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 25^th, 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 11^th 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 22^nd, and peaked at #2 on The Hot 100 on October 13^th. 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!