Little
Martha - whether Duane was referring to an old girlfriend or not is
irrelevant. The fans have designated this young soul as Martha. How
could we not? After all she stands watch forever forlorn in Rose Hill
Cemetery just the way we feel after the smoke has cleared and the show
has ended. And the fans do get a say about all of this the ABB fire and
passion, life and journey, the gothic southern novel of it all and the revelation of the music.
Little Martha: Two minutes and seven seconds is never going to sound
so complete and pastoral. When I finally arrived at performing a
facsimile of this song I was there. It was one of my goals to try and
learn it and it takes time. There are so many moving parts and I'm not a
full time musician but a labor of love and love is after all what it is
all about. Of course my version pales to the original I’m only two
hands but when I get it moving and it starts to transcend and I follow
the melody and inspiration where it takes me well the muse is floating
there smiling and I feel as one feels when they get after it and hit the
note, take the journey and feel the vibe. That’s why we play isn’t it
and why we share of ourselves to bring it all out and bring it all
together?
And so we have the closing of Eat a Peach but what about the opening?
What better tune than Ain’t Wastin Time No More expresses lyrically
each of our precarious positions in this reality? It’s as much of a
lyrical touchstone as Little Martha is an instrumental touchstone. Both
are gigantic in their beings complete and resounding at once effortless
and complex. A lyrical milestone Ain’t Wastin Time No More covers the
whole realm of existence in stanza after stanza. That’s right its
poetry and more than a song. Gregg has composed words to live by. I
had a friend once say to me, "you can always make money but you can't
make time." I fully encourage everyone to play hooky as often as you
can. Life is so much more than punching the clock, collecting a pay
check and paying a bank. Listen to Ain't Wastin Time No More back to
back with Little Martha and hit repeat it's kind of a revelation of
juxtapositions with Gregg's lyrics sitting beautifully next to Duane's
acoustic poetry.
If you do run the tunes together back to
back after Little Martha ends the intro to Ain't Wastin' Time No More is
an acoustic piano. There seems to be some righteous acoustic symmetry
to that and righteous was the way the brothers – all the brothers in the
band - treated their music their creation and that’s why the payoff was
so huge.
There’s a lesson in that for all of us in how we
choose to live our lives, what we say, how we act and what we do. The
lesson is quite literally in the lyric of Ain't Wastin' Time No More and
that feeling embodied by that lesson is in the song Little Martha as it
translates those words into a painting of notes awakening across the
sky of your soul. One preceded the other so perhaps we have Gregg
translating for us what Duane was trying to tell us in his music and all
you really need to live a life well fulfilled with joy and happiness
and prosperity brothers and sisters is to bring some righteousness to
what you do and how you live and breathe.
Eat
a Peach - the Deluxe Edition with the second disc devoted to the
closing of the Fillmore in June is a freakin' tour de force. Scorching
through the stratosphere Hot Lanta is just fantastic. The mix is
stellar and I've been listening to it on crappy car and desk top
speakers as well as my treasured Polks. Berry is clearly heard and of
course the tone of the guitars is so vintage, biting, just
the right amount of fuzz not overwhelming to distort the true tone of
the notes just scorching. The twin drums are settled in so nicely and
everything is heard with the Hammond B-3 building slowly to a crescendo
and then punctuating the soul groove.
The way the band and
Berry jump out on Whipping Post is serious. Whether it’s my imagination
or not it sure sounds up tempo to me. Berry is more than ready to
bring it and it feels like he catches the band by surprise as he
furiously launches into the opening... so great to hear and it’s a pace
that doesn't let up.... as the boys just go with it - oh my the little
touches on the guitar twin attack. I have to stop myself right now or
I'll spend the next twenty minutes celebrating every note, turn, phrase,
sound and riff just beautifully rendered together. I mean the tone of
that band and tighter than tight. Gregg’s vocals are heard beautifully
just right above the mix.
When they slow it down you can hear
that B-3 just stalking the band the chords sustaining like wind through
your hair. Their gentle segues arrive tear inducing as they reach for
the heavens follow. If you don't get a lump in your throat you don’t
know how to listen to music.
Get Eat a Peach back out and it
will seduce you with its magic so passionately. I’m so happy that it
was captured in real time for all time just a blistering messianic
journey to the soul of creation.
It's mind boggling how a
band can sound this excellent, the drive and the power, the
determination. Music wasn't a distraction it was a mission.
