Duane Allman died today - TIMH

Today in 1971 God decided to upgrade His house band and relieved the Skydog of his earthly duties. Duane Allman, arguably the greatest guitar player the world has ever seen, died after a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia at the age of 24.

Duane was born on November 20, 1946 in Nashville. His brother, Gregg, was born the following year. His father was in the Army and the family moved regularly. After their father was murdered, Duane and Gregg were sent to military school. They both hated it and they eventually moved with their mother to Daytona Beach.

Sometime in 1960 Gregg bought a guitar and Duane bought a motorcycle. Gregg taught Duane to play and Duane was soon monopolizing the guitar, which led to more than one fist fight. Their mother had enough of this and bought Duane his own guitar. Duane proved to be a quick study and soon surpassed his brother as a guitar player. Gregg turned to the keyboard and the brothers soon created a band called The Allman Joys.

The Allman Joys had some success touring in the Southeast and recorded a few songs. They went through lineup changes and eventually renamed the band Hour Glass and moved to Los Angeles. Hour Glass recorded an album at the legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals and a producer took notice of Duane. Duane was hired as a session musician and played on the Wilson Pickett cover of the Beatles’ “Hey Jude”. His performance on that track caught the attention of Eric Clapton who he would later work with. While in Muscle Shoals, Duane played on a number of successful songs, including some standout performances with Aretha Franklin, Delaney & Bonnie and King Curtis.

Duane grew tired of the session musician’s lifestyle and moved back to Florida. While in Florida he formed The Allman Brothers band in 1969 with Gregg on vocals and keyboard, Butch Trucks (uncle of Derek Trucks) on drums, Berry Oakley on bass, Dickey Betts on guitar, and Jaimoe Johanson also on drums. The band would soon relocate to Macon, Georgia which would serve as their home base through Duane’s death.

It is almost impossible to overstate Duane and the Allman Brothers’ importance to rock music. They were simultaneously one of the founders of the jam band scene (check out their performance with the Grateful Dead at Watkins Glen) as well as the Southern rock scene. Southern rock was essentially invented by Duane in 1968 as he was recuperating from a horse riding accident.

The story goes that on that day Gregg stopped by to give Duane a birthday present. The two were upset at each other for some reason or another and Gregg left the present on the front porch. The birthday present consisted of two simple items –Taj Mahal’s debut album and a glass bottle of Coricidin medicine. A few hours later Gregg answered his telephone to hear a frantic Duane demanding that Gregg come back to Duane’s house. Gregg arrived to find that Duane had emptied the bottle and was using it as a slide while playing a cover of “Statesboro Blues” from Taj Mahal’s album. The Southern rock sound was born on Duane’s birthday.

The Allman Brothers Band was an immediate success and there was a great demand for their live shows. During a tour stop in Miami, Eric Clapton finally got his chance to meet Duane. They struck up a fast friendship and Duane joined Clapton on the Derek and the Dominos sessions. That collaboration produced one of the all-time classic rock songs, “Layla”. The contrasting styles and tones of Clapton, with his clean Fender sound, and Duane, with his dirty, fuzzed out Gibson sound, meshed beautifully on that song.

The Allman Brothers continued touring and recorded their final album with Duane, “At Fillmore East”, in 1971. The album was released in July of 1971 and was the first platinum record for the band. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest live albums ever recorded. Many years later an expanded version of the Fillmore shows was released as “The 1971 Fillmore East Recordings” and I highly recommend checking it out if you’re an ABB fan.

Three months later Duane was dead. He was riding his motorcycle through Macon when he approached the intersection of Hillcrest Avenue and Bartlett Street. A flatbed truck was stopped in the intersection while attempting to turn into Marshall Lumber on Bartlett. Duane attempted to swerve around the truck but clipped the back end, sending himself and the bike airborne. The motorcycle landed on Duane, crushing his organs, and they came to a stop 100 feet later. Duane was pronounced dead at the hospital later that day.

I included these details not to be morbid but rather because there is an idiotic urban myth out there surrounding this accident. The band’s next album was titled “Eat a Peach” and the urban myth says the album was called that due to Duane’s accident. The myth says Duane crashed into a peach truck – “eating the side of the truck” – so the band named the album in his honor. While this is patently untrue, the band did name the album in honor of something Duane had said. An interviewer asked Duane, “How are you helping the revolution?” Duane answered, “There ain’t no revolution, only evolution, but every time I’m in Georgia I eat a peach for peace.”

“Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’” from “The 1971Fillmore East Recordings”: