Remembering A Brother

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..

There was some question after the death of Duane Allman, if the Allman Brothers Band would continue. They answered that question emphatically early in 1972 with “Eat A Peach”. It was an immediate success and went to #4 on the Billboard Album charts.

Parts of the album had already been recorded when Duane was killed in his motorcycle crash in October of 1971. So the rest of the band included those songs along with a bunch of live recordings from the Fillmore East shows plus one side of new studio material featuring only Dicky Betts on guitar.

It’s a really good record. The live songs smoke with Duane’s slide and Dicky’s counter work plus tasty solos front and center. Gregg is in good voice and the rythmn section of Berry Oakley (bass) and the dual drumming from Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny Johanson driving the train.

The songs are strong too, althought the Mountain Jam, which takes up two sides of the double album set is a bit excessive.

Gregg delivers “Aint Wasting Time No More” and the stunning “Melissa” which he actually written years earlier. Dickey gave us the instrumental jam “Les Brers In A Minor” and the beautiful “Blue Sky’ in which he and Duane trade sparking solos. Here they are isolated from the rest of the track…..

put it together and you get…

They add some blues covers in Trouble No More (Muddy Waters) and One Way Out (Elmore James) and a tune co-written by Gregg and Berry Oakley (Stand Back) . The record concludes with Duane picking his acoustic on “Little Martha”

The albums artwork was done by David Powell at a company called Wonder Graphics. He was helped on the gatefold mural by J.F. Holmes.

The title of the record came from a Duane quote when asked what he was doing to help the revolution? “I’m hitting a lick for peace…and everytime I’m in Georgia I eat a peach. But you can’t help the revolution, because there isjust evolution. I understand the need for alot of changes to the country, but I believe that as soon as everybody can just see a little bit better, and get a little hipper to what’s going on, they’re going to change it. Everybody, not just the young people. Everybody is going to say, ‘Man this stinks…I cannot tolerate the smell of this thing anymore. Let’s eliminate it and get straight with ourselves.

The band did a great job at remembering their spiritual leader and also showing that they would be a viable band going forward. How many other groups could lose one of the greatest guitarists ever and keep the momentum moving forward? This one did…at least for awhile.