Stand Back I’m laser locked on that tune the way it jumps out and grabs
you with that riff. The Allman Brothers knew what they were doing and
the lyrics “a dagger in my back while she's calling me honey" just
fantastic. Look a lot has been written about the jazz influence on the
ABB - granted – and it’s all good and true but don’t forget the funk.
They can authentically bring that swing and swagger just funkin,
funktastic. Funkified freaks every funkin where they funkin can the ABB
throw that groove at a very righteous magnitude with Berry and Butch as
far into the pocket with Gregg grinding the soul foundation and Jaimoe
painting over the top.
“Hey have you seen my copy of Eat a
Peach” wait I can hear it blaring upstairs in my sisters room. As I
open the door Amy and her friends are moving to Les Brers as if their
lives depended on it – “just don’t scratch it” as the door slams back in
my face.
My
oh my this is a great shot of the original sextet working the
simultaneous groove. It looks like its Berry's turn to break out notice
where Butch's eyes are watching on Berry's hands.
I can't
over emphasis the beauty, power and velocity of talented musicians
owning their musicianship fighting the urge of ego, working together and
delivering the goods like no other.
A friend of mine asked me
to differentiate between the grateful dead and the allman brothers
after I laughed out loud (its a blotter vs mushrooms, roses vs peaches
thing) I thought for a moment. Please know I'm a veteran of decades of
both bands and I would simply state the ABB locked in more often,
stronger and together. It's degrees of variation but while the grateful
dead was more of a cosmic soup sloshing around the bowl of existence
lapping up side to side with solar flares of transcendence over heart
aching ballads and thundering reverberation following Jerry religiously
no matter what blind alley he lead them down, through or up the Allman
Brothers Band in contrast jumped on that first note like a skim boarder
ridding a wave as far as it would take them then turning and charging
after the next wave of music and consciousness shredding the lip
catching air, turning and pivoting with the waves. Tighter by necessity
the ABB driven by a freight train of rhythm, organ and bass achieved
thundering elevation immediately while the Dead meandered wobbly
floating seemingly directionless then focusing sharply in an Escher like
pattern getting there sooner or later but getting there they did.
I watched Pelicans dive for game yesterday afternoon striking their
targets, diving in directly from over head in a straight line quickly
and with acceleration hitting their targets repeatably over and over
again - the visualization of screaming marshals and stalking thundering
rhythm in a cascade of movement and righteous glorious splash reversing
gravity throwing water in the air as they submerged and reemerged
floating then taking flight again seemingly effortlessly sweeping
through the air wings fully extended only to recoil and strike again.
It was something to marvel at and behold and it looked like music to me
and felt like something heavenly
Beginnings:
It's still so highly inconceivable that these young men in their
twenties created such an abundance of sophisticated music. Go back and
listen to the first two albums (ABB and Ildewild) reissued in 1973 as
the album Beginnings. The level of musicianship is already in place and
each track is a mini symphony of blues, gospel, soul, jazz and
screaming rock and roll played not only with fire
but nuance. Check the 3:12 mark of Dreams as Duane dances dramatically
on point literally sliding through the song seemingly effortlessly.
The road had taught tightness but each member brought their own life
experience to the band. Dickey grew up in a family full of musicians,
Jamioe had been playing in Otis Reddings band, Duane had worked with as
many top notch musicians and artists as one possibly can. This wasn't a
garage band. This wasn't just a bunch of stoned out hippies. These
guys were deadly serious about their music. Lifting the arm of a 45
player with your foot studying the old blues masters I mean come on I
love my guitar and to play out live but I freaking hate changing my
strings.
Go back and listen to each song deeply and take the
time to notice the interplay between Butch and Jaimoe. Listen for the
bass how it runs along side of the guitar leads while still holding down
the rhythm, listen to that organ as it stalks the whole movement in the
background and then when it captures the front of the mix and the
words. World weary at such a young age already confronted by a record
industry selling them out and the music out to churn out a buck,
witnessing the struggles of a single Mom in the 1950's and 1960's these
men had a depth of character and a level of commitment and a vision they
were not going to relinquish.
Get Beginnings if you don't
have it put it in your car player and listen. There is a tidal wave of
interplay going on each and every cut a miraculous layering of acoustic,
electric rhythm and voice. If you are in a drum circle focus on Jaimoe
and Butch. The subtleness and sensitivity in which these twenty year
olds played right out of the gate on their first two albums is beyond
incendiary.
