Rolling Stone Australia — July 2017

¥THE ALLMANSwere still young,

hungryGeorgiarockerswhenthey

bookedthreenightsatBillGraham’s

FillmoreEastinNewYorkinearly

1971 with the idea of recording a live

album. “My brother always believed

alivealbumwaswhattheBrothers

needed to do, and the record com-

pany finally agreed,” Gregg Allman

recalled. “The Fillmore was just the

logicalchoice.Idon’tthinkweeven

discussed another venue.” The LP

they made there,At Fillmore East,

became their defining statement.

The Allmans were initially slot-

tedintoabillheadlinedbyJohn-

ny Winter. But they came out guns

blazingthefirstnight,andwhen

the hall emptied out after their set,

they were promoted to headliner.

With the band order duly shuffled,

the Allmans had time to stretch out

on spectacular journeys – “On those

long jams, you climbed in and there

wasnotomorrow,noyesterday,”

said drummer Butch Trucks. The

gigs were hardly trouble-free. On

thelastnight,abombscaredelayed

the start of the second show until the

wee hours (“Good mornin’, every-

body!” someone announced before

“StatesboroBlues”).Thatearly-a.m.

set ended up becoming the keeper:

“Whipping Post” sprawled over gor-

geousmelodicterrainfor23minutes;

“Mountain Jam” ascended for more

thanahalf-hour.AtlanticRecords

engineerTomDowdoversawthetap-

ing; unlike most live albums, noth-

ingneededtoberedoneinthestu-

diobesidesafewvocaloverdubs.The

LP went gold on October 25th, four

days before guitarist Duane Allman

diedinamotorcycleaccident.“It’sthe

best-sounding live album ever,” said

the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach. “It’s

just fuckin’ awesome.” WILL HERMES

¥THE BAND’S1978 farewell movie,

TheLastWaltz,is the greatest

concert film of all time. But even

that performance didn’t reach the

heights of the Band’s four-night

standatNewYork’sAcademyof

Musicattheendof1971.Theshows,

whichwerereleasedasaboxsetin

2013, captured the Band at their

tightestandfunkiest,injectingNew

OrleansR&Bswaggerintotheir

harmonious folk rock. It was a pe-

riod of high morale and expert mu-

sicianship for the sometimes vola-

tilegroup,theresultofadecadeof

hardtouring,withRonnieHawkins,

BobDylanandfinallyontheirown.

“There was a spell that everybody

wasdoingreally,reallygood,”the

Band’sRobbieRobertsontoldRoll-

ing Stonein2013.“Itwasarollof

the dice after that. You just didn’t

know what condition somebody was

goingtoshowupin.”

It was a moment the Band need-

ed. Three years on from their

groundbreaking debut,Music From

Big Pink,their two most recent stu-

dio albums,Stage

FrightandCahoots,

had been greeted with

lukewarm reviews.

Aimingforsomefresh

energy, Robertson re-

cruited veteran New

Orleans bandlead-

er Allen Toussaint to

put together a horn

section for their holi-

daygigsattheAcade-

my of Music. It almost

didn’t work out. To

everyone’s horror,

Toussaint’s briefcase

full of horn arrange-

ments was stolen on his way from

NewOrleanstotheband’sWood-

stock headquarters, where he was

forced to rewrite the charts from

memory. He wrote them in the

wrong keys, and the Band had to

relearntheirsongsinentirelynew

keys. Robertson recalled thinking,

“We’re doomed.”

Thatanxietyliftedwhenthey

took the stage. “A chill ran through

me,” Robertson said. “I thought,

‘OK,I’mfeelingsomemagicinthe

air here....’ As soon as we kicked off

thefirstsong,”headded,“weweren’t

even touching the ground.”

Thegroupsetthetonewitha

taut,funkycoverofMarvinGaye’s

“Don’t Do It”, and gracefully moved

throughitscanon.TheBandplayed

with intensified warmth on “Un-

faithful Servant” and “Get Up Jake”

and jittery energy on deep album

cuts like “Smoke Signal”. “We only

diditonceortwice,”saidRobert-

son.“Levon[Helm]didanamazing

jobonit.”Theyturned“ChestFever”

and “Rag Mama Rag” into the stuff

ofaCrescentCitystreetparty,and

returned to their roadhouse roots

on Chuck Willis’ 1958 deep cut “(I

Don’tWantto)HangUpMyRock&

Roll Shoes”.

TheBandsavedtheirbiggest

surprise for last. During their

NewYear’sEveencore,theyinvit-

ed out their old friend Dylan, who

hadbeenoutofthespotlightfor

years. Looking like his mid-Six-

ties self with aviators and a Tele-

caster, Dylan howled fiery takes of

“Like a Rolling Stone” and “Don’t

Ya Tell Henry”, pausing only to talk

through the arrangements. “We

werebeingalittlebitbold,”said

Robertson. (The horns didn’t ac-

company Dylan, though: “He looked

overandsawus,jumpedbackfrom

the microphone and glared over his

shades,” says tuba player Howard

Johnson. “I told everyone, ‘OK, let’s

just get offstage.’”)

Months later, highlights of those

showscomprisedthedazzlinglive

double LPRock of Ages, which crit-

ics immediately called one of the

best live albums of the Seventies.

FordrummerHelm,itwassimply

“themostfunIeverhadmakinga

Band record”. DAVID BROWNE

MARCH 11-13, 1971 DECEMBER 28-31, 1971

FILLMORE EAST

THEBAND

THEALLMAN

BROTHERS

BAND

ACADEMY

OF MUSIC

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THREE

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CLASSIC

ALLMANS

SHOWS

SUNY Stony

Brook, Stony

Brook, NY

SEPTEMBER 19, 1971

One of Duane

Allman’s most

magnificent

shows: See the

11-minute-plus

“Blue Sky”.

Cow Palace,

San Francisco

DECEMBER 31, 1973

Jerry

Garcia, Bill

Kreutzmann

and Boz

Scaggs sit

in on New

Year’s jam that

starts with

“Whipping

Post”,

then goes

jukeboxing.

Beacon

Theatre, NY

OCTOBER 28, 2014

A four-hour

farewell

blowout at

their adopted

latter-day

home base,

ending in the

a.m. on the

anniversary of

Duane’s death.

Levon Helm onstage

in New York, 1971