Original subtitles

(rock guitar)

- If there was any one person that was responsible

for Southern Rock music it was Duane Allman.

- [Voiceover] In the mid 1970s a handful of bands

from the deep south reinvigorated American Popular music.

Yet, the man that set the template for these acts,

and who had struggled to gain acceptance

in an industry firmly established in the North,

was by then just a memory.

Duane Allman, the lead guitarist,

and driving force behind Southern Rock figureheads

The Allman Brothers Band lived a tragically short life,

but during his brief career changed music forever.

- He was the South in his playing.

I think the dedication and all the years with that guitar

in his hands all the time, you know, he became great.

I felt like the world was his to conquer, you know?

I really did.

- Duane was, and continues to be, in my opinion,

the ultimate...

there is no better.

The fluidiness, the actual melodic structure,

the tonality, everything about him was just

that much better than anyone else.

- [Voiceover] This film looks at Allman's musical output

from his early days in Florida, to his influencial

session work in Muscle Shoals, his monumental

collaboration with Eric Clapton, and the inimitable

virtuosity with which he set The Allman Brothers Band

alight.

- He was just incredible, the emotion,

the feeling of the music and you can see it.

- There was this look of ecstacy on his face

when he was really into it.

And, no amound of showmanship can really compare

to witnessing this illumination of an artist

in the process of making art.

(rock music)

("That's All Right, Mama" by Elvis Presley)

♪Well, that's all right, mama

♪That's all right with you

♪That's all right, mama

- [Voiceover] As Elvis Presley arrived on the scene

in 1954, his first regional hit, That's All Right, Mama,

signaled a revolution in American music.

The premium act to emerge from Sam Phillips'

framed Sun Studios, Elvis and his label mates

Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis spearheaded

the new movement of white Rock and Roll

born out of the musical melting pot of the South.

- White Rock and Roll, it comes out of Memphis Rockabilly,

Sun Studios, all of that is true.

It was hardly as impossible to imitate as people say it was,

even Ricky Nelson did a pretty good job of imitating it,

but where it starts is there.

It starts with white singers with a feeling for black music

that is, to a certain extent, a function of the different

ways racial relations worked in the South and the North.

In the North, there was more tolerance,

and a certain amount of cultural and economic integration.

But, day to day intereaction?

Day to day interaction happened much more in the South.

And so, it's not at all surprising that a certain number

of young white kids, and this goes back before

Rock and Roll.

This is the story of the country singer Jimmie Rogers

and Hank Williams, too.

Learned both

musical orientations

having to do mostly with rhythm and vocal intonation,

and also cultural attitudes.

- [Voiceover] As America entered the 1960s however

things had changed.

The first wave of Rock and Roll had died off

and cultured notherners were being drawn to

a revitalized Folk movement that openly attacked

the white South.

The harmony or racial interaction that had produced

artists like Elvis was now overshadowed by the shocking

injustices of an inexcusable culture.

- In the early sixties when the Folk boom hit

and the, you know, opposition to the Viet Nam War,

and the Civil Rights Movement, all this stuff was happening.

And, you had Bob Dylan doing Oxford Town, you had Phil Ochs

singing Here's to the State of Mississippi, and you had,

you know, Pete Seger, and Joan Baez all talking about

this terrible place down there called the South.

Much of the problem that southern musicians faced in the

early sixties was the bad PR we were getting as a culture.

- [Voiceover] By the time of the great resurgence

of white Rock and Roll in the sixties spearheaded

by the Beatles and the British Invasion,

the South had been left behind.

Although it's sound was the inspiration behind

nearly every new band emerging on the scene,

and acts like The Rolling Stones were championing

Blues artists previously unrecognized in their own country,

young, white southern musicians were unable to respond.

- There was no music coming out of the South.

There was Motown in Detroit.

There was Chess Records in Chicago.

You know, there was the Brill building in New York,

there was L.A. and those were really the hubs,

except for Stax Records in Memphis.

And, there were no clubs to play in the South,

there were no talent scouts, there were no record labels.

There were really no opportunities for white southern

bands to do anything, or go anywhere.

- [Voiceover] Yet, with the release of

The Allman Brothers Band's debut album in 1969

all that changed.

("Don't Keep Me Wonderin'" by Allman Brothers Band)

♪Oh, tell me 'bout the car I saw

♪Parked outside your door

♪Tell me what you left me wait--♪

- Now, there was a band from the South.

Before that, it was WIlson Pickett, and Percy Sledge,

and Otis Redding, and Sam and Dave, and that was all great,

but there weren't any Rock bands that had come

from the South in ages.

("Don't Keep Me Wonderin'" by The Allman Brother Band)

- There was a southern pride element that certainly

helped as well.

The Allman Brothers, that was my band,

because they were from the same place I was.

And, that was the band of a lot of other people

who were from Alabama, and Tennesse, and Georgia,

and Florida because we didn't have any before then,

and suddenly we did.

- [Voiceover] And, the driving force behind the band

was Duane Allman, a virtuoso guitarist whose determination

to break into the rock world almost single-handedly

reinvigorated the southern music scene.

Daytona Beach, Florida it was here in the early sixties

that Duane Allman's musical journey began.

Born in 1946 in Nashville, his brother Gregg born

the following year.

Duane was only three years old when his father Willis

was murdered in a robbery.

In 1957, the family relocated to this sleepy tourist town

on the east coast of Florida.

Very quickly the Allman's house on Van Avenue became

a popular hangout for the brother's circle of friends.

- I had my first cigarette there, I had my first beer there,

I read my first playboy there.

There were people, guys our age, coming and going

all the time.

If you were there friend, their house was your house.

You were part of the family.

And, mama was particular about the ones that she would

let come in and out of the house,

but she was working to support the boys and herself

so she wasn't there all the time.

So, we had the opportunity to do a lot of things

we wouldn't have been able to do in our own homes,

or maybe going to anyone elses house.

- [Voiceover] As the decade closed and Duane Allman

hit his early teens he was becoming a very strong-willed

individual, while developing an interest in

the two main passions of his life: motorcycles and music.

- Duane was a very, very intelligent fellow

that had his own path.

He had his own direction, he knew what he wanted to do.

Even at that age he just walked to a different beat.

- For many people who didn't know him well enough

would probably think that he

was directionless.

I don't know too many people who had

more direction than he did.

He just didn't waste time talking with people

about trying to make his decisions,

it was already made in his mind.

Gregg was still trying to find his own personality.

We used to joke with him about being shy with the girls,

all those types of things.

He'd ask us our opinions about a lot of things,

whereas Duane didn't ask your opinion about a lot of things.

He would ask you whether you liked the music he liked,

but that wasn't going to change his mind if you didn't.

("Three O'clock Blues" by BB King)

- [Voiceover] And, the music Duane liked was being

broadcast throughout the South by Nashville station WLAC.

Through it's revolutionary night time Rhythm and Blues

shows, four white DJs controversially played the work

of John Lee Hooker, Bobby "Blue" Bland, BB King,

and a host of other southern Blues and Gospel legends.

- Number one, it was what they called a clear channel

stations, at 1510 AM dial, covered the whole South, Midwest.

Just had a tremendous market penetration.

So, it was directed towards rural blacks

and urban white males.

And, every red-blooded southern boy

turned into that every night.

♪I like it like that

♪Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho

♪Whoa babe

♪Yes, ma'am

♪Yes, ma'am

♪What you want babe?

- You know, most of the local stations in the South

they might have a few hours a day, or on Sunday

they would play black Gospel and they'd be an hour

or so of every broadcast day you could hear the Rock music,

but on LAC you could hear it all:

Howlin' Wood, BB King, Chuck Barry, all the Chess guys,

and some obscure stuff Sunnyland Slim, Lightnin' Hopkins,

Elmore James.

♪Mother said son you was born lucky

♪ But, remember you gotta die one day♪

♪Whoa, yes you was born lucky

♪Remember you gotta die one day

- That used to be one of our sayings,

"WLAC in Nashville, Tennesee."

We would listen a lot to the Blues, not many people

listened to it.

Your general population, kids our age they were more into

the Surfer music, the Rock and Roll, that type of thing.

And, not too many paid that much attention to the Blues,

to Jazz.

- [Voiceover] Inspired by the mysterious and soulful sounds

emanating from WLAC first Gregg and then Duane

learned to play the guitar, determined to master

the techniques and recreate the songs

that they were hearing.

- I can't remember two people who connected with music

like both of those guys, and in very different ways to me.

Gregg still had other interests that he was involved in,

and other things that he was following, but he was also

teaching himself and sharpening his craft.

Duane was music, music, music.

I remember spending the night there sometimes

over at the house and some guy that lived behind

had a guitar and we would listen to him messing with it

and he would sit there.

And, any time he heard music, whether it was on the radio or

live or whatever, just the focus, the concentration

was phenomenal.

- [Voiceover] By 1961, having sufficiently honed their

skills the friends formed a band at Duane's suggestion,

and began performing around the Dayton Beach area

as the Uniques.

- Duane sang a little bit, and Gregg sang a little bit.

Ted Petrashannie who played piano for us

on many of the gigs, he also sang, too.

I did a little back up, but not much.

(laughs)

Just enough to holler every once in a while.

We played at well, the Bandshell, which is close to where

we are right now, we did a talent show there

and we won that.

We did school dances at the high school,

at the junior high school.

We played a couple of school assemblies,

really rocked the place.

And, as we were going we just played white teen dances,

you know, all the young stuff, high school stuff

all around town.

- [Voiceover] And, this included parts of the town

that other bands refused to enter.

So enamored with the music of black Americans

Duane ignored the social dictates of the time

and regularly took his band into the world

of Daytona Beach's African-American community.

- Growing up in the South you're very aware of

the conservative religious forces, and Duane and Gregg

very much went against that.

I mean, they were hanging out with black people,

they were playing Blues and R&B music,

which was black music.

And, it sort of supercedes what society

was mandating to be separate,

and they actually came together.

- Music speaks where words stop, you know,

and I think that was a big thing was we didn't

care what color your skin was or what language

you spoke, it was just a simple matter of fact of,

"Man, you can play," you know, "And, it sounds good."

- We went over to Second Avenue, which is in, at that time

we called it "Colored Town", to go to one of the pawn shops

and buy our first shirts, and we all bought the same

kind of shirts with the mother of pearl buttons on them.

And, to us that was the normal thing to do.

I don't remember having apprehension

about going over there, but there were a lot of kids,

as we grew up, that had nothing to do with the blacks

and it was a problem at that time.

- [Voiceover] What was also a problem was Duane's

academic record.

Afraid that his musical activities were interfering

with her son's studies his mother enrolled him

into a military academy, thus ending the Uniques.

On his return in 1963 both Duane and Gregg briefly joined

local band, The Houserockers, before starting their

next outfit, The Escorts, the following year.

Now, stronger musicians, despite still playing

cover material, this band quickly rose to the top

of the local scene.

- What distinguished Duane and Gregg was their music

was steeped in R&B and Blues, you know, they were doing

Bobby Bland covers, Marvin Gaye covers, Motown.

And, that's how you really set yourself apart

by the songs you did cover, and no one else was really

playing those kind of songs.

