The Play All Night Playlist Project: Chapter 3: ALLMAN JOYS TAKE THE HIGHWAY (1965–1967)
Get your ass out of here and get to the coast. John D. Loudermilk
Greetings readers! Today offers the fifth installment of the Play All Night Playlist Project. Chapter 3 of Play All Night! tracks Duane and Gregg’s earliest efforts at stardom with the Allman Joys.
The band took the road in summer 1965 after Gregg graduated high school. As I wrote in the book, “Life as a touring musician is a grind under the most ideal situations, and conditions in the mid-1960s South were particularly harsh. The going was rough. Nightclub owners and audiences demanded bands that played precise covers of current hits under the ever-present threat of violence. Black musicians faced Jim Crow segregation. White musicians were harassed for their long hair.”
Leaving the South was inevitable for southern musicians. The brothers failed an audition in New York in summer 1965. The following year they recorded in Nashville under the tutelage of songwriter John D. Loudermilk, who encouraged the group to move West. They finally did in 1967. It was a miserable, failed experiment and within a year, Duane was back South.
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As was true of every working southern band in this era, Duane and Gregg’s earliest groups were strictly cover bands. As Robert Palmer observed in 1969, making a living playing music in the South had long meant “playing Top 40, and that’s why southern bands have always been known for incredibly exact, mimetic renderings of the latest Beatles, Stones, and whatever. It is also why southern rock bands have been comparatively late getting into their own music and their own stylings; they simply had to live, and just having hair below your collar was enough of an impediment. In many ways, the Black music, rhythm and blues, was more vital than rock in those days.”
This whole chapter centers around Duane’s quest for originality, something Duane continued to struggle with for a few more years.
Chapter 3 Allman Joys Take the Highway
ROOTS
Bobby “Blue” Bland “Turn on Your Lovelight” A staple of the era that the Allman Brothers Band never ended up recording. Duane, Gregg, Butch, and Berry all joined the Grateful Dead onstage at 2/11/70 at Fillmore East for an epic jam that included a 33-min “Lovelight.” Gregg recorded it on his 1974 Gregg Allman Tour. “Lovelight” has remained in jamband setlists for years and was a personal favorite of Col. Bruce Hampton.
The Escorts / Dick Dale “What’d I Say” Yep, Duane and Gregg’s earliest recording effort, as the Escorts (1965)! This isn’t on Spotify so I subbed a version by Dick Dale, which is entirely new to me, but I chose it rather than adding the original version since it’s on the Chapter 2 playlist. Their version sounds a lot like Dale’s. Duane later recorded it with Herbie Mann.
Marvin Gaye “Hitchhike” and James Brown “Good Good Lovin’” The Escorts played these two R&B hits opening for the Beach Boys at what is today Jackie Robinson Ballpark in Daytona Beach, Florida.
The Beatles “Paperback Writer” At the Allman Joys’ first out of town gig, the band launched into “Paperback Writer” by the Beatles, Gregg Allman remembered. “We mesmerized those people. For the first time, I believed it. I felt it. Pensacola was a real turning point in my life, because I realized that if we did things right, we could grab people with the first eight bars of a song, and we wouldn’t have to worry about the rest of the night.”
Allman Joys, Spanish Village Patio Pensacola Beach Friday July 22, 1966
I’ve included the original version of the set that evening.
Here’s the Allman Joys’ actual set on Youtube.
The Beatles “Help!”
The Righteous Brothers “Old Man River”
The Yardbirds “Heart Full of Soul”
The Rolling Stones “The Last Time”
Lenny Welch “Are You Sincere”
Chuck Berry “Carol”
Little Anthony & the Imperials “I’m on the Outside Looking In”
The Rascals “Good Lovin’”
Allman Joys at Bradley’s Barn, Summer 1966.
I cited five tracks in the book, but stuck with these three covers. Included on the playlist are the original versions of “Spoonful” (Howlin’ Wolf) and “Crossroads” (Robert Johnson) along with the arrangements Duane used at Bradley’s Barn.
Paul Butterfield Blues Band/the Allman Joys “Spoonful” — Duane called theirs a “terrible, psychedelic rendition” of the Howlin’ Wolf classic. He copped the arrangement from Butterfield on the 1966 Elektra What’s Shakin’ compilation.
Eric Clapton and the Powerhouse; the Allman Joys “Crossroads”—This little-known track by a a short-lived Clapton side project also appeared on the same Elektra sampler Duane learned “Spoonful” from. It’s similar to the version Clapton recorded with Cream a few years later.
The Yardbirds; the Allman Joys “Shapes of Things”—Since compiling this playlist, Jeff Beck died. His solo on this cut is one of my favorites of the era. Notice how true to the original Allmans’ cover is.
Thanks for reading y’all. I’ve got a fair amount of things coming down the pike, which I’ll share in a future post.
Loving this book Bob. I think the "cover syndrome" was true all over the country. Our band played mostly covers from '71 to '74 with a couple of originals thrown in. We opened for a band that had 2 hit singles that was touring through and they were the only original tunes they played at the gig in our local armory in Hagerstown MD in '72. We were better than they were...we actually had a couple of the same tunes on our set list. They never had another hit and evaporated. Tommy James and the Shondells were never part of a "local scene" like San Francisco, but Tommy persevered and got recorded and survived for awhile with some major hits. But he eventually became a nostalgia act like so many others...KC, Average White Band...only a few had staying power and remain(ed) current. I'm glad to see the ABB catalog, the Dead and the Band being "preserved" and mentored at Butch's "Roots Rock Revival". I don't think that's happening with any other American Bands, especially with members of the groups like Oteil participating and 2nd generation family members like Melody & Vaylor Trucks, Lamar Jr, Duane Betts, Berry Jr, Amy Helm and Graham Lesh. The road goes on....