Happy 55th Anniversary to The Allman Brothers Band’s eponymous debut album The Allman Brothers Band, originally released November 4, 1969.
Butch Trucks didn't want to do it.
Earlier that day, he had cut his leg open and had to get stitches. He and the rest of The Allman Brothers Band had been hanging out with this big name photographer from New York City for about a week, partying and getting shots all around Macon for their first album. They had gotten some keepers at the old college house at 315 College Street and at Rose Hill Cemetery—good enough for the front and back of the jacket, but now this.
They were by a brook behind Alan Walden's log cabin (which was attached to Otis Redding's Big O Ranch) near Round Oak, Georgia. The Allmans' manager, Phil Walden (Alan's brother, and co-founder—along with Alan—of the fledgling Capricorn Records), suggested they strip down to their birthday suits and crouch down in the water. With Boz Scaggs and Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner looking on, they did just that—except for Trucks, who stood strategically behind bassist Berry Oakley as to not irritate those damn stitches. Such is the price for a good shot.
That now legendary photo (by that New York photographer, Stephen Paley) is on the inside gatefold of The Allman Brothers Band’s self-titled debut album, and just like the music contained therein, it's organic, natural, yet at the same time, completely unexpected, groundbreaking, and fresh.
Forming from the ashes of groups that included The Hour Glass (Duane and Gregg Allman), The 31st of February (Butch Trucks), and Second Coming (Dickey Betts and Berry Oakley), along with Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson as their second drummer ("Because James Brown had two drummers" according to Duane), The Allman Brothers Band began in earnest in March of 1969 after Duane persuaded his little brother to give up attempts at a solo career in Hollywood, come back home to Jacksonville, Florida, and join the band. The first song they played together was the Muddy Waters jump blues "Trouble No More," which ended up on their debut album less than eight months later.
The Allman Brothers Band couldn't have been in a better place in 1969 than the deep south. They were able to find inspiration all around. Duane had become an in-demand session guitarist for Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett among others at Rick Hall's FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Soaking up that raw, southern soul and mixing it with their love of the blues, Jaimoe's background in jazz, Dickey's love of country, and Butch's fascination with the Grateful Dead, the Allmans took this melting pot of influences and created a sound that has since been attempted, but never matched, sounding fully formed from the start.
Although the legendary Tom Dowd was supposed to helm the sessions, he was unavailable, telling Duane Allman biographer Randy Poe in 2008, "Some way or other I got detoured. Jerry Wexler made a deal to keep them in the studio for three or four days when they were supposed to be with me." Production was instead delegated to house engineer for Atlantic Records, Adrian Barber, who for some reason sweetened Gregg's vocals with slap back echo—the kind Sam Phillips popularized on those classic Sun rockabilly records. The Allman Brothers Band may have been a lot of things, but they were not rockabilly, and Gregg Allman's vocals did not need sweetening.
Listen to the Album:
The entire session took two weeks, with the actual recording of the songs lasting only six days. The group had been performing those songs live for so long that almost no rehearsal was necessary. The album opens with a cover of The Spencer Davis Group's blues rocker, "Don't Want You No More." The riff is the same as the original, but as they would soon exhibit with Donovan's "There Is a Mountain," (by its transition into their own "Mountain Jam"), the main melody is just a jumping off point. The jazz influence is there from the very first song. After the opening riff, Gregg takes the first solo, and the song transforms into the sort of modal exercise Miles and Coltrane had pioneered ten years prior on Kind of Blue (1959).
“Don’t Want You No More” segues seamlessly into “It’s Not My Cross to Bear.” Though an Allman original, it sounds as old as the blues itself; proving the timelessness of not only the karma-laced lyric, but the power of Gregg Allman’s peerless vocal coupled with the Allman Brothers’ storied telepathic interplay and unrivaled dynamics.
Throughout The Allman Brothers Band, hard blues melds seamlessly with heavy rock. In the year that saw the first two Led Zeppelin albums come into existence and a year after Jeff Beck’s groundbreaking debut Truth, it was hardly uncharted territory. However, where those albums used the blues as an inspiration upon which the guitars of Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck turned up the distortion while Robert Plant and Rod Stewart both ushered in the new voice, look, and attitude of the rock band front man, the Allmans—because of their southern roots—had the blues infused in their DNA, allowing them to use it as a launching pad into their melting pot of soul, jazz, rock, and—later—even country music.
The two most well-known tracks close the album. “Dreams” and “Whipping Post” were both written by Gregg Allman; the latter waking him up in the middle of the night, as he shared in his autobiography, My Cross to Bear: “The intro had three sets of three, and two little steps that allowed you to jump back up on the next triad. I thought it was different, and I love different things.” Unable to find anything to write on in the dark, he settled for an ironing board and the charcoal tip of a match to write out the song that would become ground zero for Southern Rock (a term Gregg always despised, considering it—and correctly so—redundant).
As for “Dreams,” again, Gregg remembers from his autobiography, “Everybody had gone out one night, so I was at the house by myself. I had a big fat joint, so I smoked that bad boy down and I started writing.” Musically, according to Jaimoe, "Dreams" is basically John Coltrane's version of "My Favorite Things" with lyrics.
Both “Dreams” and “Whipping Post” are enough to sustain any group for an entire career. The fact that they both reside on the Allman Brothers Band’s debut album speaks to the confidence and audacity the group displayed from the beginning. Speaking of beginnings, in 1973 Tom Dowd finally remixed the first album himself and it was rereleased coupled with the (even better) follow-up, Idlewild South as Beginnings.
Enjoying this article? Click/tap on the album covers to explore more about The Allman Brothers Band:
Sadly, only Jaimoe is still alive from the original lineup. The Allman Brothers Band ultimately lasted 45 years, going through all the drama that one would expect from a group with such longevity. But they went out on a high note at what became their home away from home, New York's Beacon Theatre. Not all of those 45 years were great, but their quality was consistently higher than most. By the end, the Trucks/Haynes twin guitar combination was as exciting to witness as the Allman/Betts teaming all those years ago.
Though The Allman Brothers Band was not their best album, the songs it contains all became concert staples, and it acted as a springboard for one of America's greatest and most influential musical and improvisational institutions. I'm sure they'd all agree—even Butch—that ultimately it was worth a cold skinny dip in a backwater Georgia brook.
LISTEN:
Editor's note: this anniversary tribute was originally published in 2019 and has since been edited for accuracy and timeliness.