- [Voiceover] Although the Daytona Beach scene

in which they were thriving was relatively provincial

and limited, in April 1965, the Escorts cemented

their reputation by being chosen as a supporting act

for the visiting Beach Boys.

And, rather than molding their set to blend with

the Surf Rock of America's biggest band, they stuck to

their guns and delivered renditions of Marvin Gaye,

James Brown, and Ray Charles numbers.

- For a local band that was really great.

Two of the local bands played before the Beach Boys

came on.

The Nightcrawlers was the other band, and that was

probably the two most popular bands in Daytona Beach

at that time, were those two.

- It was really a unique set up because there was a band

called The Nightcrawlers to the left, the Beach Boys were

on the main stage, The Escorts were set off to the right.

The Nightcrawlers would play a song, then The Escorts

would play a song, back and forth.

Then, for the finale, and I've heard a tape of this

and it's incredible to hear, they did the Ray Charles

tune What'd I Say.

Nightcrawlers played a verse, then The Escorts played

a verse, and this went on for six and a half minutes.

- It was a great performance from 'em and as far as having

people there, you know, you're used to playing in a small

club with maybe 50 to 80, maybe 100 people

and I don't know how many were there that night,

but that's a first big stage opportunity that I'm aware of

that they had, and they hit the note for sure.

- [Voiceover] In the summer of 1965, after minor lineup

changes The Escorts became the Allman Joys.

Spotlighting themselves as the focus of the band,

the brothers looked to spread their appeal

beyond Daytona Beach.

And, with Gregg freshly graduated from high school

they could now dedicated themselves entirely

to their music and turn professional.

First becoming a resident band at a venue in Mobile, Alabama

by 1966 the Allman Joys had begun to play

in New York's thriving Greenwich Village.

On their return to Daytona Beach in the summer

they were local celebrities, and here they met future

collaborator, Pete Carr.

- I'd heard a lot about 'em.

I had started playing at club called the Martinique,

I was about 15, you know, and we would go and play.

And, they had a picture of the Allman Joys in the club.

And, they came back into town, when they started playing

and, you know, they had a Bobby "Blue" Bland song, or

Ray Charles, back then it was mostly copies, but they did

a lot of Blues and R&B, plus a lot of Pop.

And man, they could nail anything perfect.

♪I've got sunshine

♪On a cloudy day

♪When it's cold outside

♪I've got the month of May

♪Well, I guess you say

♪What can make me feel this way

♪My girl

- That night I first met 'em, I walked up, Gregg came out

and I walked up to him in front of the club with my guitar

and said, "Hey man, come show me some licks.

"You know, guitar, I hope you'll sit down with me."

And he says, "That's my brother's department,

"I'll introduce you to him."

I said, "Okay."

So, we went around the side of the building

and he introduced me to Duane and we just

(snaps fingers) clicked like that.

We played a little bit, he talked, and from then on

we all started becoming closer and closer friends.

- [Voiceover] And, while back in Florida The Allman Joys

also played a show with their closest rivals

on the southern circuit, the 5 Men-Its,

which featured guitarist and vocalist Eddie Hinton,

drummer Johnny Sandlin, and guitarist and keyboard

player Paul Hornsby.

- The Allmans were the first band I knew that played music

and did nothing else, that was their thing.

They got blond hair down to their shoulders,

I mean, you gotta remember in 1965

everybody still had crew cuts and slicked back hair

and all this stuff.

And, these guys were right on the cutting edge,

visually and audibly.

Gregg was maybe 17, 18 years old and he already had

that huge husky voice, R&B, Blues voice.

And, Duane was just playing like nobody I heard.

Even though they were doing copy material there was

something about the way they were doing 'em

that nobody else did it.

Duane could hear things nobody else could hear,

things in songs.

when you'd hear the Allman Joys being played

you'd hear the same song we'd been playing,

but they would be little things in there, you thought,

"I'll be damned, I never even noticed that being in

the record."

And, guitar to Duane was just an extension of his body,

it was like another arm.

If he was sitting where I'm sitting today, there's no doubt

he'd be holding a guitar in his hand.

They'd be a guitar here and they'd be a book in his hand.

And, he was an avid reader.

And, he wasn't highly educated, never went to college.

I don't think he had a high school diploma,

but he was well read, very articulate, and had a vocabulary

you wouldn't believe.

He's there, he's reading, he'd lay that down and then he'd

play guitar a little bit, and he's talking to you

the whole time.

And then, he'd pick that then he'd pick the book back up.

He's reading and he's playing, anytime he's seated

that's what's going on.

So, it was his life, it was just what he was meant to do,

playing that guitar.

- [Voiceover] Later in 1966, Duane and the band travelled

to his hometown of Nashville and caught the attention

of esteemed song writer John D. Loudermilk.

Seeing potential in the young band he took them

under his wing, advising them how to compose

their own original material, and also introducing them

to Buddy Killen the head of Dial Records.

This led to the band's lone single, Spoonful,

the cover of the Willie Dixon song popularized

by Howlin' Wolf.

("Spoonful" By The Allman Joys)

- Duane had only been playing the guitar for

three or four years.

I mean, there's traces of the talent there,

but really not to any

greater degree than 100 other cover bands.

It had yet to really jell and Duane had yet to really

find his voice.

("Spoonful" By The Allman Joys)

In my mind, The Allman Joy recordings is just kind of

another cover band.

And, you can hear, sort of,

the roots of it but it really hadn't developed yet.

- [Voiceover] Dial Records boss Buddy Killen agreed

and the band were dropped.

Uncertain of their future, and with their drummer

headed to Viet Nam by early 1967 Duane and Gregg

saw no sense in keeping their band going.

Unbeknown to them, their friendly rivals the 5 Men-Its

were in a similar situation.

- [Duane] There's a guarded circuit of the South (coughs)

that you work at and you make about $150 a week

and eat pills and drink. (laughs)

It's a bad trip, and so we just got sick of it man.

You know, travelling around, playing in bars, man,

you know.

Man, for so long, and so finally we just said,

"Well, this has been a lot of fun, but we're tired of it."

You know, so we all quit.

- One day Duane called me and he said, "Paul," he said,

"How'd you like to have me and Gregg in your band?"

And, I said, "What?"

He said, "Yeah," he says, "Bill Cannell, our drummer

"he's getting drafted, just got drafted

"And, he's leaving us in a week, and we're letting

"our bass player go.

"And, it's just me and Gregg."

I said, "Man, you couldn't have called at a better time."

And so, there we had Duane and Gregg and me, Johnny Sandlin,

and our bass player at that time was Mabron McKinney,

who we called "The Wolf".

And so, we said, "We're at the Sandlin's house, come on down

"to the garage."

- [Voiceover] The Hourglass was born, a fusing of the two

strongest groups on the southern circuit.

And, as with the other acts he had been a part of

it was Duane Allman who quickly became the driving force

behind the band.

- When there was a Duane Allman in your band

they was only room for one leader.

Because, he was gonna do it his way and it wouldn't have

mattered if you had another leader anyway.

He wouldn't have listened to you, he had to do it his way.

And, it was probably the best, you know,

what he wanted to do.

- [Voiceover] Within weeks the Hourglass were playing

their first shows in Saint Louis, Missouri, where they met

the visiting Californian Country Folk ensemble,

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Hugely impressed by the Southern Rock outfit

members of the band introduced the Hourglass

to their manager Bill McCuen.

- With the combined band of the Allman Joys

and the Men-Its we were a powerhouse.

Bill McCuen was floored when he heard us play

and he went right to the pay phone, this was before

cell phones, and called somebody

at Liberty Records and said,

"I have just discovered the next Rolling Stones."

He said, "I found the greatest band in the world."

And, he stayed over an extra day and talked to us

and he said, "If you'll come to California I'd like to be

"your manager and I'll get you a record deal."

And, we thought about it for a while, mulled it over.

I can't remember, it wasn't very long, a few days,

maybe a week.

And, he was on the phone back and forth to us.

So, we decided to take him up on it, and we drove to L.A.,

a bunch of Alabama and Florida redneck boys, and here

we were in L.A. in the Summer of Love, 1967.

Nothing like it!

("The End" by The Doors)

- [Voiceover] Arriving in a California overflowing with

hippies, freaks, acid, and experimentation the band

were initially well served by their new label, Liberty.

Los Angeles and San Francisco were musical hotbeds,

with the Folk rock of The Byrds and Love, coexisting

with the psychedelia of The Grateful Dead

and Jefferson Airplane and the craziness of Zappa

and his Mothers of Invention.

The Hourglass' first show took a place a week after

they'd driven into L.A. in support of rising stars,

The Doors.

And soon, they were being regularly booked

at the biggest venues on the scene.

- We started opening right away.

After the Doors we opened for The Grateful Dead

and they got booed off the stage.

We played first, they got booed off the stage,

The Grateful Dead.

And, we opened for Buffalo Springfield

and countless other people.

And, we went to San Francisco, played the

Fillmore Auditorium.

We opened for Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape,

The Animals, and it was a big deal.

I mean here we were, we were nobodies,

but I'd hated to been the headline act

following The Hourglass when we played.

- [Voiceover] Despite firmly establishing themselves

on the live circuit, in the studio The Hourglass struggled.

The majority of the band making an impact with music

steeped in the Blues at the time were British.

And, California Pop label Liberty Records, and producer

Dallas Smith in particular, were unwilling to acclimatize

themselves to the sounds of the deep South.

- They didn't know what a Southern Rock band's

supposed to sound like.

And, it was black, Blues based Rock and Roll.

He kept referring to us as a Motown band.

I said, "Well, we do black oriented music, but you got

"the wrong side of the country.

"It's Southern Blues, Southern Black Blues,

"and, it's not Motown."

But, at the first album he threw us in their

and he produced it as Gregg Allman and the Hourglass

sort of thing, he put horns behind everything we did.

And, we didn't have any say so about it, it was an absolute

dictatorship, and again, you don't dictate to Duane.

And, he and the producer never got along well.

And, most of the rest of us we were just glad

to be anywhere, you know.

What do we know?

We're just a bunch of kids and these guys

are a record company, and they're telling us what to do

and we're going, "Yes sir, okay, all right."

But, it wasn't turning out too well, we didn't like it.

We weren't impressed by it.

What we heard coming from the speakers

and hearing these chicks and all the horns.

I said, "Who is this? Is that supposed to be us?"

- [Voiceover] Released in October 1967 and featuring

only one original composition the the Hour Glass'

self titled debut was unsurprisingly overlooked.

("Out of the Night" by Hour Glass)

- I think the Hour Glass album, the first one,

when you listen to that band what stuck out was the voice

of Gregg Allman, this incredible voice from this kid.

And so, Dallas Smith was interested in that kid.

He didn't get what they were about,

and I'm not sure they got what they were about yet.

I know that they were reaching towards something,

but they had so many issues to overcome,

including the fact that one of the demands was

"You just have to got through these songs on these tapes

"that our company owns the publishing on,"

this is Liberty Records talking.

And so, "You have to pick out some songs that'll work

"for you because that's what you're gonna cut,

"is stuff that we publish."

