Ramblin'
Man
1973
The
Allman Brothers
When
you hear 'Ramblin' Man's distinctive opening riff ya know you're
getting ready to jam to one of the best loved Southern Rock tunes
that's ever hit the airwaves. The tune was penned by Dickie Betts
who, By The Way, also sang lead on it.
Betts
based it on a Hank Williams tune from 1951, but it's definitely not a
cover...the absolute only
features the two songs share are the basic premise and the title.
Otherwise there's not a lyric, riff, or musical movement even vaguely
common to 'em. The Hank Williams song from two decades and change
earlier was old school country and didn't have a Rock or Pop half
note or up-tempo beat anywhere within miles of it, while 'The
Brothers' song was a up-tempo near-stereotype of good old Southern
Rock with just a touch of Country thrown into the mix, featuring some
of the best guitar-playing to ever be pressed into vinyl as well as
one of the best known choruses in Rock or Pop history. It also had a
couple of interesting connections with a couple of the band's
founding members, both of whom were tragically killed thirteen months
apart in eerily similar accidents.
Ramblin'
Man was included as the second track on Side one of their
chart-topping fifth album, Brothers and Sisters, and was released as
a single on August 25th,
1973, just shy of two years after Allman Brothers founder Duane
Allman died in a motorcycle accident in October of '71. In the eyes
and minds of many of the band's fans, the song served as proof that
the Allman Brothers Band could still find a sound without Duane's
near-legendary talents at the helm.
Duane
wasn't the only founding member of The Allman Brothers to die the
same way, sadly. Bass player Berry Oakley was killed in a motorcycle
accident on November 11th
1972, just more than a year after...and only three blocks away from
the site of...Duane's fatal crash. It was also just a week after they
performed 'Ramblin' Man' as a sample from their upcoming fifth album
on the premiere of ABC's 'In Concert'. Ramblin Man would be both the
last song he recorded and performed. Oh...if the fact that the two
crash sites are less than a mile apart isn't eerie enough, when Duane
Allman crashed his bike, he'd just left Berry Oakley's house, where
he'd been helping the Oakleys celebrate Linda Oakley's birthday.
We
loved 'Ramblin' Man' when it hit the airwaves, and showed that love
by sending it almost all the way to the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot
100. It cracked the top 20 just shy of a month after it's release, on
September 22nd,
and peaked at #2 on The Hot 100 on October 13th.
It'd hang around the Hot 100 for a total of 16 weeks. Oh...The song
that kept it from finding the top spot on The Hot 100? Cher's
'Half-Breed. Gregg Allman must have taken notice of this on a couple
of different levels. He and the taller, better looking half of 'Sonny
and Cher' married in1975, just a week after Cher's divorce from Sonny
became a done deal.
During
the late Summer and early fall of '73 Ramblin' Man was in constant
rotation on both the Top 40 and Rock stations, and you could hear
that guitar riff leading off the story of the man who was 'Born
in the back seat of a Greyhound bus rollin' down Highway 41...'
multiple times in any given day..
Interestingly
enough, even though Ramblin' Man is the only song that the Allman
Brothers cracked the Billboard top 10, 20, or even Top 40 with, it's
is seldom if ever played at concerts, and hasn't been played at all
since Betts left the group. When asked about why it was played so
infrequently, Dickey Betts said that it didn't lend itself to
improvising all that well...and anyone who's ever been lucky enough
to be at one of their concerts knows that they are all about
improvising and sweetening their music for their fans.
It
is still around on the Oldies stations and classic rock stations
though...you're just about guaranteed to hear on any given day., and
it's just as well loved now as it was forty years ago. I have been
known to sing along with it...not where anyone can hear though...I
wouldn't subject anyone to the horror that's my attempts at singing!
And
'The Allman Brothers?' Still playin', and Gregg Allman's still
singing and playing keyboards...they just finished up a late Summer
tour a couple of months back, in fact. And they still Rock!
So
Enjoy! 'Ramblin' Man by The Allman Brothers! And ya know
ya sang along with it!
And as a pair
of bonuses on this one...two
live
performances of Ramblin Man. The
first, from Back In The Day. Dickie Betts really
rocks it in this one...the man could flat out play
a six string!!
And the, second, Live at "OHNE FILTER SHOW" on German TV, broadcasted on July 5, 1991 from SWF Studio in Baden Baden. They pretty much kick serious ass in this one, too!
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