A quick one to kick off March and celebrate the fact that I again went out of my way to buy more records, much to the dismay of my wife, already aggravated that I turned a portion of our basement into a loud rock and roll practice space. And practice I am, because lately I’ve been obsessed with Duane Allman’s guitar playing. And when I saw Beginnings, the 1973 compilation that collects the first two Allman Brothers Band albums, including the Tom Dowd mix of the self titled debut, I saw an easy way into satisfying that obsession. And because I need to clear out some space and put all this vinyl away, we’re going to do a short, “first listen” approach to both albums below.
My first impression listening to The Allman Brothers Band debut from 1969 is how hard the guitar playing goes. The band would come to be known for a very recognizable brand of southern-fried and hard driving rock, but from the opening moments of “Don’t Want You No More,” Duane Allman and Dicky Betts waste no time reminding you of the group’s deep blues influence. The rhythm section of Berry Oakley on bass and Butch Trucks on drums has an incredible sense of looseness while never losing sight of the time.
I love the downshift into “It’s Not My Cross to Bear,” and it’s where Gregg Allman’s voice really starts to shine in my ears. As much as this is a guitar player’s wet dream of an album, the entire band is on fire, and great as the solos are, without Gregg holding down the organ and bringing that gravelly howl the band doesn’t work. The cover of Muddy Waters’s “Trouble No More” is phenomenal, and a terrific closer to the side.
And though it’s technically the “B” side, there’s nothing on Side 2 of The Allman Brothers Band that feels like a b-side or a filler for time. Even taking away “Whipping Post” — a song so damn good that both Frank Zappa and Jason Isbell made masterful covers, neither of which can budge the original from its perch as one of the greatest rock songs of all time — there’s “Dreams I’ll Never See,” which is a burning scorcher of a track. Absolutely stunning debut record that emphasizes my favorite parts of this kind of music without slinking into some of the feel-good stuff that was also coming across at this time.
By the time of 1970’s Idlewild South, the band had started finding that comfortable sound that would lead to more massive hits. The opening notes of “Revival” hint at some of the signature melodic lines the band would bring forward on later hits like “Melissa”. And in both the easy-going “Midnight Rider” and the stunning epic “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” we have two of the finest songs the band ever committed to tape. Gregg Allman continues to mastermind the tracks with five of the seven originals credited to him, with only Betts’s exquisite “Elizabeth Reed” and a cover of Willie Dixon’s “Hoochie Coochie Man” filling out the rest of the grooves.
Maybe the second side doesn’t hold up quite as much as that incredible first side — we didn’t even get into Duane Allman’s slide playing on “Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’”. Berry Oakley takes the lead vocal on the Dixon cover and acquits himself admirably. But damn if “Please Call Home” doesn’t chill the bones with Gregg Allman’s impassioned delivery, and the melancholic licks from Duane and Dicky just weep alongside the forlorn lyrics.
In another year’s time At Fillmore East will put aside any complaints or qualms about how the Allman Brothers Band can devastate a crowd, and I know how important a document that album is in the band’s legacy (and live rock music in general). Beginnings captures the band right before all the doors blow off, and demonstrates a group, if not fully formed, at least formed enough to blow your mind with how together they were. Great stuff, even if my ears can’t really note a vast improvement in Dowd’s mix versus the original by engineer/producer Adrian Barber.
Consuming the Tangible 
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