Keep On Wondering (Godfather Records GR 606)
SUNY @ Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY – July 26th, 1970
( 75:37 ) Please Don’t Keep Me Wondering / Stormy Monday / In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed / You Don’t Love Me / Dreams / Mountain Jam.
Only 1 year & 4 months after the band had formed the Allman Brothers were one of the biggest bands in America – Their second album “Idlewild South” would have soon been released to more critical & public acclaim than it’s predecessor by turning down the gruff, moodiness that layered it, becoming a little lighter in tone & cutting shorter the lengthy jams that were part of the bands live specialties ( It might have worked for the Beatles but releasing a 7 minute song for the radio was only ever going to be gift afforded the royalty of Rock & only then of a marginal basis. )
The recording here, originally released as “Jamming In Midnight” by The Polar Bear Records (PB – 099/100) as a two CD set, ( This version omits “Whipping Post” but retains the lengthy “Mountain Jam” ) is a strong, bassy soundboard recording with only a little too much power for it’s own good. It’s not a broad stereo mix as instruments & voices all seem to come from the one place but this only bolsters it’s power. The small quibble with Allman fans might be that everyone seems to contest the recording date – The SUNY concert was reportedly on the 10th of July & not the 26th as it has been printed as before.
“Please Don’t Keep Me Wondering” boogies along like a hypnotizing snake with a flash of power in it’s eyes. it doesn’t take long for the band to break out the steam either – Gregg’s lusty voice spills out & beyond the mass of the music & it’s not long until Duane’s liquid guitar flashes in to view meandering through the rampant pulse on stage with an electric fury. “Stormy Monday” – A cover of the T-Bone Walker track – is pinpointed by Gregg’s keyboard part – the instrument that he became fluent on & pined upon playing after listening to Jimmy Smith on Nashville Radio station WLAC’s jazz broadcasts – and the instrument that he used to write the irst album upon – Gregg said recently “When my brother called me to join the Allman brothers on March 26, 1969, he said “I need you to play a Hammond.” One day they had a blindfold with ’em, and said. “We gotta take you somewhere.” They took me into this room in Berry Oakley’s house, ripped off the blindfold, and there was a brand new 1969 B-3 Hammond, a 122 RV Leslie, and about 8 joints rolled on the bottom keyboard. And they said “We’ll see you in a couple of weeks!” When I got to the Allman Brothers, I had a heyday. I wrote the first album within, like, a week and a half” – The blues is written hard in this version although the optimism in Gregg’s Hammond shines through. Duane’s exacting soloing creates a busy spiraling launch while Berry Oakley’s fastidious & melodious “Tractor” bass lines adds a splendid & rooted backbone to proceedings.
The Dicky Betts written “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed” is the bands second “Idlewild South” track this evening. One of the highlights of the Allman’s live experiences it has space for each member of the band to flourish & improvise in which ever way they wish to. Multiple phases pass through the fleeting 11 minutes of the track ( One of the shorter renditions as the song would be drawn out to epic lengths reaching almost 3 minutes long some nights .. ) which has been compared by Duane as close to playing as Miles Davis in the jazz- rock field – “that kind of playing comes from Miles and Coltrane, and particularly Kind of Blue. I’ve listened to that album so many times that for the past couple of years, I haven’t hardly listened to anything else”. Shifting patterns litter the path where the band played before the tempo increases to a brilliant fury & the band crash to a dead stop.
With hardly a breather the band move on to a “Song that Junior Wells played long time ago ..” – “You Don’t Love Me”. A desperately funky groove follows full of splashing drums and an urgent phrase on the Hammond before Duane zips in on guitar to peel out a few more blistering chords.
