Album Club: 10.08.2011: Allman Brothers - Live at Fillmore East (1971) (vinyl,cd)

[griffo104]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61casBwqu8L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Spotify Link: http://open.spotify.com/album/35w2w6W38bXCo4bG1akRe9 (Note from Alex_UK: Unfortunately it appears that Spotify does not support the "long" tracks of this album... I am trying to see if I can find any alternative streams - this is the best so far, though not the actual album: http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/concerts/player.html?type=concert&ConcertID=1656|7096 )

Wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Fillmore_East

I've decided to go for what I think is a classic album.

the reason is that I don't really do classics but I love this album to pieces. It catches the classic line up with Duane and Gregg Allman along with Dickie Betts taking their music from the record and making them feel so fresh and involved. Taking songs and expanding them almost improv style and keeping your attention - there's a couple of very long tracks on there.

I don't think there's another album I've bought more versions of. Originally it was released as a double cd set and then re-issued with the same music all on one CD, when cd time approached 80 mins. Classic reissued it on double vinyl and subsequently a Deluxe CD version has been released with the cirrect running order and with all the tracks from the concert.

Due to the lenght of a some of the songs the running order was never correct on vinyl to allow.

Duane Allman was best known, I think at the time, for Derek and The Dominoes and he was a talent sadly cut short.

[keiths]

Excellent - I've got that (single CD version) and haven't played it for ages. Looking forward to listening closely to it tomorrow (whilst my dad's at daycare).

[John]

I shall listen tonight and the weekend

[Thing Fish]

I have the original of this on vinyl and indeed listened to it last week.

[griffo104]

Thanks to Alex for adding the links on for me.

I actually own the 4 versions of the album that I mention in my OP :mental:

I'll be doing the deluxe cd version this week and then the Classic vinyl issue on the weekend

[Alex_UK]

John and I will have another trawl around this evening to see if we can find any better versions of the longer songs, but I think what we've got should be enough to give everyone a reasonable listen.

[Welder]

Great. I've got this so I'll be participating :)

[Vinyleyes]

Wow .. what a great start ... simply one of the top 3 BEST EVER live albums ... I've been listening to this since almost the day of it's release in 1971 and I've still got my first LP copy of this which must be 39 yrs old now !! ( couldn't aford it until 73' haha! )

I guess we are not supposed to comment just yet .. but I can already feel this choice inspiring me to head for Ebay and search out some more versions of this album .. :cool: ....

[John]

I got a few links if you do not have the album
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91XHUivFMrU You don't love me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22MRGWnPPIU In memory of Elisabeth Reed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXA35JnaeKA Whiping Post

[The Grand Wazoo]

A good album choice, if you don't mind me saying.

Right then - the whole album is available legally on Grooveshark & you don't need to join or register. However, the sound quality is not as good as the Spotify version but at least you get to hear it all.
Here are the links:

Statesboro Blues (http://grooveshark.com/s/Statesboro+Blues/3YgHQV?src=5)
Done Somebody Wrong (http://grooveshark.com/s/Done+Somebody+Wrong/2NEPHH?src=5)
Stormy Monday (http://grooveshark.com/s/Stormy+Monday/406zo4?src=5)
You Don't Love Me (http://grooveshark.com/s/You+Don+t+Love+Me/3LsX7V?src=5)
Hot 'lanta (http://grooveshark.com/s/Hot+lanta/3nBNbP?src=5)
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed (http://grooveshark.com/s/In+Memory+Of+Elizabeth+Reed/3YgIha?src=5)
Whipping Post (http://grooveshark.com/s/Whipping+Post/406BAZ?src=5)

.........enjoy!

[John]

Intial thoughts for me are mixed
First of all I can see why Duane was rated so much as a guitarist, a real feel for blues music
The band is tight and you can why this album launched the live album in the 70s. There are many great live albums from that decade and guess this paved the way
This album definatly wears its influnces on its sleeve, it really pays homage to the great Amercian blues artist of the past and does it with a geniune love and respect for the music.
Negatives and yes they are negatives for me. No matter how you think about it long extended jams are still 12 bar blues and I find that for me it loses focus due to this, I guess you have to be their or like this style, I guess this all comes down to how one enjoys to hear music With blues I tend to like it raw and direct, long extended numbers need to have more going on for me to like it.
Thats one of the things I love about music we have different elements we enjoy and its very personal
Thanks Simon

[Audioman]

I have this on Classic Records 200 grm. Will listen to it again. Good album but not a favourite. Prefer 'Brothers and Sisters' (after Duane's death). Live albums are not always best way to appreciate a band - not the same as being there.

[Folkboy]

I'm up for this, especially now that I am aware the band's name is The Allman Brothers, not "Allman Brothers" and definitely not "Creedence Clearwater Revival" (where the fup is my mind today?!). http://i.imgur.com/WjIhh.gif

[griffo104]

Intial thoughts for me are mixed
First of all I can see why Duane was rated so much as a guitarist, a real feel for blues music
The band is tight and you can why this album launched the live album in the 70s. There are many great live albums from that decade and guess this paved the way
This album definatly wears its influnces on its sleeve, it really pays homage to the great Amercian blues artist of the past and does it with a geniune love and respect for the music.
Negatives and yes they are negatives for me. No matter how you think about it long extended jams are still 12 bar blues and I find that for me it loses focus due to this, I guess you have to be their or like this style, I guess this all comes down to how one enjoys to hear music With blues I tend to like it raw and direct, long extended numbers need to have more going on for me to like it.
Thats one of the things I love about music we have different elements we enjoy and its very personal
Thanks Simon

I wouldn't argue with you criticisms of the album.

I was 19 when I bought this, back in 1990, and my musical diet was very much metal and very much formulaic metal, of course I wasn't aware of that then. If it didn't have electric guitars on it didn't get the rock chicks headbanging then I simply wasn't interested.This was a gamble and I had NOTHING even resembling this.

I bought the album in a sale in Our Price as I liked the cover and for me listening to these 20 minute jams was a wonderful experience. I was amazed at the flow and freedom the band had while keeping their paying a tight as a drum. That's one of the things that has remained with me over the last 21 years. If I was listening to this fresh now, would I think they were being a bit over indulgent at times ? Probably.

Rather than push me to the blues, which I do quite enjoy, I ended up looking at Jazz after this as I found the same freedom from formula lying the music Coltrane and the like.

I mean come on I was actually listening to music that had an organ on it and actually loving it :lolsign:

This was the album that actually taught me there was music out side of the peroxide and posturing so for me it's been an essential part of my music education.

[Rare Bird]

It's a Joke a minute this place

[John]

I think its great the album open up doors for you, please do not take my critism to harshly I think everyone will have a different view point and it does not mean mine is right or wrong Music is a very subjective experience

[griffo104]

I think its great the album open up doors for you, please do not take my critism to harshly I think everyone will have a different view point and it does not mean mine is right or wrong Music is a very subjective experience

I think the criticism is good, it's the reason to do something like this.

Jokes aside of course :)

[John]

cool

[Elvis's last movement]

Listened to this today whilst at work, it's excellent....I do prefer Brothers and Sisters though....Eat a Peach aint that far behind these 2 either.

[The Grand Wazoo]

I'll not comment on the content of the album just yet as I haven't yet had the opportunity to listen to it with this thread in mind - but I will do in due course.

However, perhaps I can offer a little context to try to let folks understand why this album is important.

Here are a couple of facts:

Cream broke up 25 and 26 November 1968
The Blind Faith album was released in August, 1969
Jimi Hendrix died September 18, 1970
'Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs' by Derek and the Dominos was released in November 1970


The break-up of Cream and Clapton's next two slightly spluttering efforts, coupled with Jimi's untimely demise must, at the time, have seemed like the complete and utter end of the guitar wizard. The only hope was that Clapton introduced Duane Allman to the wider world through his playing on the 'Layla' album.

This bit of hope was kind of grasped onto by white US rock fans because Duane looked like he just might become the first home grown guitar god that they could truly call their own.


Live at Fillmore East, recorded March 12th and 13th 1971



The Fillmore East was one of those legendary rock venues and countless live albums were recorded there.




For example:
Al Kooper & Mike Bloomfield
Derek and the Dominos
Flying Burrito Brothers
Grateful Dead
Jimi Hendrix
Humble Pie
Joe Cocker
Miles Davis
Laura Nyro
Jefferson Airplane
King Crimson
The Fugs
Johnny Winter
Love
John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Taj Mahal
Mountain
John Mayall
The Nice
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Ten Years After
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Zappa/Mothers

........and that list is nothing compared to the list of bands that just played there in three short years!

More facts:

The Fillmore East closed June 27, 1971.

