Whippin' Post

What inspired me to start this blog, in part, was receiving a USB turntable for Christmas. For those of you who don't know, a USB turntable allows one to digitize vinyl or otherwise analog recordings and store them on I-Tunes. Cool.

The very 1st vinyl record that I digitized turned out to be the Allman Brothers Band (1969). Why? Well, I have about 1,200 LPs arranged alphabetically and, surprisingly, it is the very first record on the shelf. Plus, this is one of the greatest records that I never upgraded to CD.

The Allman Brothers Band was the first LP by the band of that name, and "Whippin' Post" is probably the best-known and most popular tune from the LP. I remember it being released late in the year 1969, and I remember first hearing it around the Christmas holiday. I had been at home with my mom for Christmas, and had returned to my house at college in Minneapolis. And, then, I heard that the band was scheduled to play at the Labor Temple, where concerts were held on many a Sunday evening in those days. It was probably Sunday, December 28. Most of my roommates had not yet returned to Minneapolis, but Tim and I had, and we made our way to the Labor Temple for the second of two shows. There were probably no more than about 50 people in the hall, because of the timing of the concert and the fact that the Allman Brothers were as yet pretty much unknown.

The band played their first album straight through from the beginning of the first side to the end of the second. That means that they opened with the instrumental version of Spencer Davis' "Don't Want You No More," which segues directly into "Not My Cross to Bear." Greg didn't do the big growl "Yeeeaaahhh" during the segue, and Duane stopped playing his guitar part and put his hands on his hips and turned to Greg and gave him this big evil eye. The first part of the show wrapped up, then, with my favorite tune, "Dreams," and of course "Whippin' Post." From there, I know they went into Mountain Jam, and then I don't remember what else. But, my God!

The sound was just overwhelming. The two guitars. Two drummers. Greg's big ol' Hammond B3 organ. You just knew that these guys were going to be big. What you didn't know was how short of a run it would be, as Duane Allman would soon enough join Jimi and Janis and Jim among the early tragedies of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle.

Hearing this record for the first time in many years, I'm struck by just how modern the playing is. I mean, let's be honest. In 1969, a lot of popular rock 'n' roll was still pretty crude in its execution and its production. But this is just absolutely impeccable. If nobody had ever heard of the Allman Brothers Band and this album were released or re-released today, nobody would ever know that it was a 40 year-old recording. What a classic!

And, once I got into my Allman Brothers collection, I had to download a few other gems--mainly such instrumentals as "Hot 'Lanta" and "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" from The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East (1971), "Little Martha" from Eat A Peach (1972) and "Jessica" from Brothers and Sisters (1973). I also grabbed a couple of Dicky Betts vocal tunes--the immortal "Blue Sky," and "Ramblin' Man."

I have the Allman Brothers rated in another post as the #22 artist of the rock era. But when it came to digitizing the history of rock & roll, they were the 1st artist that came to hand. I'm guessing #22 is too low. Similarly, Rolling Stone recently published a list of the top 100 guitarists of all-time with Duane Allman at #9. That is ridiculous. I mean, obviously, the guys who rate ahead of him play some pretty good guitar. But, seriously, there is no way B.B. King or Chuck Berry or Eddie Van Halen play the guitar better than Duane did. I have Duane at #2 on my list. #1? Here I agree with Rolling Stone: Jimi Hendrix.