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Topic: MY steel firestarter - 44 years, Duane Allman thanks Skydog! |
David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 29 Oct 2015 3:44 am |
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I can't do "besties" but the influence is incalculable. Working in kitchens in the 1980's I remember a distinct period where you could turn on the rock station and every other song was a reworking of a few excerpts lifted out of some bits in Led Zeppelin's catalog. And on the country station TWO OUT OF EVERY THREE song styles and tones were Allman Brothers... I remember exactly hearing on the morning after - 10/30/71, I turned on the radio to get the weather before high school; FM radio was still collegiate & subversive and they played Allman Brothers for 24 hours straight. People in my traverse wandered around singing Duane Allman guitar solos, I wore a Coricidin bottle on my ring-finger for TWO YEARS before I landed the Gibson SG.
If you were paying attention, there was an extra lesson there. "Skydog" - a nickname given because he was high all the time - shot some heroin, smoked some dope, chugged some whiskey and went out to do battle - playing chicken with trucks on a long-fork Harley chopper. With a bucket helmet, chin strap cut. Following a year after Hendrix died from taking nine one-dose barbiturate painkillers because nine was Jimi's personal secret magic number - the lesson there:
DON'T BE AN IDIOT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqa1s4jhkQ8&list=RDBqa1s4jhkQ8
THAT solo, 3:30.... (not slide!) |
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Jeff Garden
From:
Center Sandwich, New Hampshire, USA
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Posted 29 Oct 2015 4:57 am
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| The Allman Brothers at Fillmore East...quite possibly the finest live album of all time. I wore out several copies of Fillmore East and Eat a Peach slowing things down to 16rpm on my Dad's record player to learn Duane and Dickey's leads. |
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 30 Oct 2015 6:06 am
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Thanks for re-kindling the fire, David.
"With a thrill in my head and a pill on my tongue...." It was the '80s, regardless of one's age.
Music kept a lot of us from being idiots, and there were lots taking the dive; a lot of battles going on.
_________________
Those that say don't know; those that know don't say.--Buddy Emmons |
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Michael Johnstone
From:
Sylmar,Ca. USA
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Posted 30 Oct 2015 9:56 am
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I went to Castle Heights military Academy with Duane and Gregg in 1963-64. Duane was a great musician even then and was my musical mentor during that time and beyond until he died. He's the guy who showed me what a 9th chord was and what a "turnaround" was,how to play out of a relative minor and many other things a 16 year old surf guitar player from Virginia Beach might not know. He took me thru his record collection also and turned me on to Ray Charles,James Brown,B.B.King,Albert King,T-Bone Walker,Bobby Bland and much more. When I observed how much and how deep he practiced guitar I had that "Ah-Ha!" moment where I realized: So that's what it takes! He took me to the Sho-Bud shop on Broadway once and showed me how to put together a set of slinky guitar strings from banjo strings because back then you couldn't buy a set like that.That's also where I saw my first steel guitar up close - a Bigsby double neck. Because of knowing him I had a huge leg up musically from then on. It was a great honor to be asked to contribute my recollections to the author of Duane's biography "Skydog".
I still think about him and miss him every day. |
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Jeff Garden
From:
Center Sandwich, New Hampshire, USA
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Posted 30 Oct 2015 10:06 am
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| What a great experience, Michael - I enjoyed the book... |
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Posted 30 Oct 2015 10:42 am
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Michael, great story. I first heard him on "Boz Scaggs" first record.
_________________
Fender Kingman, Sierra Crown D-10, Evans Amplifier, Soup Cube. |
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