Multi-Colored Man
A Brothers and Sisters adaptation about Gregg Allman and his struggle to find his path after Duane's death, on what should have been his 76th birthday. Featuring a playlist!
Today should have been Gregg Allman’s 76th birthday. Let’s mark it with an adaptation from Brothers and Sisters: the Allman Brothers Band and The Album That Defined The 70s focusing on the transition of the ABB’s 5 man band into the new Brothers and sisters era group, featurng Chuck Leavell, and the start of Gregg’s recording of his solo debut, Laid Back.
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Here’s a curated playlist of some of my favorite Gregg songs to listen to as you read.
The Allman Brothers band toured as a five-piece for a year after Duane’s death on October 29, 1971, before returning to Macon, run down and unsure just what would come next. Gregg, exhausted from what he called “the longest year of my life,” was anxious to plunge himself into his greatest shelter from the storm: writing and recording music. He was working on several new songs and was obsessed with “Queen of Hearts,” a sweeping, romantic composition rooted in folk but with a grand, jazzy vision that he had been struggling to complete for over a year.
He moved a Hammond B3 organ and a drum kit into his living room and invited Capricorn house drummer Bill Stewart over to work with him as he attempted to marry the song’s bluesy opening to its jazzy, swinging interlude, which is played in 11/8 time, unusual for a rock or blues song. “He was working out the changes necessary to make that work,” Stewart said.
When the Allman Brothers had a meeting to go over new material, Gregg proudly showed them “Queen of Hearts,” and the group promptly rejected it, a dismissal he viewed as “a real mind fuck,” one that drove him into “a silent rage.”
“It took me a year and a half to write ‘Queen of Hearts,’ the longest it ever took me to do anything, and the band flat out turned it down,” Gregg said. “It was the first time that ever happened, and I believed in that son of a bitch just like I believed in ‘Midnight Rider’ or ‘Whipping Post.’ Maybe they didn’t mean to spurn me, but it really hurt me.”
The rejection spurred Gregg to pursue a solo album he had contemplated for years, a project that would allow him to explore and develop a softer, more lyrical side of himself. He had a name picked out before he started: Laid Back.
Allman asked his friend Deering Howe for financial backing so “he’d be free from all the bullshit with Capricorn Records,” said Howe,who agreed to help for a producer’s credit.
“Gregory was just not in a good place,” Howe said. “He was still trying to cope with Duane’s loss, and he wanted a change musically as well. He had these songs that didn’t fit in with the Brothers and he just wanted to do something different. He had to do something different.”
Gregg said that he called his bandmates and explained what he was doing before starting work, sensitive to how it could be received both internally and externally. He assured them that he was not abandoning the Allman Brothers Band and they gave their blessings to him. “They all said, ‘Do it. We’re your cheering section.’”
Allman wanted to get away from Macon to focus on this new project, so he and Howe went to Miami’s Criteria Studios on May 12, 1972, in the middle of an off month for the Allman Brothers Band. They were joined by Stewart, Oakley, and Capricorn house bass player Robert Popwell. Why two bass players and no guitarist? “Because Gregg had no idea what he wanted to do other than try to work out some of these songs, which the Brothers didn’t want,” said Stewart. “He was especially confused about how to pick a guitar player in the absence of Duane.”
The band stayed at the musician-friendly Thunderbird Motel and hung out with former Jimi Hendrix drummer Mitch Mitchell, who was recording the band Ramatam’s debut album with Tom Dowd producing. One night, Allman, Mitchell, and Ramatam guitarist Mike Pinera, formerly of Iron Butterfly and Blues Image (“Ride Captain Ride”), jammed in the studio.
Gregg cut a handful of band demos, but most of what emerged featured him alone on acoustic guitar. He cut raw, unguarded recordings of a few of his own gentle songs, along with tunes by Muddy Waters and Jackson Browne, some of which eventually came out on the out-of-print One More Try collection and/or the Laid Back deluxe edition released in 2019. While none of the tracks from the Criteria sessions were used on the final album, they started to form the template of what Gregg wanted to explore on his solo debut.
On July 5, Howe and Allman spent a day together at New York’s Advantage Street Studios without making much progress. “Quite frankly, Gregory was pretty drunk the whole time, and it was hard to get anything done,” Howe said.
A busy Allman Brothers Band summer tour wrapped up August 31 at Atlanta’s Municipal Auditorium, and they returned home to Macon. Worn out from the grind, the band took a break, uncertain just when they’d get back to work. Still pursuing his solo project, Gregg went into Capricorn Studios alone with Stewart for two long sessions, which left him exhausted and frustrated. Then Stewart made a simple suggestion: ask Johnny Sandlin for help. It turned out to be sage advice that forever altered Gregg’s solo career.
