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Duane Allman

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Duane Allman

Howard Duane Allman (November 20, 1946 – October 29, 1971) was an American guitarist, respected session musician and the primary co-founder of the southern rock group The Allman Brothers Band. He is best remembered for his brief but influential tenure in that band, his expressive slide guitar playing and improvisational skills.[1]

A sought-after session musician both before and during his tenure with the band, Allman performed with such established stars as King Curtis, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and Herbie Mann. He also contributed heavily to the 1970 album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominos.

In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Allman at #2 in their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, second only to Jimi Hendrix.[2] His tone (achieved with a Gibson Les Paul and two 50-watt bass Marshall amplifiers) was named one of the greatest guitar tones of all time by Guitar Player.[3]

He died in October 1971 in a motorcycle accident.

He is still referred to by his nickname "Skydog," which may be a reference to his signature guitar sound and tone. Many consider "Skydog" a variant of the nickname "Skyman" given to him by Wilson Pickett during the recording of Pickett's cover of the Beatles' "Hey Jude." Jim Dickinson was quoted in Keith Richards' autobiography Life as saying he was given the name because he was high much of the time.

Early years

Duane Allman was born in Nashville, Tennessee. When he was three years old, while he and his family were living near Norfolk, Virginia, his father, Willis Allman, a career United States Army sergeant, was murdered by a hitchhiker and fellow veteran who he picked up a day after returning from a long tour of duty. Geraldine "Mama A" Allman moved her family back to Nashville. In 1957 they relocated to Daytona Beach, Florida.

In 1960, Allman was motivated to take up the guitar by his younger brother, Gregg, who became awed also by the guitar and wanted to buy one immediately after hearing a neighbor play country music standards on an acoustic guitar. Gregg started eavesdropping by the fencepost in his backyard to hear his neighbor play on the other side of the fence post of his backyard, most evenings. Gregg would wait for hours sometimes smoking and drinking booze on the side of the backyard waiting for his neighbor to come out and strum for a while, Gregg even said his guitar playing wasn't that great either, he was just astonished at how much the chords grabbed him emotionally. Gregg, after couple weeks of hearing his neighbor play through the fencepost, then became fed up in envy and stress of not having one of his own, so he decided to put forth all of his money savings and earnings to buy a shabby old 6 string acoustic. Gregg wasn't shy about showing off his new trophy of musical art either. After Duane saw this Gregg showed it off hoping for dire envy out of his brother Duane, but he played it off and smiled in gratitude knowing that he'd be able to get his hands on it someday, even the king sleeps with his gold unguarded... Gregg was impulsively denying Duane a turn to play out of sheer selfishness, but after coming home hungry one day only to see Duane strumming away nonchalantly, after that Gregg knew that Duane was too guitar hungry to keep his away from him forever. Gregg became used to seeing Duane in his room or around the house strumming the guitar more frequently as it seemed to Gregg that Duane was skipping constantly just to get better at guitar. In a matter of weeks Duane went from knowing nothing about guitar, to already knowing 7 chords or so and already learning and naturally playing scales as if he'd been playing for a year. Duane was an instinctive natural at riffing through scales and matching the chords with it rhythmically. It was almost a thing of beauty for Gregg to watch. After that Gregg had too much respect for his brother to deny him a turn playing his guitar. As far as Duane was concerned, he was utterly infatuated with this instrument and what it could do, better yet what Duane could make it do, it was a way of expression, a cure for boredom, a golden token of artistic value, something that nobody could take away from him even if the guitar was destroyed. Gregg stated in an interview that: "It was like seeing Paul Bunyan grind an axe, he passed me up like I was standing still."[citation needed]

Another important event occurred in 1959 [NOTE: inconsistent with 1960 date above] when the boys were in Nashville visiting relatives. They attended a rock 'n' roll concert at which blues legend B. B. King performed. Both brothers promptly fell under the spell of his music. Gregg Allman recalls[citation needed] that Duane idly and yet sternly turned to him and said, "We got to get into this." After the show, Duane instantly started sewing together his own riffs to the B. B. King songs he'd heard hours before, and by the end of the night had put together his own solos and discovered the blues, all before investing his full potential into the guitar.

Duane's love for the guitar grew even more over the years. Gregg stated that he hardly ever saw Duane out of his room not jamming on the guitar. "His improvisational skills were through the dam," Gregg stated in an interview. "He was never not in his room, soloing for hours on end."[citation needed] Duane first learned the acoustic blues, and over the years molded his guitar playing to his own custom sound, which he is still known for today.

