Bob Dylan & the Allman Brothers Band
Playlist inspired by the Dylan biopic 'A Complete Unknown'
Like millions of others, I caught the Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown during the Season of Infinite Thursdays1 that closes out each year.
I ABBsolutely loved it.
Bobby and I go way, way back. His songs were among the first I learned on guitar, “Mr. Tambourine Man,” to be specific. My folks also had a scratchy copy of Dylan’s Greatest Hits, which led off with the immortal romp “Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35” and included, among other bangers, “Like a Rolling Stone.” Two songs that have been in my listening/playing repertoire since age 12 or so.
I know Dylan’s story pretty well. As a historian of the 20th century American South, his is an era I’ve spent a lot of time studying over the years.
My familiarity extends to the folk movement and the stories of many of the film’s principals—John Hammond, Alan Lomax, Pete Seeger and the Weavers, Joan Baez—events like the Newport Folk Festival, and the NYC downtown folk scene that birthed the rock scene.2
The movie story held true to form and I can live with nearly all of the inconsistencies. Dylan’s electric set at Newport in 1965 was a groundbreaking rock & roll event, a disruption that reverberates today. I was struck throughout the movie by Dylan’s attempts to push back against categorization and genre. This has been a theme throughout his life and career.3
A myriad of Allman Brothers Band connections stood out
I put the musical connections into playlists. Spotify’s options are much more limited than Youtube, particularly when it comes to Allman Brothers’ covers of Dylan songs.
🍑 YOUTUBE PLAYLIST (24 songs)
🍑 SPOTIFY PLAYLIST (15 songs)
LINER NOTES
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“Trouble No More” / “Someday Baby”
This is the only track I see that Dylan and the Allman Brothers Band each released a version of. Dylan called it “Someday Baby” on his 2006 Modern Times album. The Allman Brothers recorded it as “Trouble No More” on their debut album in 1969 and again on 1972’s Eat a Peach. Their version comes from Muddy Waters. Both songs are based on Sleepy John Estes’s “Someday Baby.”4
Duane
Duane’s connections to Dylan are a bit obscure.
The Sandpipers
In 1965, the Allman Joys joined forces with the Sandpipers a teen-aged girl group from Pensacola. They finagled an audition Dylan’s producer Bob Johnston, working on Blonde on Blonde. Remembered Sandpiper Charlyne Kilpatrick, “It was the first time Gregg had ever played a Hammond B3 organ. Unfortunately Bob Johnston wasn't interested in the Allman Joys, which wasn't very smart. He was very interested in us.”
Johnny Jenkins “Down Along the Cove”
An outtake from Duane’s solo project at FAME with Jenkins overdubbing vocals on this Dylan original from John Wesley Harding. Players include Duane and Berry Oakley, and from Hour Glass: Paul Hornsby, Johnny Sandlin, Pete Carr.
Otis Rush "Reap What You Sow”
Not a Dylan cut, but the great Mike Bloomfield (Dylan’s guitarist on both Highway 61 Revisited and at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival) produced Rush’s Mourning in the Morning at FAME in February 1969.
Ronnie Hawkins “One More Night”
From Nashville Skyline. Hawkins has Dylan connections through the Band, who were his backing group the Hawks before they went off on their own. This one was recorded in September 1969 at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio.
John Hammond, Jr. “Shake for Me”
Duane’s second brush with a Bob Dylan producer, Hammond was the son of the Columbia Records producer of the same name. He had a couple of memorable exchanges with Duane, the first was in Muscle Shoals in November 1969.
“When I arrived, they thought I was going to be Black and I thought they were going to be Black! They got pretty cold to me, and I didn’t know what to make of this. It was Roger Hawkins, Barry Beckett, Jimmy Johnson, David Hood, Eddie Hinton—and for three days I tried to get them into what I was playing, and they just seemed to play a little bit awkwardly.
Then on the scene arrives this guy with long red hair down his back, eyebrows that crossed, and a mustache that went all the way into his sideburns, wearing a T-shirt that said ‘City Slickers’ on it. He pulled up in this milk truck, and everybody said, ‘Hey, Duane, how you doin’ man?’ Everybody just fell all over themselves for Duane, you know. He was their idol.
He said, ‘Where’s this John Hammond guy? I want to meet this guy—I really dig him.’ They said, ‘You do?’ And they all looked at me with new respect.
I was introduced to Duane, and he said, ‘I sure dig your stuff, boy, and I sure would love to play on your record, if it’s okay.’ I said, ‘Sure, I guess so.’ I had never heard him play before, but these guys worshipped him. As soon as Duane gave me the okay, the session went fantastic.”
Open E tuning
During this same session, Hammond showed Duane how to play slide in open E tuning. He continued to play in standard tuning on “Dreams” and “Mountain Jam” but between the first album and the March 1971 Fillmore East sessions, Duane adapted “Trouble No More” to open E5 and from that moment forward, played slide pretty much exclusively in that tuning.
I’ve put both ABB versions on the playlist along with “Someday Baby” by Dylan and Estes and Muddy Waters on “Trouble No More.”
“Shake for Me”
The first track they cut was Howlin’ Wolf’s “Shake for Me.”6 The song kicks off Hammond’s Southern Fried.
“We decided to do ‘Shake for Me’ and my jaw just slacked. This guy was just phenomenal. So, all of a sudden all of these guys that I could not communicate with before understood exactly what I meant and that was the beginning of a short lived, but intense relationship. Duane was just phenomenal and a really cool guy; and everything just came together and we made the whole record in one week.
I was floored. He played on and on and on! He was just incredible.”
The Allman Brothers Band cover Dylan
The ABB covered Dylan zero times between 1969 and the early 2000s. This changed when Warren Haynes rejoined the band and the setlists opened up. The band covered the following tracks—all but a couple are on the Youtube playlist.
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” most often (exclusively?) played when Susan Tedeschi sat in. First showed up in setlists in 2003, played 28 times.
“Blind Willie McTell” joined the repertoire in 2010 and appeared 27 times. An even deeper connection is that “Statesboro Blues” is a Blind Willie McTell song.
“Highway 61 Revisited” 2006 (15)
“It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” 2008 (15)
“All Along the Watchtower” 2007 (11)
“I Shall Be Released” 2007 (4)
“Down Along the Cove” 2011 (3)
“Knocking on Heaven’s Door” 2011 (2, both with Steve Earle)
Woody Guthrie “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad”
I don’t know if Dylan ever covered this Woody Guthrie tune, but it was a centerpiece of the Allman Brothers Band’s acoustic sets in the 1990s, including the first time I saw the band. Guthrie was an important part of A Complete Unknown, which is why I included this here. Plus, it’s always such a pleasure to see Dickey enjoying himself playing acoustic onstage.
Dickey
Dickey and Dylan were a mutual admiration society and had a pretty personal relationship (more on that below).
Each name-dropped the other in song: Dickey in “Tombstone Eyes” and Dylan in “Murder Most Foul”7
“Tombstone Eyes”
It’s clear this song meant a lot to Dickey. He worked hard on it for five solid years. Debuted at the Beacon Theatre in 1996, it underwent several iterations and name changes8 before Dickey settled on “Tombstone Eyes” for his 2001 album Let’s Get Together.
The first two verses conjure visits to Elizabeth Reed’s gravesite in Rose Hill Cemetery for hush-hush trysts with Carmella (Storniola) Scaggs in the band’s early days in Macon.9
“Not so long ago, just a few years back.
We used to hang out down by the railroad tracks.
The guitars playing and the singers made rhyme.
It was a good time for being free.Bouquet of flowers on her kitchen windowsill.
We listened to Bob Dylan’s stuff he’d just done in Nashville.
Lay down on the hillside and look up at the sky
We had it all you and I.”
The Dylan reference, of course, is Nashville Skyline, released April 9, 1969, just before Dickey and the band relocated to Macon.
“Tangled Up in Blue”
Dickey covered this Blood on the Tracks tune on his mostly acoustic 2002 album Collectors #110 it is my favorite track on an album that I dearly loved. I believe Dickey’s playing on an Alvarez gut string here, which is why you don’t hear him bending a lot of notes. This is a deep cut.
Don’t skip it under any circumstance.
“Ramblin’ Man”
Then there’s this gem, Dickey and Dylan dueting on “Ramblin’ Man” in 1995. The sound isn’t great, but it’s worth a listen.
The backstory is even better, I’ll quote a bit from Flagging Down the Double E's/Ray Padgett:
Bob wanted do “Ramblin’ Man.” I said, “You don’t know the words to that, do you?” He said, “I know all the words to ‘Ramblin’ Man.’ I shoulda wrote that song myself.”
I said, “Okay, let’s check. If you don’t know, just make shit up, and you’ll do well.”
So we sang “Ramblin’ Man.” He sang every word exactly the way I wrote it.11
Padgett’s entire piece gets into a lot more detail on the Dylan/Betts relationship.
It’s well worth the read.
