In Memory of Elizabeth Reed

"In Memory of Elizabeth Reed (Live)"
Song by The Allman Brothers Band from the album At Fillmore East
Released	July 1971
Recorded	March 12–March 13, 1971, Fillmore East, New York City
Genre	Jazz fusion, instrumental rock, jam rock
Length	13:04
Label	Capricorn Records
Writer	Dickey Betts
Producer	Tom Dowd
At Fillmore East track listing
Hot' Lanta (5) "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed (Live)" (6) Whipping Post (7)

"In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" is a jazz-influenced instrumental composed by Dickey Betts that became one of the best-known works ever recorded by The Allman Brothers Band, especially the version on their 1971 live album At Fillmore East.

Overview

The original studio recording of "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" is the fourth song on the group's 1970 album Idlewild South. It is an instrumental song in a minor key written by guitarist Dickey Betts, the first of several Allmans instrumentals to be written by him, and the first original instrumental song written by a member of the band. The original Rolling Stone review of Idlewild South said the song "just goes and goes for a stupendous, and unnoticed, seven minutes."

The song is named after a headstone Betts saw at the Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia, a place frequented by band members in their early days for relaxing and writing songs. Considerable legend has developed about what Betts was doing at the time, some originated by a possibly put-on interview Duane Allman gave Rolling Stone. The cemetery was later memorialized by the band as the final resting spot of both band leader Duane Allman and bassist Berry Oakley.

The Rolling Stone Album Guide called "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" in its original studio incarnation "the blueprint of a concert warhorse, capturing the Allmans at their most adventurous." The New York Times has written that "its written riffs and jazz-ish harmonies [allow] improvisers room." Accordingly, "Elizabeth Reed" has appeared in many Allman Brothers concerts, sometimes running half an hour or more, and on numerous Allman Brothers live albums, but first and most notably on At Fillmore East, which many fans and critics believe is the definitive rendition. In 2007, Rolling Stone named "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" one of its Fifty Best Songs Over Seven Minutes Long – and in giving it Honorable Mention on its 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time list made 2008, Rolling Stone called the At Fillmore East performance "transcendant".

Fillmore East recording

In this performance, Betts opens the song with ethereal volume swells on his guitar, giving the impression of violins. Slowly the first theme begins to emerge, and Duane Allman's guitar joins Betts in a dual lead that sometimes doubles the melody, sometimes provides a harmony line, and sometimes provides counterpoint. The next section has the tempo pick up to a Santana-like, quasi-Latin beat, with a strong second-theme melody being driven by unison playing and harmonized guitars.

Betts now takes a solo that starts from the second theme. This leads into an organ solo from Gregg Allman, with the two guitars playing rhythm figures in the background. Throughout, percussionists Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny Johanson play in unison, providing what has been described as "a thick bed of ride-snare rhythm for the soloists to luxuriate upon."

Now it is Duane Allman's turn, and he starts out quietly rephrasing the first theme. He then gradually builds to a high-pitched climax, with Berry Oakley's bass guitar playing a strong counterpoint lead underneath him against the band's trademark percussive backing. Allman cools off into a reverie, then starts up again, finding an even more furious peak. Parts of this solo would draw comparison to John Coltrane and his sheets of sound approach, other parts to Miles Davis and his classic Kind of Blue album. Duane Allman biographer Randy Poe wrote that the solo reflected the emerging jazz fusion movement, but in reverse: "[Allman]'s playing jazz in a rock context." Allman himself told writer Robert Palmer at that time, "that kind of playing comes from Miles and Coltrane, and particularly Kind of Blue. I've listened to that album so many times that for the past couple of years, I haven't hardly listened to anything else." Almost two decades later, Palmer would write of the Allmans, "that if the musicians hadn't quite scaled Coltrane-like heights, they had come as close as any rock band was likely to get." Rolling Stone would say in 2002 that the song's performance found the musicians "lock[ed] together ... with the grace and passion of the tightest jazz musicians," while in 2008, it said the trills, crawls, and sustain of the guitar work represented "the language of jazz charged with electric R&B futurism."

Following the Duane Allman solo, the band drops off and a relatively brief but to-the-point percussion break is taken by Trucks and Johanson, that reflects Kind of Blue drummer Jimmy Cobb's work. The full band then enters to recap the mid-tempo second theme, and the song is finished off abruptly. The Fillmore audience lets a couple of silent beats pass before erupting in applause.

An Allman pattern

"Elizabeth Reed" follows a song pattern similar with other Allman songs. Much like "Mountain Jam," it first follows a standard rhythmic part, then a guitar solo followed by a keyboard solo and then another guitar solo. A drum duet usually follows, and a bass solo is occasionally added in the end. Other songs that follow this general pattern are "Revival" and "Hot 'Lanta."

As in many Allman Brothers songs, Butch Trucks lays down a driving rhythm in 4/4 time using ride cymbal and snare while Jaimoe plays "lead"-like jazz drumming.

Composite takes?

Some selections on the original At Fillmore East were edited by producer Tom Dowd for conciseness or other reasons. However, it is uncertain whether "Elizabeth Reed" was one of those edited on the original album, on the 1992 expanded release The Fillmore Concerts, on the 2003 revised At Fillmore East [Deluxe Edition], or not at all.

In the 1992 Fillmore Concerts liner notes, an interview with Dowd clarified that he did edit the 1992 version:

The clearest example of Tom Dowd's approach to the project comes in the 13 minute version of "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" that is pieced together from multiple takes, one of them being the March 13th (first show) version that appeared on the original album. The band played the song three times during its Fillmore stand. "One of them I hated," Dowd says, "but two of them were fantastic!" Dowd and mixer Jay Mark mixed down those two versions and proceeded to, as Dowd puts it, "take this song apart. I came to the conclusion that in the first half of the song, up to Duane's solo, I had a better band performance and Dickey Betts solo on the version that we had not used before. Starting with Duane's solo, though, it's the original version. Twenty-one years later, I know 'Liz Reed' as well as I know any song, certainly more than I did in that time of instant decisions. Putting the two versions together showed off the song best. Listen to it! Listen to the togetherness of Dickey, Duane, and Gregg on the theme lines, and how Butch and Jaimoe adjust to the changes up front. There's much more exciting interplay now, more like the band sounded those nights."

Other sources confirm. Bruce Eder's Allmusic review of the 1992 volume says that "It is also a slightly less honest release [than the original], where "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" is concerned — Dowd edited the version here together from two different performances, first and second shows, the dividing line being where Duane Allman's solo comes in." C. Michael Bailey of All About Jazz also states that the 1992 The Fillmore Concerts represented "digital editing" combining multiple takes of "Elizabeth Reed" onto one track. Dave Lynch's Allmusic review of the 2003 At Fillmore East [Deluxe Edition] says of the 1992 volume that "Duane's 'Liz Reed' solo, although from the same take used on At Fillmore East, is mixed lower than on the version listeners first heard in 1971 — as a result, the power and beauty of the solo doesn't stand out quite as effectively," and that the 2003 edition restores the 1971 mix.

See also

• Musical improvisation
• Instrumental rock

External links

• Elizabeth Reed on Find A Grave