I recently finished Greg Allman's autobiography "My Cross to Bear." It was remarkably good. He talks about what it means to be a rock star and didn't spare himself of make excuses. He told the truth about the lifestyle and all the missteps he had along the way. I enjoyed it.
I am not a big Allman Brothers fan. I like some of their stuff that everyone else knows "Sweet Melissa" "Dreams" "Tied to the Whipping Post." I don't much care for Dicky Bett's "Rambling Man" because that is like "Sweet Home Alabama." Every freaking classic rock station plays that shit to death. I think the four most played songs on those stations are "Stairway to Heaven" "Rambling Man" "Thunder Road" and "Sweet Home Alabama." They are so played out that you just can't listen to it anymore.
It is funny to read the guy who wrote the song say the same thing. I remember when I saw Frank Sintra in Altantic City at the end of his string. He was just going through the motions. I mean the dude was about a million years old but too many people were riding his gravy train for him to stop. He did a half ass medley of songs that all the rubes cheered for: Strangers in the Night, Summer Wind, Fly Me to the Moon. But then he did a great rendition of "Angel Eyes" which was heartfelt and moving. He really turned on when he sang that song. It is realtively obscure but man he wailed. But the crowd was unsettled and unfamilar and didn't appreciate what they just had heard. One douchenozzle had to let us know by shouting out his request.
"FREEEEEE BBBBIIIIRRRRDDDD!!!!!"
69 comments:
He's alive?
I assumed Sixto had seen him.
Kevin Matthews was a DJ in Chicago back in the 80's. He would tell all his listeners to yell "Freebird", or "Play Freebird man" a no matter what venue of music they were attending. Listeners would then call his show and give reports on their escapades. So, you can thank Matthews who really was/is? a pretty funny DJ w/ a great sports guy voice named "Jimmy Shorts."
Is bearing a cross tougher than crossing a bear?
Does Gregg say much about his brother Duane? How could he not--Duane inspired Gregg.
I read a biography last year about Duane Allman and liked it a lot: link
Does he tell any stories about nailing Cher?
Is this a subtle Berenstain allusion? Does Brother suffer from crossed-toe syndrome?
My family nickname is Bear.
Also, I could use a bear hug. :)
Not lame. Plenty good! Thanks, Sixty.
Careful there, Darcy. I'm mildly dyslexic.
I figured you for a Mama Grizzly type, Darcy! Hugs!
My family nickname should be Beer. Also, I could use a beer.
Thanks, Bruce. And lol, Chip. Took me a minute or two.
Chip goes for that homophonic humor.
GRRROOOOOWWWLLLLLLLLLLL
Big bear hug, Darcy.
Hee. I came to the right place! Thanks, Allen.
Thanks, guys.
Alright. Does everyone here know I like country music? I do. Part of the reason is it's just so fun to sing. Like this song...I sing it and make (what I think are) the appropriate faces. It's too fun! Plus, I can do that twangy thang pretty good.
I must say that all the time I've been singing it, for some reason I did not picture a cute chick singing it. I thought she would be a slightly older gal with massive hair. Anyway.
If you're curious: Ex-Old Man
Pretty harsh, Darcy. I hope you weren't ever hurt so.
You don't seem like a "bear to cross."
Oh, I wasn't hurt like that, no. But thank you.
And lol. Rowwwwrrrrr!
Ok, guys, I'll ask. So, do you sing in the shower?
Nope. And at the race track, windows clean people.
Oh, yeah. I sing everywhere. :)
That last remark was directed at Trooper van Morrison.
Duet?
I sometimes sing in the car, while driving alone.
Why don't we duet in the road?
NTTAWWT, chickelit, but I prefer duettin' it in the shower w/Darcy.
I suppose, as a logical positivist, I can't really say that, but I'm not that big a stickler for logical positivism.
I was singing in a car once and I got distracted and rear-ended the car in front of me. Geez.
Didn't stop me from singing in the car, though.
And lol, you guys.
Darcy said...
I was singing in a car once and I got distracted and rear-ended the car in front of me.
Were you ever hit from behind?
Hahahaha!
I plead a fifth.
That happened to me once--in a VW bug. The totalled it. VWs have rear engines.
Oh my.
Sesenta de anos!
Is bearing a cross tougher than crossing a bear?
The way I look at it mental suffering is kid stuff compared to physical suffering. Bearing a cross is just feeling bad. Crossing a bear is, potentially at least, feeling claws. Which makes crossing a bear tougher.
Is Friday Pun Night? And, NO PUNS will be accepted as an answer.
Never cross a bear. Cross a road. You might see a duet.
nd, just pray that it's not anagram night.
Chip S. said...
Sesenta de anos!
Translation (rough): Sixty years
Are you impugning something about our Sixty?
Country music can be great and often is but frequently what's broadcast is the country equivalent of tin pan alley. Obviously manufactured stuff. Wish I could think of a specific title but I'm talking about all those songs about a trucker who's driving across the country and thinking about her and his kid and the flag and how it's worth the aches and pains cause they're waiting at the end of the road. Perfectly legit sentiments but somehow false and finally angering because so obviously Nashville product. Sixty'll prob'ly disagree with me but who died and made him Pope? Or head kleagle.
Darcy said...
Hahahaha!
I plead a fifth.
I wouldn't do what Chip does after drinking more than fifth!
What I meant is the Nashville sound makes it all synthetic.
Nashville wasn't always kleaglelights and bright stars. There's one hell of a lot of musical history in that town. Of course, Memphis played a role two.
I was raised around country music since I was child--way before it was "cool." My Dad loved it. They used to call it "Hillbilly and Western"
But, like all kids, I pretended to hate my parents music and rebelled with rock and rock. But my dad like that too!
At one time or another, I've loved every genre of music. The station that I listen to now plays, "music from yesterday, today, and tomorrow that makes your day a bit more pleasant". They cover everything, and never say who does the songs.
Three themes
Read the text - interesting story of the progression of a band.
Darcy, tell me if you like this song.
I can't open Sixty's link from my phone, darn it. Will check it out in the morning tho.
Allen I do like that song. Classic.
'Night, all.
Nick - I was a huge Kevin Matthews fan! He moved to Chicago form Fond Du Lac, I think the story goes, so he's a native cheesehead.
What was the station? WLS, I think.
I like some country, but mostly I prefer bluegrass and roots music.
Greg Allman was a guest on the CMT awards last year. The Allman Brothers, or what's left favorite Allman sing along song.
Allman looked inert, brain damaged even. Drugs have a lasting effect.
He came back later in the show to play Georgia with the Zac Brown Band, and did a damn find job of it.
Bear hugs to Darcy!
Sorry I haven't been around much lately. Too much going on.
He writes about that night.
He had a liver transplant you know. Like David Crosby.
It's great for all these big time liberal rock and rollers getting a liver while some poor kid croaks.
Funniest part of the book?
How proud he was to meet and play for Jimmy Carter.
One good thing is that Allman did a good job raising the son he had with Cher - Elijah Blue Allman.
Young Allman has kept out of his parent's orbit, at least from a music standpoint, and lives quietly in France. He plays gigs and is thought a pretty good musician. He doesn't at all capitalize on his parents' fame, and usually uses a stage name when he plays.
At least he didn't go through the Chaz identity crisis.
Here are the Allman Brtohers Band playing One Way Out at their induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The ABB amazingly carried on after losing two founding members, Duane Allman and Berry Oakley. How did they do this? Were those guys simply that unimportant? Randy Poe writes:
The Allman Brothers Band had already seen what happened when key members of other bands had passed away. After the Doors lost Jim Morrison, their recording career was virtually over. On the other hand, the Rolling Stones' greatest successes would come years after original member Brian Jones was found dead in his swimming pool. The situation with Duane was unique. He had been the band's founder and leader; the person who got the band their record deal with Capricorn; the man who spoke between songs onstage; and the guitarist whose incredible musical talent created a genre of Southern music that the other musicians and other bands continue to emulate to the present day. Despite all those things, he had never been the band's "voice." Withe exception of "Dimples." Duane wasn't a vocalist during his time with the ABB. That being the case, the remaining members knew there was a chance they could go on, simply because the record-buying public was familiar with the singing voices of Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts. It wasn't like the situation the Doors were in after Morrison died. Duane's role had been different--as [drummer] Butch [Trucks] said, Duane had given them "religion." It was the band's mission to keep on proselytizing--spreading the word and adding new converts to the flock.
from "Skydog: The Duane Allman Story" by Randy Poe
Duane was just 24 years old when he was killed in a motorcycle accident on 11/29/71 in Macon, Georgia. RIP
We almost ran out of gas once while driving through farm country in Indiana and having a fine time blowing kazoos along with a Boots Randolf Songs for the Spirit CD. Thirty miles to the nearest exit when I finally noticed we were deep in the red, but we made it on vapors. Put 23.7 gallons into a 24 gallon tank. Good memory though.
Bearing a cross is just feeling bad.
With a thirteen month age difference between him and his older brother, a move when he was two followed by the death of his murdered father, and several childhood years spent in a military school, it seems as if he came out the chute without much chance to attach, bond, feel safe and learn to process feelings. Rupture without repair is the term used to describe these kinds of experiences, any of which could qualify as early childhood trauma depending on how they were or weren't worked through.
While physical pain can be intense and debilitating, the consequences of unresolved emotional issues tend to play out further down the line in relationships (six divorces), obsessions, and addictions. No amount of fame or money heals or compensates for that kind of brokenness.
What often "saves" a compromised child is the presence of someone in their life who serves as validating witness. He lost that person when he was 24.
What interests me about the post, beyond these details, is the fact that someone who was listening to a half ass medley of songs in a crowd of cheering rubes, also served as the "validating witness", to the point of remembering and writing several years later about what was hokey along with what was powerful and good.
Mamam your posting was so poignant and enlightened.
All I could think was, "does she have a nice pointy rack?
tit.
Thanks for the thoughts, MamaM
I found this CBS interview with Gregg, which recapitulates the ABB's career.
All I could think was, "does she have a nice pointy rack?
My validating witness states the order of descent as nice, then soft with pointy as a variable.
You have titillated my interest.
Michael Haz, I listened to Kevin Matthews on WLUP "The Loop". He had the cheesehead culture down pat in his bits so it would make sense he is one, although I don't remember him ever confessing to it.
Saw Old Blue Eyes in his late period and a similar experience. I hate concert rubes. I saw Ella before she passed and thought she did a good job even if her voice had diminished.
Before she passed what?
Something sensory that lingered in the vaulted halls of memory.
He had the cheesehead culture down pat in his bits so it would make sense he is one, although I don't remember him ever confessing to it.
Not a cheesehead, Nd. He currently lives in my neck of the woods. He's a Michigander who was born in Detroit and spent his college and early career years in Grand Rapids, before moving to St. Louis for a year and then The Loop. He returned back to GR in 2005 and in 08 announced in he'd been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. According to this he's now into podcasting.
@chickelit...thanks, the CBS interview link was a good one.
Thanks, MamaM. Cannabis is helpful for MS patients. Gee, I wonder if Kevin would be receptive to that treatment alternative??
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