Duane Allman was killed after he rode his motorbike into the back of a lorry on October 29, 1971

November 11, 1972, Berry Oakley (Allman's bassist) died in a motorbike accident three blocks away from the spot that Duane had died in the previous year.



After all of that lot, and bearing in mind the influence of the US record buying market, is it any wonder that it's considered one of the best live albums of all time, before you even start to listen to it?

[lurcher]

Duane only has a walk on part, but there is some interesting background in this program. (it a good listen anyway).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01300fj/Radio_2s_Summer_of_Soul_Way_Down_South_The_Muscle_ Shoals_Story/

[keiths]

Have now listened to it twice all the way through and found it very enjoyable.

This album and I go back a long way - it was amongst a bunch of LPs that my cousin played me on his system one Christmas in the early-mid'70s; the first time I had heard any hi-fi system. I enjoyed the Led Zep, Pink Floyd and ELP records I heard that night, but not the Allman Brothers LP. At the age of 12, I thought the blues sounded too old-fashioned (a mouth organ, for God sakes!) and wasn't that interested.

Fast-forward to the late 1980s where, one night in the pub, a bunch of guys that I didn't know too well were talking about the upcoming National Blues Festival in Burnley, Lancashire. They had a spare ticket, so I went along with them. I didn't expect to enjoy the music too much, but how wrong I was - I loved it - and from then on was a convert and the blues became another genre for my by then rapidly-growing collection. 'The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East CD' I picked up in an HMV sale sometime in the 90's.

This album is a record of a fantastic live performance showcasing the individual and collective abilities of some fine musicians who are clearly at or near their peak. The interplay between Duane Allman and Dickie Betts contrasting guitar styles and sounds is the stand out for me, together with Greg Allman's organ. I really like the contrast between the shorter, more focused pieces and the longer, more improvised pieces which (just) avoid straying into self-indulgence (although 'Whipping Post' maybe goes on just that bit too long).

The stand-out track for me is the instrumental 'In Memory of Elizabeth Reed', originally from their 1970 LP 'Idlewild South', but is here extended from the 7 minute original to a 13 minute opus which builds from its stately, jazzy opening to a blistering crescendo of duelling guitars.

A worthy start to the 'album club'.

[Welder]

I’m listening to the 1992 re-master ripped from CD.

This is one of those albums I bought, played once and forgot about. Having dragged it from the depths of my hard drive and tried to listen to it over the past few days I can understand why.

The truth is I just couldn’t manage to listen to both CD’s all the way through and that’s not because I cant listen to a complete album anymore because I can pick and choose tracks easily, its because this album just doesn’t do it for me.

I can understand its historical merit; mainly form reading Chris’s earlier comments but I’m not really interested in the history of pop and take each musical offering on its musical, rather than historic merits.

The album itself is reasonably well recorded but doesn’t imo succeed particularly well in conveying the excitement of a live concert, compared to say Lynyrd Skynyrd’s One For The Road.
Overall I thought the album lacks pace and I put this down to the inability of both the drummers to provide a solid beat fractional in front of the band, an art many drummers strive for but rarely attain.
Dicky Betts plays competently enough but he ain’t no Tom Johnston (Doobie Brothers) or George Lowell (Little Feat) and never really stamps his playing style on the album.
It’s Southern white boy blues essentially and the slightly self indulgent guitar solos are nothing remarkable compared to offerings from Eric Clapton on Goodbye Cream or Stevie Ray Vaughn in general.

In short an average band playing averagely who were fortunate to produce an unremarkable album at a remarkable time.

[SCIDB]

Hi,

I listened to the Allman brothers - Live album last night.

This is an album that is much valued by many people. It has featured in many lists of alltime greatest albums. It is No. 49 on the Billboard list, it was even featured in Hifi News recently.

I have been aware of this album for years but never really experienced until now. I went out and picked a copy of the cd and away I went.

The album has some very fine playing on it. Some mighty fine guitar work, good interplay between the musicans. One thing that stands out is how self indulgent it gets. This isn't always a bad thing but I found myself finding it a bit tedious at times and losing interest. This was evident on the longer tracks.

To my ears it sounds like a blues rock album that dabbles too much in improvisation. To my ears, it just doesn't grab me as something extra special. It doesn't kick in a spark with me overall.

I might give it a go again but in small chunks.

