This is Later with Lee Matthews, The Lee Matthews Podcast. More of what you here weekday afternoons on the Drive. Alan Paul is the author of a New York Times bestseller of One Way Out, The Inside Story of the Allman Brothers Band, The Definitive Book on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Band,
and Texas Flood, The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan. His newest creation drills down and does a deeper dive into the Allman Brothers and Brothers and Sisters, the Allman Brothers Band, and the inside story of the album that defined the seventies. Welcome, Alan Paul, Thank you, thank you very much for having me. Well, let's start with Allman Brothers and the history of the Allman Brothers because not one, but two generations have passed since the
release of this album. That is true. Yeah, I mean, the album just stands at test of time and it's not my graduation. It's not a cliche to say that, because the factors are celebrating its fifty at the anniversary and it still sounds great and we still listen to it now. I know that the rambling Man from this album is one of the most played classic rock titles. I don't know that it got as much airplay then as it does now. Well I get your point, and if you take it in
total, that's certainly true. But it did get a lot of airplay in seventy three, and I'm sure you remember and for some of the listeners remember at that time, when a song became a hit, it could really get a lot of hit play. I mean, you couldn't go anywhere in nineteen seventy three thousand wearing that song every half an hour on the rating was it was pretty ubiquitous. But but yes, point taking it has again, like I said, it has really stood the test of time because it's still goods
played all the time fifty years later. It's ironic because the band at some point it's almost embarrassed by that song because you know, they parted the race with pickybet in two and who wrote and sang it. The song was so associated with him, so they quit playing it for the most part. A couple of very rare occurrences were Ward Haynes saying it and it's sort of stated from the memory of the band like they wanted to, you know, memory hole it and it's kind of crazy because it is such a great song.
And that also, you know, way is why I wanted to write this book, because it's not just that song, but that whole album and that whole era when they were the most popular, which is sort of oddly being overlooked and pushed aside in the band's history, and I want to directify that. Well. Also, radio at that time was different than it is now. You didn't you didn't have so many divisions within formats as you do today.
So here was what we now consider a rock song. But it made it onto the top forty charts, right, It made it actually to number two. It was held out from being number one by schars hat Breed, which is sort of crazy and and ironic considering that you know, a year later Greg and Share Greg Alman and Share would be a couple and you know, married before two long. But it's just one of those peculiarities of pop culture history. That's what happens after you remember why I never ramble man with
Nuther too. Alan Paul is here. He's the author of the New York Times bestseller It's It's called the Allman Brothers and the Allman Brothers Band and the Inside Story, the album that defined the seventies, Brothers and Sisters, one of the big albums from that era. And I'm speaking of that, that relationship between Share and Greg and the child on the cover of the album. I think a lot of people mistakenly assume that that's Elijah Blue. Yes,
Eliza Blue was not born yet. Gregor Grego shared, I had not even met yet at the time of the album release. It's actually Bereer Truck, who is the son of Butch Truck's Olmen Brothers drummer. Yeah. They also a lot of rumors say it's Derek Drugs, whose valors first cousin, and but his nephew also was not born yet. In nineteen sevent Victory, what was it about their studio, Capricorn that that became so distinctive for them? Well, Capricorn was a unique situation. It was located in Macon, Georgia,
which was really sort of the middle of nowhere at that time. It's about eighty miles south of Atlanta, and it was pretty isolated. They were based there because Phil Waldon, who was the founder owner of the label, was from Macon, as was Otis Redding, and Phil Walden had been Otis
reading as manager. They started working together when they were teenagers. And in nineteen sixty seven, when Otis Redding died in that horrible plane crash, Phil Walden was berest and he was looking for what he was going to do next. And he had one a Moneric pop festival with Otis, and he saw what was happening, you know, Jimmy Hendrick's experience, who the grateful dad, the mamas and the papas and on and on. I mean it was
the first great rock festival. And he saw the crowd, he saw the kids, and when Otis was gone, he realized, you know, he had to get into that. He had to head into rock, and he discovered Dwayne Alman signed him, and then Dyne put together on the Alms with this band, and then they in turn put Capricorn and make it on the map. And what's interesting is that Brothers and Sisters is the first album they recorded entirely without Dwayne Alman, who died halfway through the recording of E to
Peach. So he's on half of VA to Peach, He's not on the other half. And it was the first album that they recorded at home. It may make at Capricorn Studios. So it was the first post dyne album, was the first making album, and I think that really helped him to create this new sound for the first time. I think they really sounded like a making band. And that was also partly because Dicky bettis stepping more to the ford. He had a little bit of country leading, so he started
hearing that come out most most liveably of course in ramble Man. So Making and Typricorn were just central to this whole the album. I mean, you can't separate them. It wasn't just a studio where they happened to record it. If that makes any sense. Oh, it makes plenty of sense.