Duane Allman was known for his lean, gangly stature, his beard, and his humble manner while not playing guitar. Dickey Betts stated, "Duane was one of the most down to earth people you could meet, and we all knew he was gonna make a change in this world whether it be on guitar or not."[citation needed]

Allman Joys and Hour Glass

The two Allman brothers started playing publicly in 1961, joining or forming a number of small, local groups. Shortly thereafter, Duane quit high school to stay home during the day and focus on his guitar playing. Their band the Escorts opened for The Beach Boys in 1965 but disbanded and eventually became the Allman Joys. After Gregg graduated from Seabreeze High School in 1965, the Allman Joys went on the road, performing throughout the Southeast and eventually being based in Nashville and St. Louis, Missouri.

The Allman Joys morphed into another not-completely-successful band, The Hour Glass, which moved to Los Angeles in early 1967. There the Hour Glass produced two albums that left the band unsatisfied. Liberty, their record company, tried to market them as a pop band, completely ignoring the band's desire to play more blues-oriented material.

In 1968, Gregg Allman went to visit Duane on his 22nd birthday. Duane was sick in bed. Gregg brought along a bottle of Coricidin pills for his fever and the debut album by guitarist Taj Mahal as a gift. "About two hours after I left, my phone rang," Gregg states. "Baby brother, baby brother, get over here now!" When Gregg got there, he found that Duane had poured the pills out of the bottle, washed off the label and was using it as a slide to play "Statesboro Blues," an old Blind Willie McTell song that Taj Mahal covered. "Duane had never played slide before", says Gregg, "he just picked it up and started burnin'. He was a natural."[citation needed] The song would go on to become a part of the Allman Brothers Band's repertoire, and Duane's slide guitar became crucial to their sound.

The Hour Glass broke up in early 1968, and Duane and Gregg Allman went back to Florida, where they played on demo sessions with the 31st of February, a folk rock outfit whose drummer was Butch Trucks. Gregg returned to California to fulfill Hour Glass obligations, while Duane jammed around Florida for months but didn't get another band going.

Session musician

Allman's playing on the two Hour Glass albums and an Hour Glass session in early 1968 at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, had caught the ear of Rick Hall, owner of FAME. In November 1968 Hall hired Allman to play on an album with Wilson Pickett. Allman's work on that album, Hey Jude (1968), got him hired as a full-time session musician at Muscle Shoals and brought him to the attention of a number of other musicians, such as Eric Clapton, who later said, "I remember hearing Wilson Pickett's 'Hey Jude' and just being astounded by the lead break at the end. I had to know who that was immediately — right now."

Allman's performance on "Hey Jude" blew away Atlantic Records producer and executive Jerry Wexler when Hall played it over the phone for him. Wexler immediately bought Allman's recording contract from Hall and wanted to use him on sessions with all sorts of Atlantic R&B artists. While at Muscle Shoals, Allman was featured on releases by a number of artists, including Clarence Carter, King Curtis, Aretha Franklin, Laura Nyro, Wilson Pickett, Otis Rush, Percy Sledge, Johnny Jenkins, Boz Scaggs, Delaney & Bonnie and jazz flautist Herbie Mann. Shortly after he recorded the lead break in "Hey Jude", he recorded all of the lead guitar in Boz Scaggs' "Loan Me A Dime." For his first Aretha sessions, Allman traveled to New York, where in January 1969 he went as an audience member to the Fillmore East to see Johnny Winter and told fellow Shoals guitarist Jimmy Johnson that in a year he'd be on that stage. That December, the Allman Brothers Band indeed, played the Fillmore.

Formation of The Allman Brothers Band

The limits of full-time session playing frustrated Allman. The few months in Muscle Shoals were by no means a waste, however, because besides meeting the great artists and other industry professionals he was working with, Allman had rented a small, secluded cabin on a lake and spent many solitary hours there refining his playing. Perhaps most significantly, Allman got together with R&B and jazz drummer Jaimoe Johanson, who came to meet Allman at the urging of the late Otis Redding's manager, Phil Walden, who by now was managing Allman and wanted to build a three-piece band around him. Allman and Jaimoe got Chicago-born bassist Berry Oakley to come up from Florida and jam as a trio, but Berry was committed to his rock band with guitarist Dickey Betts, the Second Coming, and returned south.

Getting fed up with Muscle Shoals, in March Allman took Jaimoe with him back to Jacksonville, Florida, where they moved in with Butch Trucks. Soon a jam session of these three plus Betts, Oakley, and Reese Wynans took place and forged what all present recognized as a natural, or even magical, bond. With the addition of brother Gregg, called back from Los Angeles to sing and replace Wynans on keyboards, at the end of March 1969, the Allman Brothers Band was formed. (Wynans became well known over a decade later as organist with Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble.) After a bit of rehearsing and gigging, the sextet moved up to Macon, Georgia, in April to be near Walden and his Capricorn Sound Studios. While living in Macon, Allman met Donna Roosman, who bore his only child, Galadrielle. Despite their child, the relationship quickly ended.

Success: Layla, At Fillmore East

The Allman Brothers Band went on to become one of the most influential rock groups of the 1970s, described by Rolling Stone's George Kimball in 1971 as "the best damn rock and roll band this country has produced in the past five years."[4] After months of nonstop rehearsing and gigging, including free shows in Macon's Central City Park and Atlanta's Piedmont Park, the group was ready to settle on the Allman Brothers Band name, and to record. Their debut album, The Allman Brothers Band, was recorded in New York in September 1969 and released a couple months later. In the midst of intense touring, work began in Macon and Miami (Atlantic South - Criteria Studios), and a little bit in New York, on the ABB's second album, Idlewild South. Produced mostly by Tom Dowd, Idlewild South was released in August 1970 and broke ground for the ABB by quickly hitting the Billboard charts.

A group date in Miami, also that August, gave Allman the chance to participate in Eric Clapton's Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Clapton had long wanted to meet Allman; when he heard that the Allman Brothers were due to play in Miami, where he had just started work on Layla with producer Tom Dowd, he insisted on going to see their concert, where he met Allman. At one point, Allman cautiously asked Clapton if he could come by the studio to watch. After the show the two bands—the Allman Brothers Band and Derek and the Dominos—returned to Criteria, where Allman and Clapton quickly formed a deep rapport during an all-night jam session.[5] Allman wound up participating on most of the album's tracks, contributing some of his best-known work. Allman never left the Allman Brothers Band, though, despite being offered a permanent position with Clapton. Allman never toured with Derek and the Dominos, but he did make three appearances with them on December 1, 1970 at the Curtis Hixon Hall ("Soulmates" LP) and the following day at Onondaga County War Memorial, and one appearance (or possibly just Delaney Bramlett or both Duane and Delaney) November 20, 1970[6] at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Calif.

In an interview, Duane told listeners how to tell who played what: Eric played the Fender parts and Duane played the Gibson parts. He continued by noting that the Fender had a sparklier sound, while the Gibson produced more of a "full-tilt screech."[7]

The Allman Brothers went on to record At Fillmore East in March 1971. Meanwhile, Allman continued contributing session work to other artists' albums whenever he could. According to Skydog: the Duane Allman Story, Allman was in the habit of spontaneously dropping in at recording sessions and contributing to whatever was being taped that day. He received cash payments but no recording credits, making it virtually impossible to compile a complete discography of his works.

Allman was well known for his melodic, extended and attention-holding guitar solos. During this period two of his stated influences were Miles Davis and John Coltrane having listened extensively to Kind of Blue for two years.[7][8]

As Allman's distinct electric bottleneck steel sound began to mature it evolved in time into the musical voice of what would come to be known as Southern Rock, being picked up and redefined in their own styles by slide guitarists that included fellow bandmate Dickey Betts (after Duane's passing), Rory Gallagher, Derek Trucks and Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Death

Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident only months after the release and initial success of At Fillmore East.[9] While in the western part of Macon on October 29, 1971 during a band break from touring and recording, Allman was riding his motorcycle toward an oncoming truck that was turning well in front of him. The truck suddenly stopped in mid-intersection. Allman lost control of his Harley-Davidson Sportster motorcycle while trying to swing left, possibly striking the back of the truck or its crane ball. He was thrown from his motorcycle, which landed on him and skidded ninety feet with him under it, crushing his internal organs. Though he was rushed to the hospital and operated on, he died several hours later, just weeks before his 25th birthday.

Memorial

The graves of Duane Allman and Berry Oakley.

After Allman's funeral and some weeks of mourning, the five surviving members of the Allman Brothers Band carried on, resuming live performances and finishing the recording work interrupted by Duane's death. They named their next album Eat a Peach for Duane's response to an interviewer's question: "How are you helping the revolution?" Allman replied: "There ain't no revolution, only evolution, but every time I'm in Georgia I 'eat a peach' for peace." Released in February, 1972, this double album contains a side of live and studio tracks with Allman, two sides of "Mountain Jam", recorded with Duane at the same At Fillmore East stand in March, and a side of tracks by the surviving five member band. An urban legend has it that Eat a Peach was named thus because Allman hit a truck carrying peaches.[10]

Bass guitarist Berry Oakley died less than 13 months later in a similar motorcycle crash with a city bus, three blocks from the site of Duane Allman's fatal accident. Oakley's remains were laid to rest beside Duane Allman's in Macon, Georgia's Rose Hill Cemetery.

The variety of Allman's session work and Allman Brothers Band bandleading can be heard to good effect on two posthumous Capricorn releases, Duane Allman: An Anthology (1972) and Duane Allman: An Anthology Vol. II (1974). There are also several archival releases of live Allman Brothers Band performances from what the band calls Duane's Era.

