Annotations aka "Marginalia"

Part 1 of my deep dive into the first ABB biography (1975)

Reading Tom Nolan’s The Allman Brothers Band: A Biography in Words and Pictures sends my brain in all kinds of different directions, little tangents that y’all may find interesting.¹

I thought it’d be fun to share them, in an annotated version of the text.

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Dr. B’s Marginalia

I did my best to organize this visually for you.

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The original text looks like this.

My comments look like this.

I’ll start from the beginning…

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Acknowledgments

I always love to read a book’s front matter.

Always.

I learn a lot about writers and their respective journeys, and appreciate and learn from the ways folks pay honor to others. Nolan’s Acknowledgments are simple: three paragraphs, each increasingly shorter.

Virtually all the material in this book is the result of a series of interviews conducted in Macon, New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in June and July of 1975.

Grateful acknowledgment is extended to Capricorn Records, without whose generous cooperation this project would not have been realized. Mark Pucci, Mike Hyland, and Diana Kaylan of Capricorn were especially helpful. Absolutely indispensable was the coordinating effort of Twiggs Lyndon, "the rock-on-tour raconteur.”

The timing here is interesting, particularly given what a fraught time it was for the band. It was a fractured group that recorded Win, Lose, or Draw in 1975. Gregg had relocated to L.A. with Cher and was mostly absent from the sessions. Within a year, the group would break up. You wouldn’t know anything wrong by reading this book.

Capricorn’s promotions folks had a big hand in the book and I have a feeling that’s why it’s as thorough as it is.

And gotta love the mention of Twiggs, the band’s original road manager and one of Duane’s earliest disciples. This book is LOADED with great Twiggs stories.

Macon residents who made the author’s stay in that city pleasant and memorable include Darlene Moore, Robert D. Lewis, Rodney Groth and Gyro of the ABB road crew, and the entire Morrison family.

The author thanks all those interviewed for their time and candor.

The band was remarkably candid and cooperative as was everyone involved in the book. It really is an incredible document of the time.

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Dedication

This work is respectfully dedicated to the eight members, past and present, of the Allman Brothers Band.²

This is a really nice touch if you ask me, acknowledging Duane and Berry—as well as Chuck and Lamar—along with Butch, Dickey, Jaimoe, and Gregg.

The text is very respectful to the Allman Brothers Band as a band—Duane’s founding ideal that outlived him despite the odds.

Marginalia reserved for paid subscribers of Long Live the ABB