And I'm wondering too, because they were such a show band, the Allman Brothers, and we're talking to Alan Paul, who's written the book The Allman Brothers Band and The Inside Story, the album that defined the seventies, which is Brothers and Sisters. They had performed so much live and we're so used to at least it seems to me listening to them over and over and over again as I have, they seem to be used to their own improvisation.
They knew when when the guitar was going to go in a certain direction, and they followed them. And it seems to me that a recording session with the Allman Brothers must have been just like a big jam session with a tape
recorder rolling. Well. Sometimes you have sometimes no on this album, and Dickie that Sasses in the book, he said this to me in an interview that he thought this was the first time they really used the studio in the way that you know, more polished studio bands do, and Nderman is a great example if you really listen to it. I think there's like twelve guitar tracks, so that one really wasn't a jam. And Jessica was a really
carefully constructed song. Now, I think where the live performance of jam they really came in is that they didn't have to like labor over Jessica. It was a very carefully composed piece, but when they played it, they played it live like a jam. So a little bit of a combination of both and brothers and sisters was the first time, I think where they really really buckled down in a studio and created something that was very different than they would
have just done live. Did they have a particular producer that they worked with who maybe suggested things here and there about track to track editing or anything like that. Yeah, So their first two and a half records, the first two where the first three and a half records, if he kept alive, I feel where he's all done with Tom Dowd, who was the great producer from Atlantic Records, and he was sort of like a father figure to him.
That he was based in Miami, And as I said, they recruited this one in making and it was done with Johnny Sandlin, who had been a close friend of the band, had engineered most of their other albums, so he was certainly very familiar, and I think on this album his role was more being almost like a counselor keeping everyone going, keeping it. They were certainly the enter a point where there certainly left some success. They were
having money, the drug problems were getting worse. They weren't all in the studio at the same time, and Johnny could just sort of keep them on track because he was an old friend, and he was of course a great engineer and soundman, so I think his production help was more, yeah, guys, here's what you need to do. Just keep it over on the same page and moving and then of course doing expert production. You can tell him kind of a geek for that thing, for that kind of stuff.
Allman Brothers Band and the inside story of the album that defined the seventies. It is out now and Alan Paul is the writer of it. If you love this behind the scenes stuff, you'll you'll love this. And the Almond Brothers. I mean, I guess an argument could be made they kind of developed Southern rock. Yeah, well, they came to really dislike the title because they thought it was limiting it in because you know, they didn't you
know, is Elizabeth read Southern rock? Is Melissa? They thought it was limiting. But at the same time, they really really did the inspiration and in a way, i'd say it started on this album sonically. I mean Random Man's self bound those spit into that southern rock field more than some of their earlier stuff did. But I think an even bigger part of it wasn't
a particular sound as which is just the inspiration. All these great Southern musicians were seeing their success, and then the record labels were seeing their success. So I mean, Leonard Skimnard was kicking around for five years and couldn't get it. D I mean, and eventually when they put their demos out, the very first demos they recorded had you know, three Bird and other things.
Of course not as polished and finished, but pretty darned good. I mean, they could have put out a record anytime, you know, from nineteen seventy or whatever on. They weren't able to do it until nineteen seventy three. And I think a lot of them that did have to do with the Allman Brothers success in record labels saying you know, hey, let's go see who else is down there. These guys are so good, there must
be another band or two kicking around. Makes sense. Alan Paul Brothers and Sisters is the album that he writes about in The Allman Brothers Band or The Inside Story, the album that defined the seventies. Thanks for doing all the hard work on this and bringing this to light. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me and I just finished reading a great biography of Leon Russell, So paulso has been on my mind, so extra happily teach today.
Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation