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Playing My Records Alphabetically While Letting My 3 Year Old Pick The Album
Welcome to my experiment. While I'm already up to "E", we have to start at the start. So here is Pick #1: "A"
Allman Brothers Band - The Allman Brotherd Band At Fillmore East | Capricorn Records - CPN-2-0131 | 1974
A great pick by the little man to start this experiment. This is the 1974 Capricorn reissue. There are over 250 different versions of this album, and audiophiles will say they're all different and cling to their darlings. I have nothing to compare this version to, but I will say that this cut sounds great to me. I guess my only complaint is that Oakley's bass is a bit low and muddied in the mix. Gregg's vocals soar. Duane's guitar is front and center.
The music on this album is untouchable. These kids had "it". Whatever they were tapped into was working, and they knew it.
A few quick anecdotes:
When the Allmans first came to play Bill Graham's club in 1969, the staff in the Fillmore East paid no attention to the band as they were setting up to practice. Just some more dudes with some beat up Marshall stacks. That ended immediately when they started playing. Everyone stopped working. The offices were emptied. The folks working this club had heard a lot of music, but nothing like this. It was apparent that the Allmans were special.
The story of the photograph that was used for the cover of this LP is that Duane had just copped a bag from someone and was checking it out when they were told to pose for the photo. He quickly hid the bag in his hands which is the reason for the laughter. A good story for an iconic photo.
Anyway, listen to this record. It's about as American as music could possibly get. And listen to it loud. Like "all the way up" loud. Let your neighbors listen to it, too. It should be so loud that you question the volume for a minute.
A true masterpiece of live recordings.