Welcome back to Long Live the ABB: Conversations from the Crossroads of Southern music, history, & culture.
Today’s post features what I once thought was inarguable: Brothers of the Road is the ABB’s worst album. Even Dickey agrees:
I make my argument in the video above.
Here’s a deeper dive on the record that led to the band’s second breakup in five years.
[Edit of a post from 2024]
August 4 is the anniversary of the release of Brothers of the Road (1981), universally reviled as the Allman Brothers Band’s worst album.
Or so I thought.
Turns out the album has some very vocal fans, and quite a few people who object to the very notion of a “worst” Allman Brothers Band album. (Everything can’t be At Fillmore East or Eat a Peach.)
There are two reasons it’s the worst:
Jaimoe’s absence.
Clive Davis’s meddling.
Dickey Betts
“The one that none of us in the band liked at all was Brothers of the Road, because Clive Davis kind of ran a producer in on us. And they mixed out all of the guitar harmonies, and tried to really disco-pop it up, and we really were trying to do some kind of hit single jingle kind of stuff on there. (sings) ‘Straight from the heart, baby my love.’
You know, some of that shit.
So even when we tried to make the best out of having to do some of those tunes, the guy mixed out some of the hardest work we did on it, and even simplified it from that.
So none of us really liked that record. That's when we said ‘Hey, we're just going to split the Allman Brothers up until the disco period gets behind us.’”
Longtime ABB insider Bud Snyder
Snyder1 agreed with Dickey. The ABB needed no help with material.
“There were so many personality things going on in that time period, which was probably a result of the record label and where music was at that time, with all the disco stuff.
Still, to me, I think they were playing great music then. I don't particularly like those records, but I put a lot of the demos I recorded against those records, and I think you had more of the Allman Brothers spirit.
I thought Clive Davis was nuts. We had recorded ‘Anything Goes,’ which later came out Gregg's I'm No Angel album. We had recorded that in 1982, and Clive Davis talked about how he didn't hear any hits, per se, in this thing.
There was another song that we did on the Seven Turns album that Dickey wrote, called ‘Let Me Ride.’ Both those songs we cut in demos back in the early 80s, and Clive Davis said ‘No.’
‘Anything Goes,’ when it got released, was a Power Pick for like 8 weeks on 110 stations. That was 1986-87. The Allman Brothers wanted to release that in 82, but Clive said ‘No.’”
Rolling Stone
“Did Arista break Up the Allmans?”
After 15 years of erratic, often inspiring music-making, the Allman Brothers Band has split up again—and this time, it might be for good. Gregg Allman has left the group to pursue a solo project, and three other members—Butch Trucks, Dickey Betts and Chuck Leavell—have teamed with ex-Wet Willie vocalist Jimmy Hall and are playing some scattered dates.
“It just all fell apart,” says Leavell of the Allmans. “And there’s always the Clive Davis factor.” Under the terms of their now terminated contract with Arista Records, Davis' label, the Allmans were given $500,000 to make each album.
The only creative control that Arista had over the band—whose album sales have slumped in recent years—was the right to choose a producer. “I wanted them to work with an established, independent producer, not an engineer,” says Davis.
Davis thus asked the band to send him material that he could play for potential studiomen. At first, the Allmans balked, saying that their best material is written in the studio. When the group finally relented and sent some demos, says Davis, “The producers to whom we sent them didn’t think they were strong enough.”
But the Allmans’ manager, John Scher, says that Davis vetoed veteran producer Tom Dowd, among others, and has “improperly tried to censor” the group’s music. “By Clive’s locking us out of the studio, he kept Gregg and Dickey and everybody else from making a living. He forced everybody’s hand—and freed Arista from some serious financial obligations.”
Scher asserts that the band is on hiatus and will record again when the legal situation is resolved.
Creem
In 1985, this update appeared. I have yet to track down how the case was settled.
“Less interesting, no doubt, yet every bit as judicious, is the Allman Brothers’ suit against their former record label. Arista, claiming that the company’s refusal to allow the Allmans to record the last three albums on their contract caused irreparable harm to the band’s career and reputations.”
Love for Brothers of the Road
I was/am surprised that it has any defenders, but it does. Here are several, with my comments below each.
even Gregg hated the album.
not sure what qualifies as “worst” if not BotR.
this surprised me
as did these
I’ve never heard anyone profess love for BotR.2
Not everything can be first, right?3
And which album is worse?
One person offered up Reach for the Sky (1980)—the first time a synthesizer appeared on an Allman Brothers’ record. It’s a nearly equally sad record for sure.
But it does have Jaimoe. Brothers does not.
Someone else answered Win, Lose, or Draw and I had to think for a minute on that.
Like Brothers, WLoD is a pretty desultory affair, but it has two ABBsolute classics if you ask me, the killer Muddy Waters cover “Can’t Lose What You Never Had” and Dickey’s magnificent “High Falls.”4
Brothers of the Road has nothing that even comes close.
And did I mention it’s missing Jaimoe?5
And it’s not like people loved BotR upon release in 1981
It was pretty universally panned.
Robert Palmer, Rolling Stone - Brothers of the Road is a little lacking in personality, too. At its best, it has both the instrumental finesse and soul that have always made the Allman Brothers Band special. But in too many of the tunes, the group sounds like it’s marking time as it rolls down that long, lonesome road.
Creem was even harsher - The whole album flows out in one well-crafted mellow ooze, as though it were the third Dickey Betts & Great Southern set or something. Mostly Gregg sounds tired here. It's funny, though, now that Brothers of the Road has virtually killed off my ragged hopes for the Allman Brothers Band, their last year's Reach for the Sky is beginning to sound more and more like a first-rate reunion set.
Then there’s the album cover
Take a look at it again.
Was Dickey the only one who knew there was photo shoot that day?
At least Butch has on a hat.6 But the rest of the guys?
Gregg’s headed to a tiki bar. Mike Lawler’s going hunting.7 Frankie Toler’s rockin’ what looks like a Houston Astros’ alternate jersey.8
And the location?
Who takes album cover photos standing by the side of a road at the edge of a nondescript field?9
The bizarre angle of the treeline makes it look like the Toler brothers are leaning to stand upright. Dan Toler (second from right) seems to be leaning into the slope, making you wonder why he’s not falling down.
Am I being too harsh?
Perhaps.
But I prefer my Allman Brothers Band way less produced than what they gave us in 1980-1981.
Then again, they still rocked live, such as this show January 12, 1982 from the bandshell in Gainesville, Florida.
Lagniappe
My interview with David Goldflies, ABBassist during this era.
Thanks for being here.
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Snyder was the ABB's soundman at the first half of the reunion that began in 1989.
I have never thought, much less written “I love BotR.”
That’s At Fillmore East, right? Or Eat a Peach? Or??? Whatever’s your favorite is your favorite, even if it’s Brothers of the Road.
High Falls from March 7, 1998 with Dickey & Jack Pearson
The ABB released one studio record without Dickey, Hittin’ the Note (2003). It’s a really great album and contains several nods to Dickey from Derek & Warren.
Butchie typically rocked hats, not necessarily on the BotR cover, though.
Maybe with his keytar?
Like the great J.R. Richard.
All I can think of is all the ticks and chiggers hiding in the grass.
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