA, joined up with Butch and the 31st of February to record and gig, and ends up on his first Muscle Shoals sessions.⁵

By November, Duane returned for the Wilson Pickett session that earned him a contract with Rick Hall. He had yet to turn 21. By January 1968, he moved to Muscle Shoals and became a regular at FAME. By March, he’d left the Shoals and headed to Jacksonville, Florida, where he assembled the Allman Brothers Band.

Hope these playlists are helpful/interesting. I’m grateful that you’re reading.

1. This is when Duane and Berry met for the first time.

2. Wrote about that here

Playlist Chapter 4 (part 2) Hour Glass Studio Albums

3. Assuming that’s Duane, but it could be Gregg overdubbing, or Paul or Johnny for all I know.

4. Here it is Grateful Dead “Morning Dew” from Europe 72. You’re welcome. 🍄

5. Clarence Carter’s “The Road of Love.” He also recorded with the Bleus, either in Memphis at Ardent or in the Muscle Shoals area at what was then Bevis Studio (later known as Muscle Shoals Sound, home of the Swampers).