This is Later with Lee Matthews, The Lee Matthews Podcast. More of what
you here weekday afternoons on the Drive. Alan Paul is the author of a
New York Times bestseller of One Way Out, The Inside Story of the Allman
Brothers Band, The Definitive Book on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Band,
and Texas Flood, The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan. His newest
creation drills down and does a deeper dive into the Allman Brothers and Brothers and
Sisters, the Allman Brothers Band, and the inside story of the album that
defined the seventies. Welcome, Alan Paul, Thank you, thank you very
much for having me. Well, let's start with Allman Brothers and the history
of the Allman Brothers because not one, but two generations have passed since the
release of this album. That is true. Yeah, I mean, the
album just stands at test of time and it's not my graduation. It's not
a cliche to say that, because the factors are celebrating its fifty at the
anniversary and it still sounds great and we still listen to it now. I
know that the rambling Man from this album is one of the most played classic
rock titles. I don't know that it got as much airplay then as it
does now. Well I get your point, and if you take it in
total, that's certainly true. But it did get a lot of airplay in
seventy three, and I'm sure you remember and for some of the listeners remember
at that time, when a song became a hit, it could really get
a lot of hit play. I mean, you couldn't go anywhere in nineteen
seventy three thousand wearing that song every half an hour on the rating was it
was pretty ubiquitous. But but yes, point taking it has again, like
I said, it has really stood the test of time because it's still goods
played all the time fifty years later. It's ironic because the band at some
point it's almost embarrassed by that song because you know, they parted the race
with pickybet in two and who wrote and sang it. The song was so
associated with him, so they quit playing it for the most part. A
couple of very rare occurrences were Ward Haynes saying it and it's sort of stated
from the memory of the band like they wanted to, you know, memory
hole it and it's kind of crazy because it is such a great song.
And that also, you know, way is why I wanted to write this
book, because it's not just that song, but that whole album and that
whole era when they were the most popular, which is sort of oddly being
overlooked and pushed aside in the band's history, and I want to directify that.
Well. Also, radio at that time was different than it is now.
You didn't you didn't have so many divisions within formats as you do today.
So here was what we now consider a rock song. But it made
it onto the top forty charts, right, It made it actually to number
two. It was held out from being number one by schars hat Breed,
which is sort of crazy and and ironic considering that you know, a year
later Greg and Share Greg Alman and Share would be a couple and you know,
married before two long. But it's just one of those peculiarities of pop
culture history. That's what happens after you remember why I never ramble man with
Nuther too. Alan Paul is here. He's the author of the New York
Times bestseller It's It's called the Allman Brothers and the Allman Brothers Band and the
Inside Story, the album that defined the seventies, Brothers and Sisters, one
of the big albums from that era. And I'm speaking of that, that
relationship between Share and Greg and the child on the cover of the album.
I think a lot of people mistakenly assume that that's Elijah Blue. Yes,
Eliza Blue was not born yet. Gregor Grego shared, I had not even
met yet at the time of the album release. It's actually Bereer Truck,
who is the son of Butch Truck's Olmen Brothers drummer. Yeah. They also
a lot of rumors say it's Derek Drugs, whose valors first cousin, and
but his nephew also was not born yet. In nineteen sevent Victory, what
was it about their studio, Capricorn that that became so distinctive for them?
Well, Capricorn was a unique situation. It was located in Macon, Georgia,
which was really sort of the middle of nowhere at that time. It's
about eighty miles south of Atlanta, and it was pretty isolated. They were
based there because Phil Waldon, who was the founder owner of the label,
was from Macon, as was Otis Redding, and Phil Walden had been Otis
reading as manager. They started working together when they were teenagers. And in
nineteen sixty seven, when Otis Redding died in that horrible plane crash, Phil
Walden was berest and he was looking for what he was going to do next.
And he had one a Moneric pop festival with Otis, and he saw
what was happening, you know, Jimmy Hendrick's experience, who the grateful dad,
the mamas and the papas and on and on. I mean it was
the first great rock festival. And he saw the crowd, he saw the
kids, and when Otis was gone, he realized, you know, he
had to get into that. He had to head into rock, and he
discovered Dwayne Alman signed him, and then Dyne put together on the Alms with
this band, and then they in turn put Capricorn and make it on the
map. And what's interesting is that Brothers and Sisters is the first album they
recorded entirely without Dwayne Alman, who died halfway through the recording of E to
Peach. So he's on half of VA to Peach, He's not on the
other half. And it was the first album that they recorded at home.
It may make at Capricorn Studios. So it was the first post dyne album,
was the first making album, and I think that really helped him to
create this new sound for the first time. I think they really sounded like
a making band. And that was also partly because Dicky bettis stepping more to
the ford. He had a little bit of country leading, so he started
hearing that come out most most liveably of course in ramble Man. So Making
and Typricorn were just central to this whole the album. I mean, you
can't separate them. It wasn't just a studio where they happened to record it.
If that makes any sense. Oh, it makes plenty of sense.
And I'm wondering too, because they were such a show band, the Allman
Brothers, and we're talking to Alan Paul, who's written the book The Allman
Brothers Band and The Inside Story, the album that defined the seventies, which
is Brothers and Sisters. They had performed so much live and we're so used
to at least it seems to me listening to them over and over and over
again as I have, they seem to be used to their own improvisation.
They knew when when the guitar was going to go in a certain direction,
and they followed them. And it seems to me that a recording session with
the Allman Brothers must have been just like a big jam session with a tape
recorder rolling. Well. Sometimes you have sometimes no on this album, and
Dickie that Sasses in the book, he said this to me in an interview
that he thought this was the first time they really used the studio in the
way that you know, more polished studio bands do, and Nderman is a
great example if you really listen to it. I think there's like twelve guitar
tracks, so that one really wasn't a jam. And Jessica was a really
carefully constructed song. Now, I think where the live performance of jam they
really came in is that they didn't have to like labor over Jessica. It
was a very carefully composed piece, but when they played it, they played
it live like a jam. So a little bit of a combination of both
and brothers and sisters was the first time, I think where they really really
buckled down in a studio and created something that was very different than they would
have just done live. Did they have a particular producer that they worked with
who maybe suggested things here and there about track to track editing or anything like
that. Yeah, So their first two and a half records, the first
two where the first three and a half records, if he kept alive,
I feel where he's all done with Tom Dowd, who was the great producer
from Atlantic Records, and he was sort of like a father figure to him.
That he was based in Miami, And as I said, they recruited
this one in making and it was done with Johnny Sandlin, who had been
a close friend of the band, had engineered most of their other albums,
so he was certainly very familiar, and I think on this album his role
was more being almost like a counselor keeping everyone going, keeping it. They
were certainly the enter a point where there certainly left some success. They were
having money, the drug problems were getting worse. They weren't all in the
studio at the same time, and Johnny could just sort of keep them on
track because he was an old friend, and he was of course a great
engineer and soundman, so I think his production help was more, yeah,
guys, here's what you need to do. Just keep it over on the
same page and moving and then of course doing expert production. You can tell
him kind of a geek for that thing, for that kind of stuff.
Allman Brothers Band and the inside story of the album that defined the seventies.
It is out now and Alan Paul is the writer of it. If you
love this behind the scenes stuff, you'll you'll love this. And the Almond
Brothers. I mean, I guess an argument could be made they kind of
developed Southern rock. Yeah, well, they came to really dislike the title
because they thought it was limiting it in because you know, they didn't you
know, is Elizabeth read Southern rock? Is Melissa? They thought it was
limiting. But at the same time, they really really did the inspiration and
in a way, i'd say it started on this album sonically. I mean
Random Man's self bound those spit into that southern rock field more than some of
their earlier stuff did. But I think an even bigger part of it wasn't
a particular sound as which is just the inspiration. All these great Southern musicians
were seeing their success, and then the record labels were seeing their success.
So I mean, Leonard Skimnard was kicking around for five years and couldn't get
it. D I mean, and eventually when they put their demos out,
the very first demos they recorded had you know, three Bird and other things.
Of course not as polished and finished, but pretty darned good. I
mean, they could have put out a record anytime, you know, from
nineteen seventy or whatever on. They weren't able to do it until nineteen seventy
three. And I think a lot of them that did have to do with
the Allman Brothers success in record labels saying you know, hey, let's go
see who else is down there. These guys are so good, there must
be another band or two kicking around. Makes sense. Alan Paul Brothers and
Sisters is the album that he writes about in The Allman Brothers Band or The
Inside Story, the album that defined the seventies. Thanks for doing all the
hard work on this and bringing this to light. Thank you very much.
Thanks for having me and I just finished reading a great biography of Leon Russell,
So paulso has been on my mind, so extra happily teach today.
Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and
remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation