The Allman Brothers Band, The Allman Brothers Band

When I was just starting my musical journey many years ago I was hampered by the lack of internet and limited access to information about bands I heard on the radio. There were just two well known rock bios that were accessible to teens which could have helped me. [Zeppelin's 'Hammer of the Gods' & The Doors 'No One Here Gets Out Alive'] Neither of which I read.

Why? One, I didn't enter my Doors phase until I was 20, scrawling 'Jim Lives' on every desk I could find on the Selden campus of Suffolk Community College, along with the first eight minutes of lyrics of Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick." Two, I didn't start to love Zep until my late 20s.

So that means what I learned came from the DJs, which means bands got lumped together by region or country, not by me, but by them. That means I originally thought The Allman Brothers Band was just another southern-rock band, like the Outlaws, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Marshall Tucker Band.

It wasn't until years later when I found out just how wrong I was.

The Allman Brothers Band weren't a southern-rock band, they were a blues band, plain and simple. And a kick-ass one at that.

It all starts with their first album, the 1969 release, The Allman Brothers Band.

While the rock world was moving away from psychedelia, and with heavy metal and prog rock still in their infancy, the six man band from Georgia came in and showed everyone what a band could be.

The Allman Brothers Band opens like many late 60s album -with the requisite cover- an instrumental version of Spencer Davis' "Don't Want You Know More." Tight and soulful, it leads directly into "It's Not My Cross To Bear", a slower number that has Gregg growling while Duane and Dickie Betts' guitars sing to each other over one of the best rhythm sections, ever.

"Black Hearted Woman" is a tight and swinging groove complete with drum breaks and sing-a-long chants. "Trouble No More" the Muddy Waters song is the perfect closer for side 1, with it they say, 'Here the fuck we are. Yes, we covered Muddy Waters, fuck you. Just wait till you hear side 2 which is nothing but songs we wrote.'

Back when running order and side opening/closing songs still mattered, the Allmans structured their debut perfectly. They ended side 1 by covering one of the godfathers of the blues, with it they announced their intentions to be the standard bearers for American blues. Then, they blew the doors off with the three songs on side two, all written by the band.

And what songs they were, even when you include the side 2 opener "Every Hungry Woman", one of the more pedestrian Allman Brothers songs.

Its the final two songs that show the true power of the band.

"Dreams" is a slow-burn that shows the Allmans weren't ignoring everything that was going on around them as they perfected their sound. The psychedelic tinged swirling guitar solos over the rambling duel drummers, mirror the Haight-Ashbury sound from the late 60s. All of it is underlined by Gregg's soothing work on the organ, the secret weapon of the Allmans.

But its the album closer, "Whipping Post" that would become one of the most important songs in their library. A flat-out rocker its got some of the most depressing lyrics ever. So dark and simple, you would have thought this was a cover of unknown blues artist from the 20s or 30s. Nope, its a white guy from Georgia.

'I been run down/ Lord, I been lied to/ And I don't know why/ I let that mean woman make out a fool/ She took all my money/ Wrecked my new car/ Now she's with one of my good-time buddies/ Drinkin' in some cross-town bar'

Damn Gregg, what did that woman do to you?

Often extended during their concerts, it has become the second biggest mocked live song of all time (duh, "Freebird"). But instead of the frenzied triple guitar attack of the Skynyrd epic, "Whipping Post' acted as a workout for the entire band. Changing tempos, changing attacks, allowing the Allmans the time and space to do what they did best. Play the blues.

Finally, this album contains one of the most iconic band photos ever, and its not even the front of the album. Its on the inside (or the back) I really can't remember, but it can be described in 6 words. 'Six guys, one river, one hat.'

Of course, I include it here instead of the proper album cover.

A top 200 album with a good chance to move up as I become more familiar with it.