Gregg
First, a quote from Jaimoe: “Gregory’s music and singing were based on rhythm and blues and blues but his songwriting was so influenced by people like Bob Dylan and Jackson Browne and other people who wrote poem songs. What made him so unique is the way he combined those things.”12
“Going Going Gone”
My lord does this one hit HARD, the only Dylan song Gregg recorded,13 which is a surprise to me. Perhaps it’s because, as Jaimoe said, Gregg captured the Dylan spirit with his own writing. Dylan’s catalog seems a bit of a missed opportunity for Gregg, one of his generation’s greatest interpreters.
“Just Like a Woman”
Gregg sat in on this Blonde on Blonde track with Gov’t Mule a few times over the years. It saw official release in 2015’s Dub Side of the Mule.
Butch
“Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat”
Here’s the final performance of the Edwin McCain-fronted Frogwings (which I much prefer) 5/3/98 Sunfest West Palm Beach.14 Apparently the Allman Brothers Band considered cutting a version of this Blonde on Blonde track for 1994’s Where It All Begins but shelved the idea for “No One to Run With.”
Freight Train Band “Highway 61 Revisited”
Butch’s only vocal was his turn on a cut made most famous by Johnny Winter, I suppose. This is a raucous version with one of two(!) bands Butch toured with after the Allman Brothers Band closed up shop in October 2014.
RIP JIMMY CARTER
Finally, some thoughts about the death of the 39th President of the United States. (I don’t offer it as a partisan discussion on his presidency.15)
I adapted this famous image of candidate Jimmy Carter in an Allman Brothers shirt with the logo I commissioned from Psychodelik Pete tagged behind him.
Feels like a good way to share my respect for this incredible man who also happened to be a really big Allman Brothers Band16 fan.
There’s no doubt Gregg’s drug case, which ultimately broke up the band right before this photo was shot in July 1976, was directly tied to the Allman Brothers’ and Phil Walden’s support of the Georgia governor’s presidential candidacy.
And it wasn’t as if Walden and Gregg kept perfect company. They both associated (ran?) with shady characters connected to the Dixie Mafia, the Feds’ ultimate target.
But Jimmy Carter never ran from his friends, the Allman Brothers Band included.
Here’s he is, a wildcard candidate for president of the United States, flying his freak flag high. Supporting the hometeam proudly while he speaks to the media. That says an awful lot to me about the man.
Thanks for being here y’all.
Until next time…
This is both a metaphorical device and a play on the title of great Mike Nesmith’s memoir Infinite Tuesdays, which I HIGHLY commend to you all.
And later punk rock.
The same is true for the Allman Brothers Band and the Southern rock categorization. I’ve opined on that most recently here. My more “evergreen” thoughts on that are here.
Here’s some shots I took a few years back of Estes’s final home, now preserved as the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center.
Done Somebody Wrong; Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’; Statesboro Blues (adapted to open E); One Way Out; Stand Back.
Not a Dylan cut, just a longtime favorite. (Remember, the connection is Hammond’s dad to Dylan as a producer, though I’m also sure Dylan revered Wolf.)
She was Boz Scaggs’s girlfriend or fiancé or wife, I’m not sure of the timeline.
Song was also called “Those Eyes Again” “Her Eyes Again” and “Good Times (Don’t Fade Away)”
I regularly tout The Collectors #1 around here. nfortunately, Dickey didn’t ever release a Collectors #2 set.
Lots more on that here longlivetheabb.com/p/gregg
For his swan song, Southern Blood. What an album!
This one isn’t in the Spotify playlist.
I don’t share the reflective view of Carter as a failed president and don’t care to discuss it in this forum. I got some pretty nasty comments when I posted this on social media last week. It’s a sad commentary on the times for sure, not surprising, but disahppointing nonetheless.
Also a Bob Dylan fan, a feeling that was mutual.
BTW - your comment "During this same session, Hammond showed Duane how to play slide in open E tuning.". Not sure where you got this form but I believe it's not accurate. The two first met during the sessions for "Southern Fried" in Spring of 1969...same time the ABB was formed. Duane was already playing open E slide and his playing on "Shake for Me" on this same session reflects a player that is very familiar with Open E. Also - John Hammond never played open E (similar votings to Open D Vestal tuning used by Elmore James). Hammond plays Open A (similar voicing to Open G aka "Spanish Tuning" and more common among country blues players...including Robert Johnson). Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George also Open A players.
A good friend of mine here in CT is Mark Naftalin, original member of the Paul Butterfield Blues band. He tells me that Grossman physically attacked Lomax b/c of Lomax's snarky introduction of the PBBB. Over time, this altercation has been incorrectly linked to Dylans electric set. Lomax was a purist that strongly believed that suburban white kids interpreting authentic American blues and folk was cultural blasphemy...!