What followed, though, was one of the great third acts in American entertainment. The broken brotherhood soldiered on before calling it quits in 1976 and, after a three-year reunion, again in 1982. In their absence, Betts took a more prominent role on 1972’s Eat a Peach and 1973’s Brothers and Sisters, showcasing his knack for juxtaposing the bucolic (his instrumental "Jessica") with the badass (the Top-10 single "Ramblin' Man"). By the end of the next year, however, both Duane and Oakley had died in motorcycle crashes. Their earliest studio albums added future blues standards like "Whipping Post" and extended improv vehicles like "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" to the jam-band canon, and they became bona fide stars with the 1971 release of their sprawling live album, At Fillmore East. The dazzling slide guitarist Duane Allman and his gruff-voiced keyboardist brother Gregg formed their modal-jamming sextet in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969, joined by co-lead guitarist Dickey Betts, bassist Berry Oakley, and a pair of powerhouse drummers in Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny Johansen, aka Jaimoe. “Midnight Rider” is a great song, a prime example of what can be said with only a few words, a song for all times and generations whose titular character is “bound to keep on ridin’.” You’ll be able to read more about “Midnight Rider” and other compositions by Gregg Allman in the Jan/Feb Legends Issue of American Songwriter.The USA's most iconic rock band south of the Mason-Dixon Line was a relentlessly improvising juggernaut that transcended tragedies, breakups, and frequent personnel changes over four and a half decades. ![]() Bon Jovi has performed an abbreviated version of the song as a segue into their own “Wanted Dead or Alive,” continuing the theme of a man on the run, but on a motorcycle. It has been cut by bluegrassers like Krauss and Eddie Adcock, “Godmother of Punk” Patti Smith, and Canadian rockers Theory of a Deadman, and has been recorded at least three different times by Willie Nelson. ![]() Some performers (e.g., Alison Krauss and Union Station) have taken major liberties with the key, changes and tempo without losing the flavor or intent of the piece. The original guitar tunings by Duane Allman and Dickey Betts were probably standard, but some artists, including Gregg Allman himself, have been known to drop one or both E strings to D.Īnother notable thing about “Midnight Rider” is that the song is so open to stylistic interpretation. With the signature lick on the open A and D strings that is a cousin to licks used by Neil Young, Journey and others, “Midnight Rider,” in the key of D, utilizes a IVmi7 chord (G mi7) and a VII chord (C) for its chorus, and the solo is played over a VII chord and a VIb chord (Bb). But unlike the material of those artists, Allman’s own writing has seldom revolved around such progressions, and “Midnight Rider” is an example of that. ![]() Many of the performers who influenced Allman’s artistic growth were straight blues writers whose songs almost exclusively used I-IV-V progressions. ![]() Who is this “Midnight Rider?” What/who is he running from? Does he ever get caught, or does he elude his trackers to live to a ripe old age? Where some songs might be considered incomplete if these details were missing, “Midnight Rider” is a well-written classic about a faceless character that invites the listener in to make his or her own conclusions. With “Midnight Rider,” Allman threw some paint on a canvas and handed brushes to the listeners, inviting them to use their own colors, their own imaginations, to complete the picture.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |