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This was recorded live at A&R Studios, New York, on August 26, 1971 and ...
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This was recorded live at A&R Studios, New York, on August 26, 1971 and broadcast in stereo on WPLJ-FM. The objective of the broadcast was to promote their "Live At Fillmore East" album. The show was recorded two weeks after the death of King Curtis, who was a great friend, and a huge influence to the late, great Duane Allman, who also, tragically lost his life in a motorcycle crash in Macon on October 29, just two months after this show. During the broadcast, Duane pauses to reflect on his late friend: About King Curtis - that was one of the finest cats there ever was. He was just right on top of getting next to young people, you know? Its a shame. If yall get the chance, listen to that album he made out at Fillmore West Boy, its incredible, its unbelievable, the power and the emotional stature the man had. Hes an incredible human being". The group was founded in 1969 by Duane Allman (b. Nov. 20, 1946-d. Oct. 29, 1971) on guitar; Gregg Allman (b. Dec. 8, 1947) on vocals and organ; Forrest Richard ("Dickey") Betts (b. Dec. 12, 1943) on guitar; Berry Oakley (b. Apr. 4, 1948-d. Nov. 12, 1972) on bass; and Claude Hudson ("Butch") Trucks (b. May 11, 1947) and Jaimoe (Johnny Lee Johnson) Johanson (b. July 8, 1944) on drums. Duane Allman began working as a session guitarist at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL, and it was there, appearing on records by Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, John Hammond, and King Curtis, among others, that he made his reputation. In 1969 Allman gave up session work and began putting together a new band — Jaimoe came aboard, and then Allman's longtime friend Butch Trucks and another Allman friend, Berry Oakley, joined, along with Dickey Betts, with whom Oakley was playing in a group called Second Coming. A marathon jam session ensued, at the end of which Allman had his band, except for a singer — that came later, when his brother Gregg agreed to join. They were duly signed to Walden's new Capricorn label. The band didn't record their first album until after they'd worked their sound out on the road, playing heavily around Florida and Georgia. The self-titled debut album was a solid blues-rock album and one of the better showcases for guitar pyrotechnics that year. The Allman Brothers Band impressed everyone who heard it, and it attracted good reviews and a cult following with its mix of assured dual lead guitars by Duane Allman and Dickey Betts, soulful singing by Gregg Allman, and a rhythm section that was nearly as busy as the lead instruments.
Their second album, 1970's Idlewild South, recorded at Capricorn's studios in Macon, GA, was produced by Tom Dowd. By this time, the band's concerts were becoming legendary for the extraordinarily complex yet coherent interplay between the two guitarists and Gregg Allman's keyboards, sometimes in jams of 40 minutes or more to a single song.They played a series of shows in March at The Fillmore East that were recorded for posterity and subsequently transformed into their third album. It became an instant classic. At Fillmore East was certified as a gold record on October 15, 1971. Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident 14 days later. The band had been midway through work on its next album, Eat a Peach, which they completed as a five-piece, with Dickey Betts playing all of the lead and slide guitar parts.
Then tragedy struck again on November 12, 1972 when Barry Oakley was killed in a motorcycle accident only a few blocks from Allman's accident site.
Bruce Eder, allmusic.com
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