Wipe the Windows, Check the Oil, Dollar Gas
Revisiting the sole official live release from the Chuck/Lamar era
Today I want to talk about an album that gets way too little love. Released following the ABB’s first breakup in 1976, Wipe the Windows, Check the Oil, Dollar Gas presents the ABB’s third lineup, with Chuck Leavell (keys) and Lamar Williams (bass) joining the surviving original members.
A release like this defines my conception of the phrase: “Long Live the Allman Brothers Band.” This record—documenting the height of the band’s commercial success—is a reminder that the ABB didn’t die when Duane and Berry Oakley died. Their bandmates adapted the formula with new players and carried forward.
And the music kicks ass.
CONTEXT
The record was a Capricorn Records money-grab. The Allman Brothers Band, its bell cow had broken up in the wake of all kinds of issues related to being one of the top bands of their era: money, celebrity, drugs, you name it. Released in 1975, Win, Lose, or Draw their sixth album, was a huge disappointment and the band broke up the following year.
Wipe the Windows has a lot of meaning for me as an ABB fan, and eventual historian. As I wrote in the preface to Play All Night! (get yours here)
On November 13, 1993, I saw the Allman Brothers Band live for the first time. I went expecting nostalgia. I left a lifelong fan such that I bought Wipe the Windows—the album I’d previous dismissed as inferior with nary a listen—the very next day. “If they are this good in 1993, they had to be great in the early 70s too!”1
The album has its flaws, particularly when listeners and critics compare it to At Fillmore East. It’s poorly sequenced and even more poorly edited—it makes no sense that the label faded out songs a-la Fillmore.2
I also quibble with song selection. I think the record would have been much stronger with a version of Dickey’s “High Falls”3 or “Les Brers in A Minor” rather than a somewhat languid version of “Liz Reed” on this set.
Acknowledging these, here’s my take on the merits of this important release in ABB history.
THE TRACKS
Capricorn needed money, and the ABB’s live catalog from 1972-75 provided fodder.
Introduction (Bill Graham)
Wasted Words
Southbound
Ramblin' Man
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed
Ain't Wastin' Time No More
Come and Go Blues
Can't Lose What You Never Had
Don't Want You No More
It's Not My Cross To Bear
Jessica
5 cuts were from Brothers and Sisters: Wasted Words, Southbound, Ramblin’ Man, Come and Go Blues, and Jessica
2 tracks were from the Allman Brothers Band: “Don’t Want You No More>It’s Not My Cross to Bear”
“Liz Reed” had appeared on Idlewild South and a definitive version on At Fillmore East
“Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” was from Eat a Peach
A cover of Muddy Waters’s “Can't Lose What You Never Had” is the only track from the band’s most current album: Win, Lose, or Draw
GENERAL COMMENTS
The first four songs, including Bill Graham’s introduction, were recorded at Winterland on September 26, 1973. The full show has been released and I STRONGLY encourage you to listen to it.4
From there, the record is a bit of a pastiche.
“Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” is from 12/31/72—the band’s last show at “A” Warehouse in New Orleans. That full show has long circulated.
“Come and Go Blues” was recorded 7/28/73 at Watkins Glen, NY.
“Can't Lose What You Never Had” / “Don't Want You No More>It's Not My Cross to Bear” are from 10/22/75 Bakersfield, California.
“Jessica” is from 10/24/75 at the Oakland Coliseum.
“Southbound” “AWTNM” and “Come and Go Blues” are my go-to tracks.
AWTNM left the setlist from this era until the mid-1990s when they revived it.
Dickey sang Southbound from 1979-2000, as he had in Great Southern.
Come & Go Blues left the setlist for far too long. The first I remember it appearing after this era was at the Beacon in 2001, when Warren rejoined the band and Chuck Leavell sat in.
Most of the songs stayed in the repertoire permanently after Warren Haynes rejoined the band in 2001.
Wipe the Windows didn’t sell well at all, only reaching #75. (The group’s previous four albums were all massive hits: Fillmore #13, Eat a Peach #4, Brothers and Sisters #1, Win, Lose, or Draw #5.)
FINAL THOUGHTS
Wipe the Windows is a compelling live document of a truly great band.
I love how the record highlights the musical partnership within the ABB of lifelong friends Jaimoe and Lamar Williams. It also presages the success of Sea Level, the band that Jaimoe, Lamar, and Chuck Leavell formed shortly thereafter.
Lamar Williams was a MONSTER bass player. Stepping into the shoes of Berry Oakley, one of the inventors of the lead bass sound, he’s not playing like Berry at all, but he’s ABBsolutely tearing it up. A bonus is how clear he is in the mix.
Don’t believe me? Queue up “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” from 12/31/72 and remember Lamar had only been playing with the band live for about 3 weeks.
“Come and Go Blues”—one of my favorite Gregg tunes—was recorded at the 1973 Summer Jam at Watkins Glen with the Band and the Grateful Dead. I’m amazed to think any band could hit this kind of groove in front of 600,000 people!
I’d probably listen to this album a lot more were it not for the fadeouts between the tracks, which I find annoying and unnecessary in the age of live records. But I queue it up often when I want to hear some good Chuck/Lamar era jams.
LONG LIVE THE ABB!
Here’s a link to the full Preface.
The ABB did this on live albums until 2000. I’m gonna talk about this at another date because it annoys me no end.
A CRIMINALLY underrated song in the ABB canon.
It also has some of my ALL-TIME favorite 45min of ABB ever laid down on tape. I’ve posted it here Jessica>YDLM/Amazing Grace>Les Brers in A Minor. You’re welcome 🍄
a monstrous Jessica and Rambling Man
people forget dickey would solo for a solid four minutes on Ramblin Man
not just any country tune
It's fantastic. Just when you think you've heard it all, you get to hear that jam for the first time! I sent a link to the album to my trout fishing buddies who are all Allman Bros freaks. It def will light up some trout trips in the upper mid-west this spring!