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

[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?!).

[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

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?