Long Live the ABB in Conversation with Alan Paul
Join us on live Sunday July 23 8p Eastern
Welcome to another edition of Long Live the ABB: Conversations from the Crossroads of Southern Music, History, and Culture.
One of the best parts about launching Play All Night! Duane Allman and the Journey to Fillmore East has been the conversation I have had with so many interesting people with fantastic stories about all kinds of things, including their connections to the Allman Brothers Band.
Thanks to everyone for all of your enthusiasm for what I’m sharing. It really means the world.
REMINDER
This Sunday is the launch of Long Live the ABB in Conversation, a new series I’ll be hosting on Youtube.
What: In Conversation with Alan Paul
When: July 23 (Sunday) 8p Eastern/5p Pacific
Where: Youtube www.youtube.com/live/8V4Oxgprit0?feature=share
I call Alan the dean of Allman Brothers Band historians. He’s been documenting the story as long as I have been aware of it. Much of my understanding of the band’s history comes through his work.
His latest book Brothers and Sisters is an in-depth look at an under-explored time in the Allman Brothers Band history: 1972-1976, when the band lost Berry Oakley, regrouped and recorded their biggest hit Brothers and Sisters. In the wake of its success, the ABB became the biggest band in the country. By 1976, it had all fallen apart, just as their support for Jimmy Carter helped elect him president.
It’s a fascinating story, one that picks up exactly where Play All Night leaves off. It’s as if we choreographed it.1
JOIN US: July 23 at 8p Eastern/5p Pacific
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Musical influence
Duane Betts has just released a new record, Wild and Precious Life. I’ve been looking forward to its release as I’ve been a fan of Duane’s going way back. It’s a killer album, one I keep returning to. It has a distinctly Florida-like feel to me.
He’s doing a lot of interviews for the record and this one caught my eye: Duane Betts: Five Essential Albums for #5 the Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream.
Duane’s quote about the record mirrors my own experience: “I listened to this record religiously when it came out (1993). Billy Corgan’s songs still speak to me in a profound way. Guitar layers for days.”2
Siamese Dream came out the same year that I “discovered” the Allman Brothers Band.3 I listened to the Pumpkins incessantly in that era and saw them at the Edge in Orlando the day after seeing the ABB for the first time—a story I wrote about here:
Interestingly enough I learned through Jimmy Chamberlin, the Pumpkins’ drummer, that he and Corgan were very influenced by the Allman Brothers Band in the early days. At first that surprised me, but it shouldn’t have.
Upon close listening, I heard the influence of the ABB in their approach, particularly on their more psychedelic tracks. Like the Allman Brothers Band, their songs were sonic excursions, with shifting dynamics within songs and tight-as-shit musicianship. This is particularly true of their more psychedelic tracks.4
The music may not sound like the Allman Brothers Band, but, as Duane Allman said, “Being influenced shouldn’t mean sounding like or copying anyone else.”
Then this came across Instagram: Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins with his brother at a Grateful Dead show. Like the Smashing Pumpkins, Jane’s is another band I listened the shit out of in college in the years before I got on the bus with the ABB. They recorded “Ripple” on a Dead-inspired covers album in 1991, so it’s not entirely surprising to see the photo.5
But a friend had just pointed out that I did a good job bringing Jane’s Addiction into an Allman Brothers interview on The Road to Now podcast recently, so the photo gave me a chuckle.
All of this is yet another reminder of the unbroken circle of musical influence I wrote about recently “When Musical Worlds Collide.” You never know what, or who, is an influence.6
From Dickey Betts to Billy Corgan/Jimmy Chamberlin to Duane Betts. From the Grateful Dead to Jane’s Addiction.7
And on that note…
There’s a song on Duane Betts’s new record called “Stare at the Sun.” It’s somewhat inspired by something Derek Trucks said about Dickey. You can see it all below (click to find me on IG).
What really struck me was how much this quote Dickey gave 48 years ago reflects the sentiment of Derek’s observations. Dickey was fearless. Unafraid to stare directly at the sun.
I look forward to talking with fellow ABB historian Alan Paul about this, and much more, on Sunday July 23 8p Eastern: https://www.youtube.com/live/8V4Oxgprit0?feature=share
Be there.
And thanks for being here as well.
We didn’t, which is a story for the conversation. A little bit of that #mushroommagic.
Me too. I’ve memorized every note of this album like I have At Fillmore East.
Also the year I met my wife of 27 years. We bonded over the Smashing Pumpkins actually. (But not over the Allman Brothers 🍄.)
This is particularly true on their first two records: Gish and Siamese Dream, less so with Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness—though it does have two of their most epic songs “Porcelina of Vast Oceans” and “Through the Eyes of Ruby.”
Come to think of it, the only two times I saw Jane’s and the only two times I saw the Dead were both in 1991 in Orlando. Four separate concerts.
Black Flag’s guitarist Greg Ginn was also a HUGE Deadhead.