And, so they had an awful lot stacked against them

on that first album.

("Love Makes the World Go Round" by Hour Glass)

- The irony of that first album was that was the period

where guitar heroes were coming into full bloom.

I mean, you had Clapton, Jimmy Page with The Yardbirds.

And, they had a guy who was about to become

a defining force in guitar playing,

and they didn't let him play.

- I just can't believe that they overlooked Duane.

How could anybody hear, this guy is a genius.

He's the greatest thing you've ever heard,

and it's like they can't see through that,

they can't see the forest for the trees.

It's like they knew Gregg was a good singer,

and Dallas Smith was just used to producing records

in his fashion.

That's the kind of records he'd been doing,

and he had good luck with,

He produced Jan and Dean, which was miles

from what we were doing.

This was Surf music.

And, he produced Bobby Vee who was doing this kind of

little bubble gum top 40 stuff.

And, he sold records.

He knew how to cut records that way,

where you have a lead singer and you have back up guys.

Duane was just a back up guy as far as he was concerned.

- [Voiceover] Disappointed by their failure to capitalize

on their live reputation before beginning a promotional tour

Gregg returned to Daytona Beach where he hooked up

with guitarist Pete Carr.

- I was in Daytona when Gregg came home the Hour Glass'

first album.

And, when he was going back out he wanted to know

if I wanted to come.

I said, "Sure, yeah I'll go back out with you,

"hang out with you guys, see what's going on out there.

"See what we can do."

I was there for a while just hanging out

and their bass player one day just

was gone, and they had a gig coming up at

the Whiskey A Go-Go in a day or two.

And, you know, they were kind of like, "What we gonna do?"

And they asked me, said "Pete, would you play bass?"

You know, I said, "Yeah, sure, sure I can play bass."

I had study the session players making records like Stax

and so, you know, I could do the basic bass,

nothing fantastic, but I could do it.

And so, we practiced a little bit and the next night

we played at the Whiskey A Go-Go and it went great.

- [Voiceover] Even if the Hour Glass hadn't captured

their live sound on record yet, the Los Angeles music scene

was introducing the young band members to new sounds,

new possibilities, and an array of talented supporters.

- Oh wow, there were so many things going on

at that time.

You know, we'd be playing at the Whiskey A Go-Go

and upstairs, you know, Janis Joplin would come in,

you know Paul Butterfield, Buffalo Springfield.

Those guys really liked us, 'cause they'd seen us

at the Filmore when we'd go down to San Francisco

and play.

And, they came in Whiskey A Go-Go and watch,

you know, to hear us.

They loved us.

Neil Young actually did the liner notes to our second album.

I mean, you never knew really, what was gonna go on.

We were playing at a club, and I'm not sure what it was,

but Frank Zappa came walking up and he was watching.

And afterwards me and Duane went over and talked to him.

And, he invited us to one of their rehearsals.

So, the next day or two, whatever it was, we went to this

little small kind of auditorium, had some seats

and he had the band up there and he was like

directing this thing note by note.

And, you know, he wasn't just jamming

he really was producing it, and writing it,

and the whole deal.

So, we sat there and watched him play

and working on the songs, and he was really cool.

("Statesboro Blues" by Taj Mahal)

- [Voiceover] Yet, for Duane the most influential artist

on the scene was Taj Mahal, who at the time

had just released his debut solo album.

And, his version of the Blind Willie Mctell song

Statesboro Blues, with Jesse Ed Davis on slide guitar

was an inspiration.

("Statesboro Blues" by Taj Mahal)

- We started doing Satesboro Blues in the Hour Glass

for a long time.

Taj Mahal came out with that album

and Duane started picking it up there

and we went to see him at the Troubador.

And, watching him do it in person, you know,

that even fired him up more.

That was the first slide song we did.

And, we got that down pretty good, you know,

and of course later, he really took that to another level.

Whatever he put his mind too, man he could concentrate

and get on it, you know.

- I'll tell you, somebody learning to play slide guitar

is not a pleasant thing to be around.

I'd rather hear cats fighting.

And, we'd always carry an extra guitar around

just for him to play, it was tuned up special for him

to play on.

And, we'd be riding in the car, or sitting around

the apartment or something and he'd always be playing

on that thing and we'd all run the other way.

- [Voiceover] In January 1968, the Hour Glass returned

to the studio, this time given greater independence

by Liberty Records, and armed with a number

of original compositions.

Yet, Dallas Smith remained the producer

and within a short amount of time the band

became frustrated with his Pop sensibilities

and Duane Allman abandoned the project.

- Duane walks out of the studio in the middle of the album.

He hadn't even laid down his lead tracks

and he goes home to Daytona.

He quit the band.

He doesn't like what's going on

with Dallas Smith so he just up and leaves.

So, by this time Pete Carr was playing bass with us

and he was the youngest member of our band,

he was from Daytona.

And, he was also a very good guitar player and so

we recruited him in there to play all of Duane's parts.

So, we spent a week or two, I don't remember just how long,

about a week or two Pete overdubbing and replacing

everything Duane had done.

And then, all of a sudden Duane comes back like,

"Hey, what's happening?"

- [Voiceover] Deciding to complete his work on the album

Duane's guitar was this time far more present.

Yet, the LP Power of Love, released in March 1968

was poorly promoted and proved another disappointment

for the Hour Glass.

- We had more original tunes and the songs

were worked up and Duane's parts were,

it was important to the songs, so that's what we

brought to the table.

And, we were ready to go with them, instead of just

walking in and having your...

Unlike the first album where they just picked out

a bunch of demos out of a box and said,

"Okay, how do you like this one for your record?

"You don't like it, okay we'll play you this one.

"Here, you're gonna cut this."

Whereas the second album we did more worked up tunes,

but it still just wasn't good enough.

("I Can Stand Alone" by Hour Glass)

- For the time, I think it's a good Blue Eyed Soul album.

We got to do more of what we wanted to do,

you know, not totally but...

And, at the same time you can't,

I've heard, you know, people put it down

say this da, da, da.

But really, that's kind of where we were at at the time.

I mean, it wasn't like three years before that

they were doing, you know, Mustang Sally in a night club

doing cover songs.

We hadn't really gotten the writing down great yet.

It was just one of those times, though,

wasn't ready to go yet, you know,

just wasn't ready to happen yet.

- [Voiceover] Unable to see any future in working in

L.A. studios under Dallas Smith the band

considered their next move.

In rural Alabama they knew of a recording venue

that has slowly built a formidable reputation

for its unique sound,

Rick Hall's FAME studios in Muscle Shoals.

Paul Hornsby and drummer Johnny Sandlin

had previously recorded there during their time

in the 5 Men-Its.

And, with few options available the decided to capture

the Hour Glass sound on their home turf.

- We thought, we saved a few bucks from a few of our gigs

and we went in and rented the studio in Muscle Shoals

at FAME studios, actually.

"Let's cut a few things here, take it back and show them

"where we're going, what we wanna do."

- We loved it, you know, we thought and we loved

the studio and

the sound of the studio, what we got out of it.

And, you know, we were kinda high after that

on the few little things we did cut there.

(Sweet Little Angel" by Hour Glass)

♪I've got a sweet little angel

♪I love the way

♪She spreads her wings

- Hearing the recordings they did there,

it just transformed them as a band.

You know, the BB King Medley.

I mean, all of a sudden there's Duane Allman

on lead guitar playing like

no one you've really ever heard before.

And, Gregg singing the Blues, I mean, that was his home.

That's where he felt most comfortable,

that's where he belonged.

- In the Hour Glass Muscle Shoals demos

I hear pretty much what the band wanted to be

and what Duane wanted the band to be as their leader.

If you listen to the BB King Medley, I mean,

it's got as much energy as any Blues performance

that I've ever heard.

It was driving on so many different levels,

and you could feel that Duane's vision was actually

coming to fruition.

♪I bought you a new Ford

♪You said I wanna a Cadillac

♪Bought you a ten dollar dinner

♪You said thanks for the snack

- I knew we could play music.

I was beginning to doubt it listening to some of the stuff

that they turned out in L.A..

We carried it back, just waiting for them.

And they heard it and they thought, "This is crap."

They thought, "This is the worst thing we've ever heard."

And, we just kind of looked at each other like,

"Man, what are you gonna do?"

- If we came out with that I think, and people would

have hear that, they would have said, "These guys

"can do this stuff good, man."

I mean, they're like, "The Stones? Listen to this."

You know, "They're doing the Blues."

You know, it was, it was great, I think.

And, we took them and played it, you know,

for Dallas the producer of the band.

He, I mean, was like, "Oh, it stinks."

But, he was producing people like Bobby Vee,

stuff like that.

I mean, hey it's okay, but you know, I mean it's not

a band like we were, or we wanted to be,

or we sensed we could be.

'Cause, we didn't really know.

And, the management really didn't know

how to handle what we could do.

- [Voiceover] The rejection of the demos proved

the final straw.

And, after a run of shows at the Whiskey A Go-Go

in June 1968 the majority of Hour Glass left Los Angeles.

- That was the end of the whole deal, 'cause this was

our dream, this was the way we wanted to sound.

We were never going to get that and we were up

against a wall.

And, it wasn't two or three months, we were gone.

But, Duane made the break start.

He says, "I'm going back east, I can't take this no more."

- It was at the end of its cycle out there.

I remember me and I don't know when it was, what day,

what happened but finally came a point I remember

Duane and I riding back in a van from California to Florida,

you know, without an air conditioner.

Lord have mercy, we didn't know any better

back that day, I guess.

- We pulled out of L.A. and we tried to keep the band going

for a little while, and here we were back in

the same old clubs.

And, Alabama, they were still wanting to hear Mustang Sally,

and Midnight Hour.

And I thought, "Man, we've just been in L.A., we've been

"blowing bands off the stage and they want to hear

"this crap back here."

We were very discouraged, and broke, and trying to book

our own shows, and it fell apart.

- [Voiceover] By August, Duane was back in Daytona Beach.

Dismissing the Hour Glass experience he immediately

linked up with young drummer Butch Trucks,

a musician he knew from the Allman Joys' days,

and briefly joined his band The 31st of February.

The Florida scene was stagnant however,

and without any immediate opportunites Duane decided

to head for FAME studios to look for work

as a session musician.

Yet, owner Rick Hall was intially unsure

of the young guitarist.

- He had to be convinced.

He had to prove himself to Rick, and he did.

And, the thing about Duane was he was such a

astute player and you've heard the old saying,

"I hear the song one time and I know it."

Well, he was that way.

And, very few guys I knew could do that.

He didn't really read our charts.

And, we all played on number charts,

but it's pretty amazing to see him just listen down

and nail it on the first pass.

- [Voiceover] Duane began playing sessions

as a lead guitarist, but where the members of

the Muscle Shoals rhythm section had been honing

their craft in the studio for years the obsession

with which Allman approached music was a revelation to them.

- Duane was completely impressive.

I've never seen a more dedicated, hands on the guitar

probably ten hours a day.

And, he wouldn't be in a gig, I mean he just lived with it.

- He wanted to play all the time.

I mean, when we got through with our work

we all went home, Duane would stand around

in that studio all night.