**
Word that Gregg was working on a solo album intensified already-swirling rumors around Macon that the Allman Brothers Band was breaking up. Guitarist Les Dudek came to town from Florida looking to join the new group he had heard Dickey Betts would be forming.
“There was a cloud of uncertainty over the future of the band and people were talking about that around town,” said Chuck Leavell, a young pianist who had toured with Alex Taylor and Dr. John and whom Sandlin had enlisted for Laid Back.
Working with a core band under Sandlin’s direction, Allman’s solo tracks started to take shape. Betts was also writing new material, and the Allman Brothers Band started getting together for studio jams after the Laid Back sessions, which Jaimoe was also participating in. Leavell and Dudek regularly joined in.
“We were recording Laid Back and as we’d finish a session, Dickey, Berry, and Butch would show up,” said Leavell. “They’d hop on their instruments, we’d pick a key and a groove and jam. It was very exciting for me.”
**
Leavell’s work with Gregg on Laid Back and his participation in the informal Allman Brothers Band jam sessions were making him indispensable to what was going on in the studio. Unbeknownst to him, Gregg had suggested adding him to the Allman Brothers lineup. Betts was the slowest to warm up to the idea of adding a pianist. During the jams, Betts largely remained aloof and would sometimes mockingly call Leavell “Chopin,” but he recognized the vitality that Leavell’s energy, enthusiasm, and graceful playing were bringing to the band. “Dickey was a little resistant about adding Chuck, but we all knew it was time for a change,” Allman said. “After we tried it, Dickey really dug it. He came to love having Chuck in there.”
One night during the Allman solo sessions, two or three hours into working on “Queen of Hearts,” Gregg turned to Leavell and said, “Chuck, I forgot to tell you, but the band is in town and we want to hire you.”
“He looks at me with a priceless look on his face,” Gregg recalled. “A look of shock, I guess, but he didn’t say much. I stopped after a while and said, ‘Well, shit what do you want me to tell them?’ He came over and hugged me. That was a good night for him!”
Still, Leavell had not received a formal invitation and kept his expectations in check until he received a call from Walden’s secretary, Carolyn Brown, saying, “Phil wants to see you in his office.” It still felt ominous—like a kid being called to the principal’s office. Despite the conversation with Gregg, his first thought was, “Oh, crap, what have I done?”
Leavell walked into Walden’s office and saw the entire Allman Brothers Band sitting around the room. Walden quickly got to the point: “The guys have been enjoying these jam sessions and they feel like you’re adding an interesting element. We know no one could replace Duane, but this is a different direction and they like what’s happening. Would you be interested in finishing this record and going on tour?”
Despite all the jam sessions, and even Gregg’s earlier invitation, Leavell was stunned into virtual silence. He felt as if he were being invited into the knighthood. “I went from unemployed to playing with one of the greatest bands of the day,” he said. “I was on top of the world. I knew we had something cool going on, but I thought it was just good-time jamming.”
With Leavell on board, sessions for the follow-up to Eat a Peach began in earnest. Gregg paused work on his solo album, although Talton, Boyer, Sandlin, Leavell, and others continued to work on arrangements, songs, and ideas both with and without Gregg. Everyone’s focus shifted to the Allman Brothers Band recording taking place in the same studio.
Adapted from Brothers and Sisters: the Allman Brothers Band and The Album That Defined The 70s, copyright Alan Paul, 2023.
Alan Paul’s fourth book, Brothers and Sisters: the Allman Brothers Band and The Album That Defined The 70s, will be published July 25, 2023, by St. Martin’s Press. His last two books – Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan and One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band – debuted in the New York Times Non-Fiction Hardcover Bestsellers List. His first book was Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues and Becoming a Star in Beijing, about his experiences raising a family in Beijing and touring China with a popular original blues band. It was optioned for a movie by Ivan Reitman’s Montecito Productions. He is also a guitarist and singer who fronts two bands, Big in China and Friends of the Brothers, the premier celebration of the Allman Brothers Band.
Thank you Alan. As usual, you bring us right into the room with these legends and heroes of our musical lives. I could just picture Dickey mocking Chuck Leavelle, one of the greatest rock and blues piano players of all time IMO! I mean, is there really a better piano solo on any recording that beats Jessica? I think not!
Thanks Alan- this was wonderful writing and storytelling!!