And when it's time for leavin', I hope you'll understand
April 18, 2024 3:04 PM Subscribe
Singer, song writer, guitarist Dickey Betts has died. A driving force and original member of the Allman Brothers Band, Dickey Betts was an early pioneer of two part guitar harmonies in rock music.
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Never a fan back in the day.
But will never hit skip on "Jessica"
posted by Windopaene at 3:14 PM on April 18 [2 favorites]
Never a fan back in the day.
But will never hit skip on "Jessica"
posted by Windopaene at 3:14 PM on April 18 [2 favorites]
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One of my best friends to this day and I bonded at a university party geeking out together over Live at Fillmore East.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:20 PM on April 18 [1 favorite]
One of my best friends to this day and I bonded at a university party geeking out together over Live at Fillmore East.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:20 PM on April 18 [1 favorite]
I think the older I get the less I'm interesting in the Single Guitar Gods of classic rock and more into the dual guitarists who weave their way together, taking turns and creating something greater than the whole: Keith Richards/Mick Taylor, Lou Reed/Sterling Morrison, Thurston Moore/Lee Ranaldo, Jerry Garcia/Bob Weir, Tom Verlaine/Richard Lloyd. It was impossible to top Duane Allman and Dickey Betts. While Betts was never totally comfortable taking the lead once we lost Duane, he actually was in control when the band was at its commercial peak: "Revival," "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed," "Ramblin' Man," "Blue Sky," "No One Left To Run With," "Southbound," "Jessica" and a co-credit on the MIGHTY "Mountain Jam" (the greatest half-hour track in rock history). A fantastic guitarist and songwriter (and his first few solo albums are solid too). R.I.P.
posted by HunterFelt at 3:31 PM on April 18 [6 favorites]
posted by HunterFelt at 3:31 PM on April 18 [6 favorites]
Otis Gibbs tells the story of Dickey Betts' friendship with Bob Dylan.
posted by swift at 3:33 PM on April 18
posted by swift at 3:33 PM on April 18
It's not generally know, I think, that SoCal in the 60's and 70's had a taste for southern rock/blues/country along with whatever AOradio and top40 was being hustled. My older brother and sister ran in the surf communities and the Allman Bros, and Dickie Betts, were huge; every beat up Volkswagen bus had those cassettes rattling around. I know all those songs, that silky winking guitar tone, those harmonies.
So long, and thanks for all the notes
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posted by winesong at 4:25 PM on April 18 [2 favorites]
So long, and thanks for all the notes
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posted by winesong at 4:25 PM on April 18 [2 favorites]
More on Dickey and Dylan in the always excellent Flagging Down the Double E's
posted by stevil at 4:50 PM on April 18 [1 favorite]
posted by stevil at 4:50 PM on April 18 [1 favorite]
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posted by charris5005 at 4:58 PM on April 18
posted by charris5005 at 4:58 PM on April 18
Was never a hardcore AB fan, but I can say that their Greatest Hits tape was sometimes just the thing when driving around the southeastern states to various job sites in my mid-20s. I certainly liked them a lot better than Skynyrd, which a bunch of people I've known have been really into for reasons I could never really fathom.
I can peg Dickey's "Blue Sky" as my favorite of theirs - I included it in my wedding playlist! But I've always had soft spots for "Melissa" and "Little Martha", which I know are Gregg's and Duane's respectively, but Dickey's contributions to both makes them part his too.
RIP Dickey.
posted by Pedantzilla at 5:26 PM on April 18
I can peg Dickey's "Blue Sky" as my favorite of theirs - I included it in my wedding playlist! But I've always had soft spots for "Melissa" and "Little Martha", which I know are Gregg's and Duane's respectively, but Dickey's contributions to both makes them part his too.
RIP Dickey.
posted by Pedantzilla at 5:26 PM on April 18
Melissa. Always and forever, Melissa.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 5:37 PM on April 18 [1 favorite]
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 5:37 PM on April 18 [1 favorite]
My older brother and sister ran in the surf communities and the Allman Bros, and Dickie Betts, were huge; every beat up Volkswagen bus had those cassettes rattling around. I know all those songs, that silky winking guitar tone, those harmonies.
there's an old Rolling Stone paperback book I've got stashed away somewhere that offers a bunch of old reviews from the late 60s, early 70s. One bit that comes to mind concerns the Allman Brothers Live At Fillmore East, which was considered by many at the time (and probably even now) as one of the greatest live albums ever recorded.
A big part of its mystique was that Duane Allman, the band's leading light, had died mere months after its release (a motorcycle accident). But it wasn't just that, the reviewer was arguing, there was also the fact that the music therein, the astonishing alchemy that the Brothers had conjured over those two nights in summer 1971, was the closest he (the reviewer) had ever heard to freedom itself.
Hyperbolic? Maybe. But I've certainly had my own moments over the years deep inside some of those jams, long night time drives, the stereo cranked, the entirety of the universe not just in tune but also open to improvisation, instigation, the stuff of eternity ripping forth like (as Chuck Berry may have put it) the ringing of bells.
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posted by philip-random at 5:45 PM on April 18
there's an old Rolling Stone paperback book I've got stashed away somewhere that offers a bunch of old reviews from the late 60s, early 70s. One bit that comes to mind concerns the Allman Brothers Live At Fillmore East, which was considered by many at the time (and probably even now) as one of the greatest live albums ever recorded.
A big part of its mystique was that Duane Allman, the band's leading light, had died mere months after its release (a motorcycle accident). But it wasn't just that, the reviewer was arguing, there was also the fact that the music therein, the astonishing alchemy that the Brothers had conjured over those two nights in summer 1971, was the closest he (the reviewer) had ever heard to freedom itself.
Hyperbolic? Maybe. But I've certainly had my own moments over the years deep inside some of those jams, long night time drives, the stereo cranked, the entirety of the universe not just in tune but also open to improvisation, instigation, the stuff of eternity ripping forth like (as Chuck Berry may have put it) the ringing of bells.
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posted by philip-random at 5:45 PM on April 18
« Older These frogs were thought close to extinction, but...
He was a flawed person and an incredible musician. Here's my favorite Betts original, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, performed by the ABB at the height of the Duane years.
posted by joseph_elmhurst at 3:13 PM on April 18 [4 favorites]