And, he wasn't married, didn't have a home to go to, really.

So, he lived it, and we had regular lives

besides our studio work.

We would go home and eat supper, or see the wife,

or whatever, you know.

So, it was different.

He looked at us like insurance salesmen.

- [Voiceover] Since 1966 FAME had become the studio

of choice for Jerry Wexler's Atlantic Records artists.

The first of these to work with Duane Allman

was Wilson Pickett, the R&B singer whose classic hit

In the Midnight Hour had been a staple of the Hour Glass

set over the previous two years.

Bucking the conventions of the studio heirarchy

during a lunch break Duane suggested that Pickett

should consider recording a version of the Beatles

current hit Hey Jude.

The resulting recording would prove life changing

for the young guitarist.

- Duane had hair down to here.

And, of course, Wilson being black,

had a little problem of going to restaurants here.

But, the long hairs had more of problem than black folks,

believe it or not.

And so, they stayed back just to not

get the looks.

Well, while they were here Duane talked him

into doing Hey Jude and it was quite an effort I understand.

He fought it at first, big time.

But, by the time, you know, we got back in

and the first song we cut was Hey Jude.

♪Hey Jude, don't make it bad

♪Take a sad song and make it better

♪Remember to let her into your heart

♪Then you can start

♪To make it better

♪Hey Jude

- Rick and Jerry Wexler would have songs picked

and that was something you didn't mess with.

And so, that was pretty unusual that Duane

would go to Wilson and say, "Hey, you need to cut Hey Jude."

Especially since it was already on the charts

with the Beatles, you know, whoever heard of

cutting something while something else was still

on the charts?

But, it was a brilliant idea.

- You the vamp on the end, that happened automatically.

It just developed into that ending which was

an incredible, intense ending.

Well, Duane started playing those incredible,

incredible licks that he's noted for.

And, nobody'd ever heard that from him before

and when we got through it was like kind of a shocked thing,

we didn't want to stop playing.

("Hey Jude" by Wilson Pickett)

- There were no lead guitars on Soul records, none.

It was saxophones if there was a solo.

And, not only did he suggest it

and Wilson Pickett agreed to do it, but it was the moment

that changed Duane Allman's world.

It was so out of context for a Soul record

that you couldn't help but take note of it.

He played underneath Wilson Pickett's voice

on the fade out and it's incredible to listen to even now,

you know, forty or fifty years later.

("Hey Jude" by Wilson Pickett)

- He obviously had something going on.

He was young, he was white,

he was deeply, incredibly soulful.

And, he had chops to burn.

That performance kicked open the door for him,

and led to everything that followed.

- Really, if you wanna boil everything down

that's pretty much the embryo of, you know,

of the whole Southern Rock scene

because that's when Phil Walden first heard Duane Allman.

- [Voiceover] Phil Walden was a major figure

on the southern scene,

a booking agent and manager who'd worked with

the biggest names in Soul and R&B.

His most significant association had been with Otis Redding,

who he had managed since 1959.

But, since the singer's tragic death in 1967

his passion for music had diminished.

- Otis Redding and he were really close, like brothers,

you know?

And, when Otis Redding died, you know, Phil Walden

he produced shows and he managed musicians,

he was devastated, you know?

That was his friend, and not only his friend

but it was his meal ticket.

I mean, he really was making, you know, his living

off of R&B, you know Southern R&B.

And, he was kind of aimless at the time.

He didn't like white Rock music, never did.

And then, with the assassination of

Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior

when fewer black artists wanted to work with white

managers for political reasons he felt kind of aimless.

- He heard Hey Jude.

He heard that guitar player.

He called in his assistant and said, "You gotta come

"listen to this.

"Find out who this guy is."

So, they called Muscle Shoals and found out

it was a kid named Duane Allman.

If you look at the logic of it, there is no logic.

Duane Allman couldn't sing.

He didn't have a band.

He didn't write songs.

He was a guitar player.

And yet, Phil Walden signed him to a deal.

I mean, how visionary is that?

- He was again one of that breed of young, white, hip

southern guys who had the musical influences.

I'm sure he listened to WLAC, like we all did.

And, of course, he had that tremendous

experience with black bands.

He started booking them in college

when he was a fraternity guy.

But, he knew that market, at one time he had the biggest

R&B black booking agency in the south,

but it was all white guys running it.

But, Capricorn Records was originally gonna be

a Soul label, but of course, Otis Redding passed.

And then, Phil got interested in Duane and it turned into

the premier Southern Rock label.

I mean Phil Walden has had his clashes with the band

and there's been varying opinions, but there would never

have been an Allman Brothers Band without Phil Waldon,

no question about it.

- [Voiceover] Waldon wasn't the only industry heavy weight

captivated by the talent on display in Hey Jude.

Jerry Wexler, head of Atlantic records was equally awestruck

by Allman's performance on the single.

And, as soon as he became aware of the young guitarist's

new management deal he bought out his recording

contract from Rick Hall.

Despite all this sudden attention, Duane himself

was recording sessions in Muscle Shoals

with a who's who of R&B and Soul artists,

from Arthur Connelly, and Clarence Carter,

to King Curtis, and Aretha Franklin,

but finding that the world of the studio musician

was incompatible with his own lifestyle.

- He didn't fit the normal studio player at all.

He was the first kind of hippy looking guy to come through.

And, he just was free as a bird.

- He was free, he was a free spirit.

Now, he was the kind of guy that

he didn't have any ties holding him down.

And, even his job with us kind of held him down

a little bit.

But, he was the kind guy that you could walk up to

and say, "Hey, let's go to L.A. tonight."

He'd say, "Hell, let's go," and they'd just go.

I don't even think they'd go get their clothes, nothing.

They'd just get in the car, or whatever and go.

(laughs)

And, none of us had ever met anybody like that.

- We were all married, some of us had kids,

had a mortgage or a rent payment or a car payment

or something.

He just didn't like that at all, he thought that was crazy.

I don't know if he thought we'd sold out,

but he just thought that's just a regular straight

guy's job there.

- [Duane] Studios, that's a terrible thing, man.

You just lay around and you get your money, man.

All those studio cats that I know, man, one of them

gets a color TV, you see, and then the next day, man,

they're all down to Sears or, you know, wherever

and , "Hey man, I'd like to look at some colored TVs."

You know, it's sickening, man.

They're just keeping up with the Joneses,

they're not playing the music.

They're stuff sounds like crap now.

I was down there working with them for about a half a year

and I got sick of it, man.

- I think he always thought band, that he would want

to get back to Gregg and to the band stuff, you know.

Like the Allman Joys, the way they started out, you know?

And, I think that was his comfort zone.

But, he was so good at playing on sessions

that he was a delight to have on sessions.

And, all the artists loved him.

What he added to any record he played on, you know,

I think he was appreciated.

("The Road of Love" by Clarence Carter)

- When he did sessions he didn't tend to really blend

into the background.

I mean, you were getting Duane Allman,

but people responded to that.

You know, he became great friends with King Curtis,

played on King Curtis' version of The Weight,

played on Aretha Franklin's version of The Weight.

For Duane Muscle Shoals gave him the opportunity

to do things he had never done before,

to play a lot of different kinds of music,

to learn how to record in the studio,

to learn how to do arrangements,

to learn how to back up a singer.

And, it really was for him kind of like going to college,

because he got a wealth of experience that

he wouldn't have gotten if he'd stayed in Florida

playing in The 31st of February or a cover band.

- [Voiceover] As important as the numerous sessions were

as a learning experience however, Allman's burning ambition

to become an artist in his own right remained constant.

- One time we were in New York and

we went to see Johnny Winter.

And, I remember we were sitting up in one of the balconies

there at the Filmore and Duane told me, he says,

but he didnt say this in a way...

I knew what he meant.

He said, "I can cut him."

And, he knew he could, and I knew he could.

Duane told me then, that night, he said,

"This time next year I'll be down there on that stage,"

and he was.

- [Voiceover] The first steps towards releasing Allman

from his life as a studio muscian began to take shape

in January 1969.

Jerry Wexler and Phil Walden decided that Duane

should record demos for a solo album at FAME studios,

handling both guitar and vocal duties, and began looking

for musicians to back him.

Walden also had ambitions to build his own studio

in his hometown of Macon, Georgia, and had already

brougth in Jazz drummer Jai Johanny Johanson,

better known as Jaimoe, who had been part of

Otis Redding's touring band in 1966.

Walden sent him to Muscle Shoals to meet the young guitarist

while Allman himself called in bassist Berry Oakley

who he knew from a Jacksonville band Second Coming.

Despite the success of the initial sessions with these

new players, Duane also required familiar faces

to add to the line up.

- One day I got a call from Duane and he said. "Hornsby

"I'm in Muscle Shoals, I'm cutting sessions up here.

"And, they've heard some of my playing and these people

"at Atlantic like what I'm doing and they want me to

"cut some demos, and they think they might want

"to sign me or something.

"Would you come up and play on some demos with me?"

And, he wanted that, he liked more of the Hour Glass

sound that we had.

And so, I went up and Johnny Sandlin's there

and Berry Oakley was there that day.

So, Berry Oakley wound up playing on the demos

so it was this whole thing was featuring Duane.

Fianlly, he gets to step out.

But, more than being a guitar player they wanted

him to sing, too.

And, Duane just wasn't a singer.

He could have been, but I don't think he wanted it.

I think it bored him.

You know, he wanted to play guitar.

♪I've had my fun

♪If I don't ever get well no more

♪I've had my fun

♪If I don't ever get well no more

- The tracks that really stand out to me

are Goin' Down Slow, just 'cause the emotion

in Duane's playing and in his vocals.

People who knew Duane will tell you that he lived his life

as if it was gonna end too soon.

And, that song really tapped into something

that was almost mystical and magical.

("Goin Down Slow" by Duane Allman)

- Aside from his voice he had made some steps,

but it just had not been completed yet

with the birth of The Allman Brothers Band,

but you can definitely see that he had made

yet another progression in what his vision was

for the music that he wanted to play.

- [Voiceover] The sessions ground to a halt.

Not only was Allman uncomfortable as the vocalist

he was also unable to convince ex-Hour Glass

collegues Paul Hornsby and Johnny Sandlin

to join this new ensemble.

Berry Oakley on the other hand was bound by loyalty

to band Second Coming, and in particular

their guitarist Dickie Betts, and returned to Jacksonville.

Again left with few options Duane decided to hand in

his notice at FAME studios and set off with Jaimoe

to Florida to convince Oakley to leave his band.

With The 31st of February drummer Butch Trucks

also in tow, he arrived at the Second Comings band house

on March 20th, 1969, for an improptu jam.

- There was Duane, Dickie Betts, Berry Oakley,

Jaimoe, Butch Trucks, and Reese Wynans who was

the organ player for Second Coming.

And, he would later play with Stevie Ray Vaughn,

so he was no slouch.

And, they started a little shuffle.

It lasted about three hours.

And, when they stopped

Duane went to the door

and said, "Anyone who's not gonna be in my band

"you've gotta fight your way out of here."

And, that was the day the Allman Brothers Band was born.

A couple weeks later Gregg came in

and it went from there.