“Dreams” from the Allman Brothers band’s eponymous album is a slow burner – all the hall marks are there of an Allman track & that the Hammond takes the first place puts fact to the track being written firstly on the instrument. The reason that it takes it time though is that its un-fetted of guitar until around the minute mark while the band take their time to venture in to the whole miasma of the journey. The sublime, syncopated drumming of messieurs. Johanson & Trucks form a unerring & brilliantly professional backbone that keeps it’s edge throughout. This slowly creeps towards ‘space-jam’ territory as springing feedback & wiggling histrionics are formed from out of nowhere by Duane. As the closing chorus is sung the the band fuel up, Gregg clears out all the stops with a screaming blues howl & the band turn up the tempo just enough to wind up with.
The monumental “Mountain Jam” follows. Clocking in at a glorious 35:48 the true extent of the whole should rightly be exhaustive but no matter the length of the rendition, the swooning improvisation always seems to pique interest. The song itself is based around Donovan Leitch’s 1967 track “There Is A Mountain” & features work from each of the band opening out the tune to all their strengths. Reaching through many different phrases – Classic rock, heavy metal, Jazz, Spanish classical guitar the whole melds together seemlessly. A dual drum solo at 7:13 is just one of many highlights – as Gregg put it “I went “Two full sets of drums?” I thought, train wreck, woah!” – It’s simply the thought of the cataclysmic mess that it could all turn in to that you’re waiting for but this pair are just so close in mind that not a single tic clashes & the closeness & approximation to a real jazz groove is so point perfect you could have tuned to jazz in it’s purist form before the near heavy metal chords strike up to a near ‘Bolero’ styled work out. The track then soars throughout tempos – gracefully bare then funky onslaught before settling in to deep bar blues.
The packaging is the standard Godfather trifold digi-pack featuring a b&w photo of the band sat on railway tracks with a bright orange version of the brothers logo super imposed over the top. The inside folds feature multiple pictures of Duane either live relaxing or at the “Hey Jude” session that he played at with Wilson Pickett. The back features Duane in session with a clear Biba-esque font listing the tracks.
5 Comments
Saddened to hear of the passing of Butch Trucks, went through a major Allmans phase in the mid 90’s and were one of the first band I worked really hard to collect in trading circles. His drumming was the power, Jaimoe’s was the flavor and their tandem playing would provide the backbone for the band. I spent many hours listening to the original band from official releases to poor audience recordings and was always blown away by the chemistry they had. While they went through many line up changes, they always seemed to keep a high level of performance, one of my favorite shows was in 2002 during a multi night road trip to the Beacon seeing the band go through a Fillmore East flavored Whipping Post then went into Mountain Jam…simple incredible. I have tons of ABB’s in my collection and many concert memories, the music and memories created by this band will endure….the road truly goes on forever. Rest In Peace Butch
Been listening to a bit of Grateful Dead over the past six months or so, then this morning I threw this CD in as I have not heard the Bros in a month or so and as the monumental Mountain Jam starts, I heard Duane playing the Dead classic Dark Star before they break in the beginning melodic twin leads ala Donovan. This is one of the first shows I received when I began trading ABB shows years ago, listened to it many, many times and never noticed it….great to hear something new !
Just purchased this CD based on the strength of the above review and I must say I am pleased, Great sound and performance throughout and the usual quality packaging from Godfather make this a must have. Once again the excellent review on this site steered me in the direction of something I might normaly have overlooked. Thanks Guys and keep up the good work!!
This was also released as part of the Wonderland labels massive 15CD box set of Duane Allman era SB’s
15CD BOXSET! LIMITED #’D EDITION OF 500! 1970-1971 SOUNDBOARD COLLECTION : FILLMORE EAST 02/11/1970 + 02/14/1970 + 06/27/1971, SUNY STONEYBROOK 04/28/1970 + 07/26/1970 + 09/19/1971, LEONARD GYM 12/13/1970, WXRT CHICAGO 1971, SYRIA MOSQUE PITTSBURGH 01/17/1971, FILLMORE WEST 01/29/1971 + 01/31/1971, BREWER FIELDHOUSE 08/26/1971! + BOOKLET! LENTICULAR COVER AKA 3-D!
Excellent review, although it is a very common show in trading circles it is nice to see it come out for silver collectors. Hopefully Godfather will put out more Allman Brothers Band, the best damn band in the land.