David Reid stands next to the Remember Duane Allman tribute carved in the dirt bank next to Interstate 20 in 1973.[9]

Shortly after Duane's death, Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd dedicated the song "Free Bird", to the memory of Duane Allman. Many people assume the song was written about Duane. However, it had actually been written well before Duane died. (Allen Collins wrote the song after his then girlfriend asked him the question "if I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?")

In 1973, fans carved the very large letters "REMEMBER DUANE ALLMAN" in a dirt embankment along Interstate Highway 20 near Vicksburg, Mississippi.[11][12] A photograph was published in Rolling Stone magazine and in the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll; the carving itself lasted for over ten years.[13]

In 1998 the Georgia State Legislature passed a resolution designating a stretch of State Highway 19, US 41, within Macon as the "Duane Allman Boulevard" in his honor.[14]

Country singer Travis Tritt, in the song "Put Some Drive In Your Country" on his debut album, sings "Now I still love old country/I ain't tryin' to put it down/But lord I miss Duane Allman/I wish he was still around."

Equipment

Allman Joys, Hour Glass
Early session work
Allman Brothers Band, "Layla," later session work
  • 1961 Fender Stratocaster (for early session work overlapping with formation of the Band).[15]
  • 1958-1962 Gibson ES-345 Semi-hollow body (first album)[17]
  • 1957 Gibson Les Paul Standard goldtop, serial no. 7 3312. Traded on September 16, 1970 for a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard cherry sunburst, except for the pickups.
  • 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard cherry sunburst, acquired on September 16, 1970, except for the pickups.
  • 1958 Gibson Les Paul Standard tobacco sunburst,[17] acquired in June 1971.
  • 1961 Gibson SG,[17] used for slide,[15] given by Dickey Betts.
  • Marshall 50-watt[3] head, two Marshall 4x12 cabinets with JBL speakers.[15]
  • Fender Champ combo amplifier ("Layla")
Other
  • Gibson L-100 acoustic guitar[15]
  • Fender Rock N' Roll 150 strings (Hour Glass)
  • Coricidin medicine bottle (slide)

Discography

Main article: Duane Allman discography

References

  1. ^ Ventre, Michael (October 30, 2006). "In memory of Duane Allman 35 years after his death, Skydog still among rock's very best guitarists". MSNBC. 2009 msnbc.com. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
  2. ^ Rolling Stone (2006). "Rolling Stone: The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". RealNetworks, Inc. Archived from the original on 2006-11-25. Retrieved 2006-11-26.
  3. ^ a b Blackett, Matt (October 2004). "The 50 Greatest Tones of All Time". Guitar Player. 38 (10): 44–66. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  4. ^ George Kimball (1971). "The Allman Brothers Band; At Fillmore East". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2006-11-26.
  5. ^ Where's Eric! The Eric Clapton Fan Club Magazine (2006). "Duane Allman". Where's Eric! The Eric Clapton Fan Club Magazine. Archived from the original on 2006-11-10. Retrieved 2006-11-26.
  6. ^ The Eric Clapton Album by Marc Roberty, 1994 Viking Studio Books, ISBN 0-670-85364-X
  7. ^ a b Jas Obrecht, "Duane Allman Remembered", Guitar Player Magazine, October 1981
  8. ^ Robert Palmer, liner notes for Kind of Blue, Columbia 1997, CK64935
  9. ^ a b "Remember when David Reid remembered Duane Allman?". FuzzyCo. Retrieved 2010-12-22.
  10. ^ Mikkelson, Barbara (2007-04-26). "Eat A Peach". Snopes.com. Retrieved 2009-09-10. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ "Remember Duane Allman Picture". 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-11.
  12. ^ Eric Brown (October 15, 2007). "A place in time: 4 who carved Allman tribute remember a star". Vicksburg Post. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
  13. ^ "Remember Duane Allman Picture". 2005. Retrieved 2006-11-26.
  14. ^ http://allmanbrothersband.com/index.php?module=My_eGallery&do=showpic&pid=2917&orderby=dateD
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Grass, Jesse (April 2007). "10 Things You Gotta Do to Play Like Duane Allman". Guitar Player. 41 (4): 110–17. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  16. ^ http://www.hard-rock-cafe.de/html/hard_rock_vault_london.html
  17. ^ a b c d Fothergill, Julian. "Duane Allman". Hotguitarist.com. Retrieved 2009-09-10. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

Further reading

  • Duane Allman: An Anthology (1972) liner notes
  • The Allman Brothers Band: Dreams (1989 boxed set) liner notes
  • Poe, Randy, Skydog: The Duane Allman Story (Backbeat Books)

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