- [Voiceover] Gregg Allman's time in California had been

far from successful.

After recording a number of songs for Liberty Records,

of which only two were released to little attention,

it was clear that without a fully formed band

to feed off of, his talents would go unnoticed.

Initially reluctant to left go of his California dream

three days after the first jam of the future

Allman Brothers Band Gregg joined the group in Florida.

In an era of power trios and quartets, Duane Allman

had assembled an unusually large ensemble.

Yet, this time he was sure that it was the perfect unit

to realize his musical vision.

- You're talking about a guy whose father died

when he was a child.

You're talking about a guy who is constantly in search

of some kind of family.

And so, the family for him became a musical family,

to the point that he had all these guys in the band,

including one who was black and he still referred

to them as The Allman Brothers Band.

He wasn't talking about just him and Gregg.

Obviously, there's no Duane today and it's still

The Allman Brothers Band.

He was searching for brothers on a broader scale.

He wanted to create a family unit, and I think that

was what his music was about as well.

That's why I don't think it woulda worked with just him

and a couple of other guys.

He wanted the group, he wanted something more powerful.

The B3, the other lead guitarist, as crazy as that was,

the two drummers instead of just one.

All these things, maybe he was over compensating

like crazy, but it worked out great.

- I can't imagine any player they had in that first band

that didn't belong there.

I just don't know how it could have been any better,

or anybody else they coulda chosen that coulda done

a better job.

So, you had six people out there just slaying it.

Duane is part of it, it's a unit, it's not just

a lead guitar player out front.

It's not just a lead singer.

This whole thing was one big glob of power, you know.

(soft rock music)

- [Voiceover] And, with a new band came a change of scene.

Phil Walden had set up his new studios in Macon, Georgia

and when Jerry Wexler expressed doubts over

how to place this act on his Atlantic roster Walden decided

to form a record company on which to launch them.

Capricorn records was born, and the newly named

Allman Brothers Band headed out to Macon from Florida.

A small city untouched by the counterculture

it became the groups base of opertations

with purpose built recording facilities, communal houses,

a large cemetary where they would get stoned,

and a local Soul Food restaurant where they became regulars.

- When the Allman brothers were in Los Angeles

they were kind of being pushed around by the industry.

And, they made good music, you know.

but they didn't make the music they wanted to make

and they didn't make the music that would change the world.

That music would never change the world, it was good music

but it wouldn't change the world,

and The Allman Brothers Band did.

When they were in Macon, they were making music

that sounded like that area, they felt comfortable

in that area.

That group of people who were the Allman Brothers,

you know, you had a drummer that had played with

Otis Redding, you had a guitar player, Dickie Betts,

who was really into Country Music, you had Gregg Allman

who was an R&B singer deluxe Soul with lots of Gospel

in his blood.

You had all this mix of guys in the south where they

could go next door to the Soul Food restaurant

and order, you know, collard greens and black eyed peas,

and then go back home to their big ole house,

you know, in this small town and make the music

they wanted to make, so that was crucial.

- Macon wasn't like all the other towns around.

You could get killed in Atlanta, you could get killed

in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa any of these places.

You had to be very careful.

But, Macon, you know, everybody had that just

kind of that little laid back vibe, you know.

Didn't see too much racial turmoil

and they didn't harass hippies too bad.

- Originally, when they lived in a house on College Street,

which is near where the first album photos were made,

and they were pretty much a spectacle.

I mean, cars circled the block to see the hippies

sitting out in front of their house,

because they didn't look like

late sixties southern boys.

(laughs)

So, there was a bit of culture shock here,

but there was never any hostility or, you know,

animosity.

It was just kind of

a bewilderment by the locals.

- [Voiceover] While the group's members settled into

their southern enclave the musical climate was changing

in a way that would benefit the band.

After the heady excesses of psychedelia and well meaning

flower power the counterculture was facing harsher

resistance from the establishment,

and, this in part led its musical figure heads

into a search for roots,

from the Stones and the Birds, to Dylan and the Band

this search led them to reconsider the American South

and the various musical forms that had emerged from it.

- By the late 60s when the Allman Brothers got together

and started working on that first album American culture

had changed and it was all of a sudden pretty

popular to be southern and Country and R&B

and all that stuff again.

You had people like Gram Parsons who was a southerner

in California talking up Country music.

And, you know, there was this fascination with Country music

all of a sudden in Los Angeles particularly.

You know, you had Country Rock coming from

the Flying Burrito Brothers, which was Gram Parson's band,

you had Country Rock coming from The Birds,

which Gram Parsons, you know, had a big impact on

and played with on one album.

Dylan was recording in Nashville.

The Band had formed and they had a great song writer

in Robbie Robertson who could actually spin a narrative

about the South.

I mean, the South was fascinating, even Joan Baez,

who had been such a strong protest singer against

what was going on in the South did The Night They Drove

Old Dixie Down, a beautiful song from the perspective

of a confused Confederate soldier.

You know, who knew that Joan Baez would do that?

And then, Joan Baez started even incorporating, you know,

pedal steel guitar into her own country albums.

So, all of a sudden eyes were looking back to the South

for musical guidance.

- [Voiceover] And, it was into this climate that

The Allman Brothers Band emerged.

In stark contrast to the Hour Glass experience

Phil Walden had given the group free reign artistically.

And, the music they developed throughout 1969

at small venues and free outdoor shows across the South

was steeped in the Blues, R&B, and Soul.

By August they had entered Atlantic studios in New York

to record their debut LP, and though it wasn't a huge

commercial hit upon its release, it turned the heads

of many influential critics.

After years of false starts Duane Allman's artist vision

had finally been realized.

- I remember hearing that first song on released album

for the first time when I put the record on

I was hooked.

I thought, "Wow, this deep and dark and soulful,

"and these guys can really play."

There was something authoritative about it.

It's a brand new band,

but they seemed to know something

that I wanted to know.

♪I've been run down

♪I've been lied to

♪I don't know why

♪I let that mean woman make me out a fool

♪She took all my money

♪Wrecks my new car

♪Now she's one of my good time buddies

♪They're drinkin' in some cross town bar

♪Sometimes I feel

♪Sometimes I feel like I've been tied

♪To the whipping post

♪Tied to the whipping post

♪Tied to the whipping post

♪Good lord, I feel like I'm dyin'♪

- The music the Allman Brothers were making

it came from the same influences as groups like Led Zepplin,

but the British bands tended to be a little more bombastic,

a little more thudding, whereas the Allman Brothers

were a lot smoother,

a little bit softer.

The Allman Brothers is very much a band of dynamics.

They knew enough to lay back when necessary.

And, they knew enough to bring it on when they needed to.

("Dreams" by The Allman Brothers Band)

♪Just one more mornin'

♪I had to wake up with the blues

♪Pulled myself outta bed, yeah

♪Put on my walkin' shoes

♪Went up on the mountain

- Dreams to me is about the most fascinating song

the band ever recorded.

That's a song that's like seven minutes long

but it never feels seven minutes long.

It feels like it's there and then it's over.

And, I've never had another song do that to me,

but Dreams is one of those things where those guys

on that day, at that moment captured something

that nobody's ever captured in a studio before.

And, that one song is the one that fascinates me most

of everything they ever recorded, because it's just so

unique and ethereal.

- It's basically one lick droning,

but it's very hypnotic,

and Duane's solo especially on that track,

I mean, he starts out playing regular finger guitar

on the lead, and then suddenly shifts into slide.

("Dreams" by The Allman Brothers)

It's like Coltrane picking up the soprano sax,

you know, it just takes it to a whole different place.

- [Voiceover] The first southern band of the era

had arrived and album's release marked a turning point

in American music.

When acts from below the Mason Dixon line

finally began to make their presence felt

on the national consciousness.

- This was gonna happen, it was an unnatural situation

to cut off a good quarter of the country

and an enormous treasure house of music

from Pop music in general.

And also, our belief in the North

that all white people were racists simply wasn't true.

And, there were plenty, plenty, plenty millions

of white kids in the South who

read the papers, read Life magazine, saw all these

and started doing the same thing, but imitated it

because they wanted to be hip, too.

So, it was an organic process of which the Allman Brothers

happened to pick up on early and to come up with

a good musical concept.

- [Voiceover] By 1970, the band were broadening their scope

and played their first west coast shows while continuing

to develop their live sound.

Yet, their equalibrium was thrown off balance

when road manager Twiggs Lyndon was arrested and charged

with murder for stabbing to death a club owner.

With the bad now attracting offers from booking agents

across the country a replacement was quickly found,

Lyndon's close friend Willie Perkins.

- The night I got hired Duane Allman sat down with me

in their Winnebago camper that they traveled in and said,

"Look, Twigg said you could do this job.

"We want you to do it, but I'm warning you

"We are the craziest blankity blanks

"you'll ever run into.

"And, if you can do it fine, but be warned."

And, it was kind of a culture shock for me.

I was working at a commercial bank, so I had short hair and

I didn't look anything like them, but I thought like them.

And, it worked out fine.

Originally, some of the band members were a little

put off by me because I was more of a disciplinarian,

you know, than then had been used too.

And Duane said, "Look, stick with this guy,

"he's gonna be an asset," which was very kind of him.

And, it worked out.

- [Voiceover] In Macon, Duane's desire to form

a musical family was further strengthened

by a change of accomodation.

He, Gregg, Berry Oakely, and their respective partners

moved to a large three story property on Vineville Avenue.

This would become their base of operations, the big house.

- Not all the bad members lived here, but everybody

came and went, it was the meeting place.

When we left town we left from here, and when the band

rehearsed they rehearsed downstairs here.

And, we partied here, so it was the place.

- It was truly a sense of family, in a way

that especially Duane and Gregg had never really had

because it was just them and their mom.

And, this was a very communal situation,

everybody supported each other, helped each other.

And, it really helped build that foundation

the Allman Brothers had of the brotherhood.

You know, it was all for one and one for all

and that was very true for them.

You know, they really felt that way.

- [Voiceover] Adding to this sense of belonging

was the spread of countercultural ideas through the South.

When they had arrived in Macon the small group of musicians

had been curiosities, but in the new decade

of more liberal outlook and freer attitudes and lifestyles

meant that there was a fan base growing on their doorstep.

The first show under road manager Willie Perkins reign

was the biggest the band had played so far,

The Atlanta Pop Festival.

And, it was here that they would perform to this

new southern audience.

Yet, Duane Allman came close to missing this

huge opportunity.

- Duane was in Miami doing some sessions,

but he said, "Don't worry, I'll be there I'm driving up.

"I'll be done, I'll be there in plenty of time."

Well, it was 20 or 30 minutes

before the band was on,

no cell phones in that day.

All I knew was that it was almost time to play

and Duane wasn't there.

Well, he had gotten, in driving up in his car,

he had gotten caught in the interstate highway

was like a parking lot.

He just couldn't get there, so he commandered a guy

on a motorcycle and hopped on the back seat,

they went down the shoulder of the road.

And, I'm standing there wringing my hands and I'd been on

the job a month and, you know, this is the biggest gig

and there's no Duane.

But, he just drives up to the back gate, calmly

and my heart calms down.

He walks in, picks up his guitar and played the gig.

- [Voiceover] This gig, along with the Love Valley Festival

in North Carolina two weeks later was of enormous

importance to both the group and to the region.

Not only did it showcase The Allman Brothers Band

in front of hundred of thousands of young music fans,

the mass racially mixed audience itself demonstrated

to the rest of the world that once untrustworthy white South

had, with this new generation, turned a corner.

- It was huge and it was the small hippie culture

of the South being thrown in with the young, white,

to coin a phrase redneck population.

And it worked, it was fine.

- Love Valley and the Atlantic Pop Fest were massively,

massively important in introducing kind of

this new South, this new, and I don't mean that

in the new economics South sense, I mean this new,

underground, counterculture South.

And, you know, the South is always a little bit late

in coming to these things.

It was late to Punk Rock, you know, it was late to,

you know, counterculture stuff.

I mean, because that stuff is kind of born on

the west coast, or New York, and London.

It was hugely important, you know.

You had a bunch, a bunch, a bunch, a bunch of people,

you know, with their shirts off and their shoes off,

and long hair, and you know, with southern accents.

You know, being very different from, again, those images

of severe looking guys with hoses on black people,

you know, it wasn't about that.

The generation gap was an important issue, you know,

everywhere during that period.

It was particularly poignant in the South.

If you were a young southerner who didn't buy

that party line, that had been force fed you

and, you know, for, you know, decades, you know,

your family, or your dad, your dad's dad,

your dad's dad's dad.

You know, this racism had come, you know,

from generations and it was very, very intense.

So, that generation gap there was particularly intense.

So, you broke away from that and you see, you know,

dad is a moonshine sipping, beer drinking, hell raising,

PBR raising, you know guy in a pool bar, you know,

making racist jokes.

That's very different from the long haired hippie

sittin' at a rock festival listening to The Allman Brothers

smoking a little dope, talking about, you know, Kierkegaard.

- [Voiceover] And, like the culture of the South,

the group itself was evolving further.

Drummer Jaimoe Johannson had introduced his bandmates

to a whole genre of music that they were mostly unaware of,

Jazz.

This would have a major impact on the development

of their sound.

And Duane in particular, found a wealth of new artists

and musical ideas to inspire him.

- [Duane] The complexity, I suppose, is the difference

between Blues and Jazz.

That's the only difference 'cause it's all the portrayal

of the feelings in the soul in a medium other than words.

Miles Davis does the best job, man, to me of portraying the

innermost subtlest, softest feelings in the human psyche.

And, he does it beautifully, he's a fascinating talent

and marvellous, marvellous man and a great entertainer.

("So What" by Miles Davis)

- Jaimoe grew up listening to Jazz.

Before he met Duane Allman his plan was to move to New York

and join a Jazz band.

Duane and Gregg grew up steeped in the Blues,

but they had really no exposure to Jazz,

none of them did, really.

Jaimoe turned everyone on to Kind of Blue by Miles Davis,

to Coltrane and Duane especially was just

fascinated by that.

- [Duane] This is John Coltrane probably one of the finest,

most accomplished, tenor players and took his music

farther than anybody I believe I ever heard.

I wanna play one of his records before we go.

And, it's a little bit farther out than the Miles

we just played, but I believe anyone that will just

sit and listen will really enjoy it,

it's a magnificent work.

This is, "My Favorite Things".

("My Favorite Things" by John Coltrane)

- The Jazz that the Allman Brothers were playing

was very primative, but became very complicated

very fast because one of the things about Duane

was he was an incredibly quick learner.

If he got fascinated by something he learned how to do it

and he learned how to do it fast, slide guitar perhaps

being the most obvious, but yeah Jaimoe had

a record collection.

And, you know, when you're a teenager, early 20s

you want to see everybody's record collection if it's 1969,

or whatever.

That's what you had, you had your record collection.

And so, Duane would have been flipping through these records

seeing all these artists he's never heard of before

in his life and saying, "I gotta hear this, I gotta see

"what this is about."

And, once he did hear Miles and Coltrane

and these other artists it was obviously going to be

interpolated into what he was doing

because he was fascinated by it.

("Call It Anything" by Miles Davis)

I believe it was in 1969 that Miles Davis brought

his Bitches Brew band into the Fillmore East.

("Call It Anything" by Miles Davis)

- The exotic nature of Miles' band on stage

at the FIllmore given that context was like

it was like music from another planet.

There were also at, you know, at the very other extreme

there were horn bands, forgotten ones like

Pacific Gas and Electric, and Chicago Transit Authority

to a certain extent, that were bringing elements of Jazz

into this Rock framework.

That stuff seemed as safe as Miles seemed

wild and crazy.

The Allmans slid into this area between those

two extremes.

It was easy to like them live.

And, that was really what did it for the Allmans,

especially in New York.

I mean, they broke out in New York, really.

- [Voiceover] The band's popularity on the east coast

was hard won.

Although they had been playing in both New York

and Boston since July 1969 their elongated musical

odysseys initially met with resistance from promoters

and booking agents.

- I can remember one time in Boston we went to

a presentation where bands would come play

for all the college buyers and they said,

"You got fifteen minutes."

And I said, "Well, you know, we don't get one song

"done in 15 minutes."

So, that was what we were up against.

It was definitely not a band that made three minute singles.

- [Voiceover] The decisive factor in their east coast

success was Bill Graham, the charismatic promoter

who operated the Fillmore West in San Francisco

and the Fillmore East in New York City.

He had been crucial in establishing counterculture

artists such as The Grateful Dead, Big Brother

and The Holding Company, and the Jefferson Airplane.

Having already booked the Hour Glass for shows in 1967

Graham was well aware of Duane and Gregg's talent

and by 1970 The Allman Brothers Band became regulars

at his clubs.

- He was quite a personality and he was an actor by trade.

So, he was very theatrical in his business dealings,

but always top drawer.

He was an early and ardent supporter of the band

both on the east and west coasts,

so that was a big, big help.

- For a while Bill Graham was all they had.

And, there weren't a lot of other concert facilities.

There was the Warehouse in New Orleans,

Tea Party in Boston.

Bill Graham exposed them to the audiences

that counted in San Francisco and New York City.

The Allman Brothers were so exotic, so different

and their music was so warm and so inviting

that people just fell in love with it

because no concert was ever like the one before it.

It was always different, something new always happened.

- [Voiceover] While developing an ardent live following

the band had also begun work on their sophmore album.

Where their debut had seen them uprooted to New York

to record, this time they remained in the South

and travelled to Criteria studios in Miami.

Here they were paired with Tom Dowd,

a producer who had made his name recording

many of their influences including Ray Charles

and John Coltrane, and the Criteria House Engineers,

the Albert Brothers.

- We were doing a lot of R&B at the time.

We were doing Aretha Franklin, we were doing

James Brown, Brook Benton, you know,

those kind of acts.

So, when those kind of southern, well the Allman Brothers

were the first really southern band that came into town,

we were kind of like scratching our heads.

We weren't sure what that was, you know,

'cause we were used to tight drum sounds

and tight bass sounds and they were kind of

a loose band, more or less, especially with two drummers

and a percussion player.

It was different than we were used to hearing.

- The Allmans were the totally most unique thing

that we'd ever come across.

Not because they had a black dummer,

but because they had two drummers,

not because they had the greatest guitar player

in opinion in Duane Allman, they had two guitar players.

Dickie Betts was as important a player as Duane was

in the band.

And, now you've got Berry Oakley who plays this amazing

melodic bass, but is just locked into the rhythm section

with Butch Trucks and Jaimoe.

All the pieces began to add up to this phenomenon

and then suddenly you're implanting a B3,

which at that point I don't think we've ever heard

a B3 sound in Rock and Roll.

And, you've got Gregg Allman is this blue-eyed,

blond haired Soul singer who was just an incredible

vocalist in front of this band, but hiding behind the B3.

Who could ever imagine a group like this?

It was really unique.

("Revival" by The Allman Brothers Band)

- [Voiceover] And although Duane was the band's leader

and guiding force, when Idlewild South released

in September 1970

these other band members, shone just as brightly.

As song writers Gregg Allman and Dickie Betts

in particular developed both the band's repertoire

of more accessible material with the lengthy excursions

that served them so well live.

- Duane had a lot of attention because he was doing

other things besides just being one of the guitar players

in the Allman Brothers.

He was playing sessions with Aretha Franklin,

with Wilson Pickett.

There was more attention put towards Duane

and rightfully so because he was such a phenomenal player

but that should not in any way, shape, or form,

in my opinion, take anything away from

Dickie or Gregg because

without Dickie and Gregg there was no Allman Brothers.

It's not just Duane.

In that environment everyone has their

particular place in time.

I can remember when we did Midnight Rider,

Gregg came in the studio one day, it was a little earlier

in the day, maybe 12, 1 o'clock in the afternoon,

none of the other guys were there yet

and Tom Dowd wasn't there yet,

and Gregg was in a working mode, he wanted to work.

So, he said, you know, "Let's do something."

I said, "Okay, what do you want to do?"

He goes, "I wanna sing something."

I said, "Okay, what do you wanna sing?"

He says, "I don't know, pick something."

So, I walked in the control room and I took out

the tape box and I put up tape and scrolled it back

and it was Midnight Rider that we were gonna work on,

so Gregg goes out in the studio, puts his head down

and sings Midnight Rider.

And, at the end of the song he picks his head up

he goes, "How was that?"

And, I looked to my left, and I looked to my right

and there was no one in the control room except me

and I was pushing talkback button, I said, "Sounded great."

That's the vocal, that's Midnight Rider,

one take, nobody there, just Gregg.

♪Well, I've got to run

♪To keep from hidin'

♪And I'm bound

♪To keep on ridin'

♪And I've got one more

♪Silver dollar

♪But I'm not gonna let 'em catch me, no

♪Not gonna let 'em catch the Midnight Rider♪

That magic that he possessed should never go,

you know, overlooked.

He's just an incredible singer, an incredible talent,

but happened to be blessed to have this magnificent

brother's abilities so it was a balancing act.

("Midnight Rider" by The Allman Brothers Band)

♪and I don't own the clothes I'm wearin'

♪And the road goes on forever

♪And I've got one more silver dollar

♪But I'm not gonna let 'em catch, no

♪Not gonna let 'em catch the Midnight Rider♪

- Midnight Rider has sort of become synonymous

with The Allman Brothers, hasn't it?

Probably because, you know, the lyrics became true.

"I've got to run to keep from hidin'"

and "the road goes on forever," it certainly has.

You know, it's a classic Southern Gothic song,

it has all that darkness and intrigue and mystery.

- It's probably Gregg's most well crafted song.

And, it's got that Country feel underneath it,

but it also has that swampy, ominous undertone.

And, it just came to define the part of

The Allman Brothers Band that's separate from the jams

and, you know, that's a song and they've never really

varied from the original arrangement,

they don't add long solos.

They're playing a song.

- [Voiceover] As important as Criteria Studios was for

the recording of the band's second album,

it was also the location of an even more celebrated work

featuring Duane Allman.

Before the release of Idlewild South Eric Clapton

had arrived with his new ensemble, Derek and the Dominos.

A massive influence on Duane, particularly

with his band Cream, whose elongated Blues based

instrumental jams had prefigured the work of

The Allman Brothers Band.

Clapton was at the time desperate to back out

of the spotlight.

Tired of his guitar god status, he'd stolen his latest group

from husband and wife band leaders Delaney and Bonnie.

And, they had come to Miami to begin work

with Tom Dowd on a record.

Yet, by chance Duane became a key part of the proceedings.

- The Allman Brothers were playing in Miami,

playing a live show at the High Life (mumbles).

When Tom Dowd told Eric Clapton that the Allmans

were in town, or coming to town we were at the studio

working on the Derek and the Dominos album.

We left the studio to go see the show, and after the show

we all caravaned back to the studio.

- We had a show in Miami and Duane

had spoken to Tom Dowd about,

"Is there anyway I can meet Eric."

And then, I think at the same time Eric was saying,

"Oh, that's the guy that played Hey Jude

"with Wilson Pickett, is there anyway we can get together?"

So, we were playing at outdoor show there in North Miami

and there was like a photographers pit

in front of the stage and all of a sudden everybody

looked down and there's Tom Dowd and Eric

and Bobby Whitlock, and Duane actually

stopped playing, you know.

And, it was like, "Wow, they're here."

And then afterwards, we went to

Criteria.

- Eric and Duane were so incredibly magically connected

that there was no way to separate them.

When they started playing together

they weren't gonna stop, nothing was gonna stop them.

- We actually left Duane there and went and played

maybe three or four shows in the Midwest without him

'cause he said, you know, "I wanna do this,

"I'll only miss one show."

And then he called and said, "Well, I'm gonna miss

"a couple more."

So, we covered for him.

He wasn't doing it as a career move,

he was doing it because they hit a musical note together

and a personal note.

And, he was just proud to be a part of it.

I'm sure he was hopeful of being introduced

to a wider audience as well.

- [Voiceover] Allman had joined the sessions early enough

to make a real difference to the material.

And, with Clapton looking to retreat from the kind of

lead guitar virtuosity that had made him so famous

he allowed Duane ample room to shine.

- It was only a short period of time, I don't think

we recorded more than maybe a week or ten days

prior to The Allman Brothers' concert in Miami

that was kind of the catalyst that put all that together.

My recollection is that we recorded three songs

for Derek and the Dominos without Duane,

only three songs.

So, Duane was a huge part of that record.

It wasn't an after fact, although he wasn't part of

the plan, it soon became that when Duane is now

part of the band, or at least sitting in the studio

with them.

Everything was recorded live.

So, they were very affected, they meaning the band,

was very affected bu Duane's presence.

The uniqueness of having two guitar players

made that environment exciting for everyone.

- [Duane] Eric Clapton man, let's talk about him.

He's a gas, he's a real fine cat

and I considered it a privilege, you know, and an honor

to play on his Derek and Dominos album.

- [Voiceover] He has nice things to say about you

in the issue of Rolling Stone last year.

- [Duane] Man, it just tickles me to death to hear him

say anything about me ever, man.

He wrote the book, man, you know?

Just Contemporary White Blues Guitar, Volume One, you know.

But, it's his style and his technique is what's

really amazing.

He's got a lot to say, too, but man, the way he says it

it just knocks me out, man, it does so well, man.

- Here you got Duane Allman who's respected and idolized

by Eric Clapton.

And, you've got Eric Clapton who's idolized and respected

by Duane Allman.

Duane's gonna make Eric more excited and better,

bring out the best in Eric.

Eric's gonna make Duane excited and bring out

the best in Duane.

You got Bobby Whitlock who's a phenomenal singer,

making Eric vocally that much better,

because they're excited about performing with each other.

The success or the failure of the record is somewhat

negligible at that point, nobody really cares.

Everybody thinks when they're in the studio

that they're making a hit.

But, when you're making the performance in the studio,

it isn't about selling records, it's about having a great

opportunity to make this great performance.

If it sells, it sells, if it doesn't it's still

a great performance.

("Any Day" by Derek and the Dominos)

- [Voiceover] Released in November 1970 despite a positive

critical reception the album Layla and Other Assorted

Love Songs was not the instant hit that many predicted.

Yet, it slowly grew in stature with its title track

in particular becoming a Rock standard.

And, over time the lyrical inspiration for the song

and Duane Allman's prominent contribution to it

became known.

- Layla started out as a ballad.

It was written for Pattie Harrison who was married

to George Harrison.

And, Clapton was madly in love with her.

And, Layla was sort of his outpouring of love for Pattie.

Duane heard it and thought they should speed it up

and he's like, "What about this?"

And, he played a little intro lick.

It was based on Albert King's song,

As the Years Go Passing By.

("As the Years Go Passing By" by Albert King)

♪There is nothing I can do

♪If you leave me here to cry

♪There is nothing I can do

♪If you leave me here to cry

- That became Layla, that became one of the classic guitar

intros to any rock song.

("Layla" by Derek and the Dominos)

- The entrance of Duane into Clapton's world

I think was huge.

He'd already been opened up by Delaney Bramlett

to American Roots music, but he hadn't, up to that point

encountered a peer, someone who could duke it out with him,

all night long.

And, that record

is just a sensational

document of this summit meeting.

♪Layla

♪You've got me on my knees

♪Layla

♪I'm beggin' darlin' please

♪Layla

♪Darlin' won't you ease my worried mind♪

At that point Clapton was as inspired by the presence

of this other extraordinarily talented guitar player

as he was by any of the backstory that we know about

Pattie Harrison.

Yeah, that language feeds into the writing of songs

and perhaps the vocals, but there's something else

going on altogether on that record

that's even more compelling,

it's in a purely musical sense.

("Layla" by Derek and the Dominos)

- Layla's a great record now, and

without Duane Allman it simply would not be.

The real reason the record is great is that there's two

great guitar players there and you can hear them dueling

and supporting each other.

That's the fantastic thing about the record.

And, it doesn't happen in The Allman Brothers Band

because Betts isn't Clapton.

It's very, very unusual.

Has there ever been a record on which two guitar players

of that magnitude duet?

It's beloved and it deserves to be beloved, it's a monument.

It's really a tremendous record.

- [Voiceover] Returning to the band that bore his name

after his brief stint with Clapton,

Duane Allman was immediately thrown into an extensive tour.

With Idlewild South released but under performing

commercially, The Allman Brothers Band took to the road

with an unforgiving schedule that saw them play dates

across the country.

- When you look at the Allmans as a unit, you know,

and you remember how difficult it must have been

even for them just to be transported from spot A to spot B,

I mean, you know, two drummers, two guitar players,

a bass player, a keyboard player, all that equipment,

a B3, Leslies, you know, just going to a restaurant,

everything becomes an issue because everybody can't

fit into the car and go, "Let's run down the street."

So, you know, nothing was easy for those guys.

They worked hard and they deserved everything that they got.

- The work ethic was very strong, I mean we literally

went up and down the highway.

I mean, going to New York was like going to

the corner grocery to get a loaf of bread.

We were ready to go, and we stayed out.

I think we were on the road like in 1970 maybe

counting the travel over 300 days out of 365.

So, we stayed working.

- [Voiceover] The constant touring did take

its toll, however.

Behind the scenes the band had gone from dabbling

in hallucinogens to fully developed heroine addictions.

With Duane himself almost fatally overdosing

in October 1970.

Yet, despite these struggles on stage he was winning over

audiences across the country.

And, in an age of rockstar excess was redefining

the very idea of a guitar virtuoso.

- Duane Allman was never a showman.

That was of very little interest to him.

He was about making music,

and that was it.

He used to talk about how,

"We don't wear costumes and we don't wiggle

"our asses on stage, we're not into any of that.

"If you want to come hear us make music then come.

"If you want the other stuff, don't come."

("In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" by The Allman Brothers Band)

- I think Duane was the anti-guitar guy.

It's almost as if it's a kind of an intimacy

that the audience is allowed to particpate in

rather than, you know, the other extreme,

you know, Led Zepplin expansiveness,

where it's the show,

it's putting it out there.

And, that's great, too.

("Bring It On Home" by Led Zepplin)

♪Try to tell you baby

♪What you tryin' to do

♪You're tryin' to love me baby

♪Love another man, too

♪Bring it on home

♪Sweetest little--

- But it's different, and there's more show

in rock, or there was at that time, probably always will be,

than there is this illumination

of an artist

in the process of making art.

(rock music)

Without being flashy he was mesmerizing.

There was this look of ecstasy on his face

when he was getting really into it that was palpable

that he sort of became the only thing in the room.

And, no amount of showmanship

can really compare to,

you know, to witnessing this moment of ecstasy

on the part of an extraordinary virtuoso.

- [Voiceover] And, it was this spontaneity and improvised

fluidity that the group decided to capture

on their next album.

After the commercial disappointments of the first two LPs

in March 1971 The Allman Brothers Band were recorded

across two nights at Bill Graham's Fillmore East

in New York.

Upon its release the resultant double album finally achieved

sales to match the band's critical acclaim

and it broke into the U.S. top twenty.

- I remember early on there was like a sales thermometer

for the first album, you know a big guy.

And, the mercury never (laughs) never got up,

it was all still in the bottom.

And, you know, we kept saying, "Wow."

And then, you know, the second album, a little bit better,

but again the faith and the wherewithal

and the knowledge to go ahead and do that Fillmore album,

that took a lot of insight on everybody's part.

- It's quite frankly very unusual for a band

of that statue, in terms of existence, they'd only done

two albums, to do a live album at that point

was somewhat interesting.

I'm not sure that anyone would have looked back on it

and said, "Okay, now's the time to drop a live album."

'Cause, quite frankly they didn't have that many songs yet.

Again, a double album, you know,

none of it made any sense, but it worked.

("Hot 'Lanta" by The Allman Brothers Band)

- Neither the first album, nor the second album

really got across what they're capable of live,

which is these long improvisations, and you know,

you have to remember the Grateful Dead

was huge at this time, too.

So, you had people wanting this live extended jams.

It's not like it was in a vacuum or anything.

You had a lot of hippies wanting to listen to

these long extended jams.

And, the Allman Brothers were great at that.

Those first two albums did not get that across.

So, I think it was hugely important for them

to go ahead and get a live album out.

And, of course, the Fillmore album became like

one of the greatest live albums ever recorded.

("Hot 'Lanta" by The Allman Brothers Band)

- No one had ever put out a double live album before.

That was a gamble, that was almost wreckless.

Two sides of the album each had one song.

Who does that?

But, you know, they all knew, Phil Walden

that they came alive when they were on concert stage.

And, the best way to turn people on to what

the Allman Brothers were about was releasing a live album.

It captured a brilliant Rock and Roll band

on a very brilliant two night stand.

I don't know if they ever sounded that good after that,

but that night they soared.

That's the album that turned it around

for the Allman Brothers.

It was their first top twenty album and it really

set the stage for everything that came after.

- [Voiceover] A decade after forming the Uniques

back in Daytona Beach Duane Allman had finally reached

a mass audience.