[Audioman]

Listened to Allman Brothers Fillmore East on Classic 200g SVP vinyl. Due to it's length I doubt this would be suitable material for the Classic album nights. As pointed out by other reviewers the length of the tracks does cause concentration to wander. The playing is excellent however but self indulgance results in a lot of instrumental noodling if of a high standard.

Record one consists of lengthy Blues covers which failed to hold my interest. The best part of the performance is on the second record which includes the early Allman self penned classics ' In memory of Elizabeth Reed' and 'Whipping Post'. I found these the most enjoyable tracks though again they are over lengthy. Frankly I prefer to listen to the studio versions.

As a live album this is well recorded but not in the same league as 'Live at Leeds' (Who) or 'Waiting for Columbus' (Little Feat). I fail to see it's high rating and the amount paid for original Red/Plum Atlantic pressings. I would certainly prefer a number of the Allman's other albums above it.

[Alex_UK]

Well, I can't really disagree with what some people have said - though I enjoyed it more than I thought I would (particularly the shorter tracks!) but I must admit by the end, I was quite glad it was over. If there had only been one lengthy (IMO) self-indulgent "noodling" track I would probably have been fine with it, but with 3 of the tracks making up the best part of an hour of the album, I must confess I lost interest in those improvisations in particular - undoubtedly good though the playing is at times. It was certainly a very interesting album to start Album Club with - thanks Simon - and really good to see that so many have given it a go so far. :)

[griffo104]

Excellent feedback and good to see so many have given it a try and joined in.

Maybe an album like this maybe shows that we are more geared towards songs nowadays and don't really want 20 minute jam sessions.

A couple of years ago I read an interview with Tom Hamilton, bassist in Aerosmith, who mentions a time as a young man he went to see Cream live, his favourite band. He hated the gig simply because, in his words, they didn't play any songs just played their instruments - just too many jams.

I think that can be said about most people's views on this album.

I still chill out and enjoy the jam sessions immensely.

[The Grand Wazoo]

I'm very late to the party on this one!
I've known this album since my early teens and kind of became so familiar with it that I took it for granted. I was listening to it again a couple of months back though & I've played it again a couple of times in the last fortnight.

Undoubtedly, these gigs would have been infinitely better for those in the audience than for those listening at home.

Some of the 'noodling' that others noted is just part of what a rock gig was like then, and still is to some extent.
The first three tracks are covers - Blind Willy McTell's 'Statesboro' Blues' and T-Bone Walker's 'Stormy Monday' probably being most well known of the three. 'Statesboro' Blues' kicks off with Duane Allman's trademark slide guitar sound but I always thought the rhythm section took a while to catch up and sounded a bit limp early on - surprising for a band with two drummers! 'Stormy Monday' has some great moments, but I agree it's too long & the live rendition should've been edited from for the album.

Another track of substantial length is 'You Don't Love Me' - another cover and here, as well as during 'Hot 'Lanta' and '....Elizabeth Reed', I find the band really come together because the interplay between the various members is pretty astounding - either they were very, very well rehearsed or they were telepathic!

'....Elizabeth Reed' & 'Whipping Post' - wow they must've been something to witness on the night!

Overall, I think maybe the album's reputation has rather eclipsed it's content, but it's still a great artefact of a band at their live best.
It's a 4 out of 5 from me.

However, if you only want to own one Allman Bros album get one of the first two studio albums (which were flops on their releases).
Taj Mahal did a great version of 'Stateboro' Blues' and Zappa did a couple of good versions of 'Whippin' Post'.

[ursus262]

I've just put in an ebay bid for this one. :)

[ursus262]

Well, finally, I got it through the post yesterday and, having listened to it, i really like it. A cracking recording too.

[zen]

Well, Album Club is a great idea. So thanks for that. Only I am quite far behind!

This one pleasantly surprised me. The odds were against it. I am not really aware of The Allman Brothers material, I tend to listen to Blues as background music rather than engage with it, and for the most part I prefer studio albums to live albums.

I found myself foot tapping my way through this album. And rather than drifting off, as a few posters have suggested they did, during the self-indulgent jam sessions mid track, these bits just encouraged the tapping to include fingers and toes.

Having only heard this album once, I am not jumping about with excitement, but I am now interested in hearing some more...

So, how are they in the studio? Or should I just buy this one?

[The Grand Wazoo]

'Eat a Peach' is my favourite Allmans album, but that's half live, half studio!