Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East

The stories of those who surround a band can sometimes be as interesting as those of the band members themselves…this is also the first contribution from a reader (thanks Dad!).

The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East, often viewed as one of the truly great live albums, was recorded by Tom Dowd at the height of the band's power on 12th and 13th March 1971 and before guitarist Duane Allman's death in 1973. It resulted in a classic double album with a very distinctive cover featuring black & white photographs taken by Jim Marshall of the band posing casually with their cased equipment which had been piled up against a brick wall. Duane was always appreciative of the band's road crew and insisted that the back cover of the album should replicate the front but with the band replaced by their roadies. So, the same setting was used to depict (from left to right) Joseph ("Red Dog") Campbell, Kim Payne, Joe Dan Petty, Mike Callaghan and Willie Perkins. Red Dog, Kim and Joe Dan are holding cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer which, in view of the album's success, was probably as good an advertising campaign as the brewers could have devised themselves. The beer was provided by the photographer as a reward to the roadies for lugging out and stacking the band's heavy equipment for the photo shoot. None of the pictures of the band for the cover were actually taken at the Fillmore East but near the band's headquarters in Macon, Georgia.

"Red Dog" was a red-haired Vietnam veteran and Kim Payne had only just been checked out of a hospital after recovering from being shot by a policeman. He had been stopped for speeding 3 days after the Fillmore concerts. Kim was also the co-writer of one of the band's well-known numbers - "Midnight Rider". Joe Dan played bass in one of Dickey Betts earlier bands - "The Jokers" and Mike Callaghan was a soundman and bus driver for "The Roemans", the backing band for Tommy Roe. Willie Perkins had a degree in business management and had been brought in to replace the band's Tour Manager, Twiggs Lyndon, who was in jail awaiting trial for murder. One of his responsibilities was to look after the books and it wasn't long before he found that the finances were in a mess and that, even as a roadie, he was making more money than anyone else in the band.

At "Red Dog's" suggestion, the back cover also acknowledges Twiggs' absence by having a separate photo of him superimposed on the brick wall beside the track listing.

Words by John Seaton, drawing on Scott Freeman's Midnight Riders - The Story of The Allman Brothers Band and Skydog - The Duane Allman Story by Randy Poe.

Jim Marshall took countless iconic photographs of musicians, from early 1960s images of Bob Dylan in Greenwich Village through to Woodstock, where he was chief photographer (not the first Woodstock photographer mentioned on these pages. Henry Diltz features in the Buffalo Springfield Again entry. Diltz is also described as the official photographer (as, I have discovered, was Elliott Landy), so I guess you are allowed more than one). Marshall also famously photographed Jimi Hendrix setting his guitar on fire at the Monterey Pop Festival, and Johnny Cash at San Quentin. For more visit www.jimmarshallphotographyllc.com

Buffalo Springfield Again by Buffalo Springfield

Back covers can often allow the band to display their influences and they don't come much more explicit that this. On their second album, released in 1967, Buffalo Springfield listed "friends, enemies and people we don't know from Adam for their influence and inspiration". 

 

Jimmy McDonough's Shakey credits the hand-lettered illustration to Henry Diltz, a musician (he was a founding member of the Modern Folk Quartet) and photographer. He was the official photographer for Woodstock and the Monterey Pop festivals and also co-founded Morrison Hotel Galleries, specialising in fine art music photography. The album itself only credits Eve Babitz for the cover illustration (who also designed album covers for Linda Ronstadt and The Byrds) and album design to Loring Eutemey (who designed many of Atlantic's covers for the likes of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane).

In a band with strong personalities and individual songwriters (Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay), the back cover is careful to list out specific roles, reflecting growing tension within the band and that they were often working separately. It probably also reflects music company desire, post-Beatlemania, to promote the separate personalities of each group member in order to broaden their appeal.

The credits also make apparent the lack of a consistent bass player. The original bass player, Bruce Palmer, was often absent due to drug charges and ultimately deported back to Canada. As Neil Young's hand-written liner notes for Decade, his 1977 compilation album recall: "Mr Soul: recorded by the original Springfield at Atlantic's New York studios after a gig at "Ondine's". Shortly after this Bruce Palmer, bassist, was busted and deported to Canada. Eventually we got him back to U.S. but made many records without him. Broke [Stephen] Stills' heart and mine too that he wasn't on all our records".

The credits for Young's "Mr Soul" note that it is "[r]espectfully dedicated to the ladies of The Whiskey A Go Go and the woman of Hollywood". There has been much debate over the meaning of the song, but this seems to acknowledge that somewhere in there are Young’s frustrations at the price of fame and the hollow female attention that it can engender...maybe.