While the Fillmore East album rose up the charts

and pushed The Allman Brothers Band into the mainstream

the group themselves continued with their relentless

touring schedule.

In August, 1971 Duane took a short break joining the band

Cowboy who he introduced to Capricorn Records

the year before in Muscle Shoals sound studios

for sessions for their second LP.

He also attended the funeral of King Curtis,

the saxophone virtuoso who he had recorded with

and befriended in Muscle Shoals.

By September however, he was back in the studio

with the band for the recording of a new album

and with a hit record behind them things had changed.

- After the success of the Fillmore East album

for The Allmans the pressure was on.

They were no longer a "Southern Band" or "Boogie Band"

or whatever, they were now a top shelf act,

hugely successful,

having to go back to the studio

and create another record.

The pressure's on.

- [Voiceover] This time the band split their

recording duties with continued touring

and despite being present for a number of the sessions

Duane Allman would never complete his work on the new album.

Having relentlessly pursued his singular musical vision

for the best part of a decade through different projects,

venues, and studios across America, his band was finally

achieving recognition both in the U.S. and internationally.

And, his guitar technique and his musical sensibility

were continuing to develop.

Yet, on October the 29th, 1971 a life of passion

and inspiration came to a sudden end.

- There had been a break in touring because the band

members went into rehab

to clean up the heroin use,

and Duane had come out of that clean,

as far as heroin, and in good spirits.

Had been in New York, we were on just a little hiatus there,

the band said, "Willie, you and your wife take a trip

"to the Bahamas for a few days."

Great.

Got on the plane, checked in to the hotel

right around dinner time.

Seven o'clock got a call from Bunky Odom,

one of the employees at Walden's management

and said, "There's been a terrible accident with Duane

"and we don't know the outcome now."

- I was at the studio when I got the news and the news

came in the way that was not, it wasn't a fatal accident

at that point, they weren't sure.

The information was sketchy.

They weren't sure how serious of an accident it was,

but we knew that there was an accident,

a motorcycle accident.

And we all just, you know, basically just held our breath

and hoped for the best.

- It was big Linda's birthday, she was Berry's wife.

Duane was driving over to West Macon on his Harley Davidson

Sportster, behind him was Candice Oakley,

who was Berry's sister and Duane's girlfriend was in the car

with her.

Coming in the other direction was a flat bed

construction truck and it had a crane on the back

for lumber.

Duane's driving, truck turns in front of him.

No sweat, because by the time Duane gets there

the truck's gonna be gone,

except there was a big pot hole at the intersection.

Truck stops, blocking Duane's path.

By that time he'd either had to lay the bike down

or hope he could somehow swing around it.

There was a big iron ball on the bottom of the crane,

apparently that hit either Duane or the motorcycle.

Duane flies off the motorcycle,

motorcycle flies up in the air and it slams into Duane,

and he passed away just a few hours later.

- Phil Walden and his wife had been in Bimini

for a little vacation so he and I met

at the Miami airport,

flew back we were in Macon by midday on Saturday.

And, of course, put the funeral plans in motion,

but what a shock, what a shock.

- [Voiceover] On November the 1st, 1971 Duane Allman

was buried in Rose Hills Cemetery in Macon,

so often the location of his group's night time diversions.

Only 24 years old when he died the hole he left

in The Allman Brothers Band was potentially unfillable.

And, many speculated that without their leader the group

wouldn't be able to continue.

- It was like, "What are we gonna do now?"

I think at the funeral when the band played

I said, "We're gonna be all right."

I mean, it's not gonna be the same

but we're gonna go forward.

My fear was gone at the funeral when they played,

boy what a moving thing that was.

And, pretty quickly they had to,

we were, you know,

back on the road.

But, not with the idea we gotta go, you know,

we gotta go grab the money.

It was just like we gotta keep this thing going.

- [Voiceover] In February, 1972 the final

Allman Brothers Band album LP

to feature its founding member was released,

Eat a Peach.

With Duane absent on only three tracks across

the double album this collection of live

and studio material provided listeners with some of

the guitarists most impressive work and it became

the band's first album to break the U.S. top ten.

- Duane's death probably had some sort of effect

on the success of Eat a Peach.

There's always going to be that element

that, you know, Jimi Hendrix is dead,

let's run out and buy all his records,

but at the same time that was

an amazing, amazing work that they had put together.

The thing that sold everybody on that record

was Mountain Jam, because that was a monumental

piece of work.

It was quite a hell of a swan song for Duane.

("Mountain Jam" by The Allman Brothers Band)

- Mountain Jam which goes on for what, 25, 30 minutes?

Duane's solo in that is phenomenal.

It's just like listening to Coltrane.

It's like listening to Miles.

He starts and ends up here and goes to a lot

of interesting places in between.

- [Voiceover] Although Duane's performances on the live

recordings captured the best of improvisational techniques

the album was perhaps most notable in that it contained

his only original composition.

The melody of the track Little Martha came to Duane

in a dream in which it was played to him

by the recently deceased Jimi Hendrix.

And, the resultant guitar duet aptly brought

Eat a Peach to a close.

The name of it was sort of a

bringing together two things in his life.

At Rose Hills cemetary there's a statue of a little girl

named Martha Ellis who died when she was around eleven,

and everyone called her Little Martha,

but also Duane's girlfriend, he nicknamed her Little Martha.

That's the only song he's credited with writing.

I mean, he helped with arangements,

but that the only song he wrote.

And, it's just a beautiful, sweet,

loving song.

("Little Martha" by The Allman Brothers Band)

- I think it's incredibly fortunate for the rest of

those guys that Duane had cut Little Martha

because its a poem.

It's obviously rendered

even more poignant by virtue of the reality,

but it just a sublime

little piece that not only shows

his dextrousness,

I mean everything he played did, but showed a gentle,

really touching part of him that you don't get

in the cranked up stuff.

So, to be able to just open a curtain before you close it

for the last time and have this revealed?

That's a sensational moment, you know.

("Little Martha" by The Allman Brothers Band)

- It's fitting that it closes the studio side of

Eat a Peach.

And, because it is just

the perfect

way of saying goodbye.

- [Voiceover] The success of the album established the band

as one of America's premier Rock acts.

Through 1972 both the venues and the audiences increased

and Dickie Betts in particular began to shine

bother as a lead guitartist and song writer.

Yet, behind the scenes the band members

had in no way recovered from Duane's death.

And without his leadership and passion they were lost.

- To me that's, even though the money days

and the record sales were gonna be astronomical

from that point on you could almost feel

that, you know, it's gonna be down hill.

We're gonna go on, but there was no replacing Duane.

he was a natural leader and nobody really blossomed.

Nobody really blossomed.

He was irreplacable, the band went on,

the band was different, the music was different,

but he was just irreplaceable and nobody

could fill his shoes.

So, that, again, even though there was much financial

success after that it was basically downhill from there on.

- [Voiceover] And, no one was going downhill faster

than bassist Berry Oakley.

Having been the reason for Duane's trip to Jacksonville

that had resulted in the band forming in the first place

Oakley was Allman's closest friend in the ensemble

and after the guitarist's death he was thrown into

a position of responsibility that he could never live up to.

- The sad thing about Berry was that

when he lost Duane he lost himself.

A lot of things happened.

He was pressured into, "Nobody else wants to lead this thing

"and you were closest to him, so you be the leader.

"You're the one that's been organizing stuff

"at the big house and when we have the big dinners

"and stuff that you, and when we wanna have jam sessions

"you're the one that puts them all together.

"You're the organized guy, you be in charge."

And, it was something that he couldn't handle.

And, the loss of Duane was something

that he couldn't handle.

And so, he began to do as you do alcohol and drugs

began to take their toll on him to such an extent

that that was one of those you could almost see in advance.

- [Voiceover] Berry Oakley died on November the 11th, 1972.

Killed in a motorcycle accident that occurred

less than a mile fom the one that had taken Duane Allman

just a year beforehand.

Despite this second loss, again the band persevered.

Yet, their musical vitality would begin to slowly diminish.

But, in the wake of these two deaths an entire scene

began to blossom both through groups signed

to Phil Walden's Capricorn Records and acts emerging

on other labels.

The inspiration and the example set by

The Allman Brother's Band, and in particular

Duane Allman himself developed into a significant

new musical movement, Southern Rock.

- We're gonna try to play one as best as we can for

Duane Allman and Berry Oakley from The Allman Brothers.

They were free birds, people.

(cheers)

("Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynard)

- Duane Allman was absolutely an essential

in like setting that template for

the Southern Rock guitarist.

Everybody wanted to be like Duane Allman.

Everybody who formed a band after that whether, you know,

whether it was Charlie Daniels who'd been in music

for a long time, but formed the Charlie Daniels Band,

or the Marshall Tucker Band, or the guys in Lynard Skynard

they all had guitarists that dueled with each other

and that, you know, brought out the bottle neck

every once in a while and jammed like the Allman Brothers,

and specifically like Duane Allman.

Ed King, the guitar player for Lynyrd Skynyrd, actually

the only non southerner he was in a band called

Strawberry Alarm Clock, a psychedelic Pop band

in California.

He saw Duane Allman play at the Roxy or the Whiskey

and came to the South and decided I don't wanna be

incense and peppermints anymore, I wanna be

like Duane Allman.

That's how massively important Duane Allman is,

and he ended up writing the, you know, Sweet Home Alabama

So, you know, yeah he was hugely important.

("Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd)

- [Voiceover] By the mid 1970s the movement was at its peak.

With Macon successfully transformed into one of the most

vital musical centers in America.

The Allman Brothers Band and other acts became key

supporters in former Georgian Governor Jimmy Carter's

successful 1976 Presidential campaign.

And, the South had finally re-emerged

from its musical exile.

- The Allman Brothers Band were the flagship

of the Capricorn Records.

They took off first and that's what Phil focused on.

Duane was the first one, he latched onto Duane

and Duane built it into what it is, the world is embracing

what they're doing and with their success

all the other bands started moving to town.

And, you could come to Macon at one time just to hook up.

The South had had so much negative press forever,

since the Civil War, but here was something kind of positive

that southern people embraced the kind of music

we were putting out.

And, again that was the word, it was positive,

a positive face was on it.

- [Voiceover] And although, this wave of activity died down

by the 1980s as new movements and musical trends emerged.

Duane Allman's achievements remain intact.

He only left behind a relatively small number of recordings

captured across a brief career, yet his position as one of

the creative and genuinely original guitarists in rock

continues to grow as he's rediscovered by new generations

of listeners.

- A lot of people who never heard him play have gone back

and listened and they say, "Wow."

You know, I mean you hear people that maybe were

just barely born at the time, but now that they've heard

his music they recognize what a musical genius he was.

And, he is getting his recognition now.

- Let's face the facts,

Duane was 24 years old when he died.

He had an effective career of 3, 4, 5 years.

He'd only played the guitar for maybe 10 years.

He'd only picked up the slide guitar last three years

of his life.

And, despite all that look at his body of work.

Does he belong in the same breath as Hendrix, and Clapton,

and Jimmy Page?

Hell yeah.

I'd be willing to argue with anyone, Duane Allman's

the greatest guitar player that ever lived.

(slow rock music)