Classic Allmans Set Expands To Six Discs
A milestone live album in rock history has expanded into a box set, to the delight of all fans of the Allman Brothers Band.
Their ‘At Fillmore East’ album, recorded over the weekend of March 12-13, 1971 is out now via Mercury as ‘The 1971 Fillmore East Recordings,’ stretching over six CDs and with the addition of 16 unreleased tracks. The set will now include the band’s performance on June 27 that year during the venue’s closing weekend, after impresario Bill Graham chose the ABB to headline its final night.
The set is produced by Bill Levenson, whose most recent Allman-related anthology was Rounder’s ‘Skydog: The Duane Allman Retrospective’ last year. The original ‘At Fillmore East’ album is in the Grammy Hall of Fame and placed at No. 49 in Rolling Stone’s 2003 list of the top 500 albums of all time. It reached No. 13 during a 47-week run on the US album chart.
“From its inception in March 1969, the Allman Brothers Band rapidly established a near-mythical reputation through its incendiary, marathon concerts,” “Allmanologist” John Lynskey writes In his sleeve notes for the new set.
“No other group could touch the Allman Brothers when it came to extended, improvised jamming; they truly were in a league and dimension of their own. “Duane Allman was joined by his brother Gregg on keyboards and vocals, the dual drumming combo of Jaimoe and Butch Trucks, bassist extraordinaire Berry Oakley, and Dickey Betts, Duane’s foil on guitar. Together, these individually talented artists blended into a unit whose sum exceeded the total of its impressive singular parts.” Duane, sadly, would die in a motorcycle accident only a few months after these recordings, in October, 1971.
Drummer Butch Trucks remembers: “That weekend in March of ‘71 when we recorded At Fillmore East, most of the time it clicked. We were finally starting to catch up with what we were listening to. We had lived together…we got in trouble together; we all just moved as a unit. And then, when we got onstage to play, that’s what it was all about—and it just happened to all come together that weekend.”
The four shows were recorded by revered Atlantic Records engineer/producer Tom Dowd, who’d produced the band’s second album, 1970’s ‘Idlewild South.’ Dowd also oversaw the sessions for the Derek & the Dominos project that led to the thrilling guitar interaction between Duane Allman and Eric Clapton.
The entire first disc in the new set consists of unreleased recordings from the Allmans’ first, March 12 show at the Fillmore East, including the famed ‘Statesboro Blues’ and typically epic versions of ‘In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed’ and ‘You Don’t Love Me,’ each clocking in around 17 minutes. The June 27 closing show includes Bill Graham’s introduction of a nine-song set that included ‘Midnight Rider’ and ‘Hot Lanta.’
You can get ‘The 1971 Fillmore East Recordings’ at the official uDiscover store here.
UK English
Doug Wolfe
July 7, 2014 at 9:23 pm
The June 27th performance is already released as Disc Two of “Eat A Peach – Deluxe Edition”. Unless there is additional music or significant upgrading of sound, I don’t know why this is included. Doug.
Jim Moulton
July 8, 2014 at 10:32 am
You are right, it is on the 2nd Disc of Deluxe “Eat A Peach”
Hector Trevino
July 7, 2014 at 10:40 pm
I just love these photos. I soooo miss our time, Sr ’72!
onthewall2983
July 7, 2014 at 10:49 pm
Doug, there is also a Blu-ray set of this containing a 5.1 mix of every show.
Anthony
July 8, 2014 at 3:06 pm
when you say blur-ray do you mean video ??
Peter Chrisp
July 15, 2014 at 11:59 am
Onthewall2983 It’s a massive box set 6 cd’s, 4 vinyl ,and 3 bluray discs. There are two web-pages you can check out online that i think gives you more details, in regards to the bluray
sets i don’t think it’s “visual” so the way i look at it, the 6 cd box set will be equal to the music on the bd, you will find more detail track listing and times of each track at this web-page, with two ee’s here we go superdeluxeedition, and number 2 site 2dd’s seconddisc. Worth having a look, hope this helps. P.C
John Washburn
July 7, 2014 at 11:07 pm
Well Doug, somethings never change. If there’s a way to repackage recordings and sell more units, they’re gonna do it. Considering how paltry the actual selling of recordings is these days, I don’t object. Especially if it’s from such an outstanding band as ABB. I’m sure Duane Allman’s estate will benefit and it’s well deserved. His published music is rather slight compared to the impact and legacy he provided in his short life
MattJazz
July 7, 2014 at 11:58 pm
Maybe it is included because Bill Graham’s introduction was butchered out on Eat A Peach Deluxe CD2
Peter
July 8, 2014 at 12:36 am
The only added material for the June 27th performance is Bill Graham’s introduction – not reason enough to release this again – and ultimately begs the question why was Bill’s intro left off the Eat A Peach disc? WTF?
There are great sounding soundboards recorded by Grateful Dead Alchemist “Bear” from the February 1970 concerts at the Fillmore West – that no one has heard – some of it was released but not all. This would have been a much better choice and would have shown nicely how much the band had grown in the span of a year’s time.
Paul C
July 8, 2014 at 12:40 am
While Tom Dowd deserves praise for producing and mixing one of the greatest records of its genre, credit should be given to the 2 audio engineers who created the live recording, Aaron Baron and Larry Dahlstrom. Their impeccable work yielded arguably.one of the best sounding live rock and roll records ever made.
Paul
July 8, 2014 at 12:45 am
So many great memories to their music, it still makes me happy to play the music and relate back to those times. We lost a great one when we lost Duane, this is a great way as a tribute to him.
Michael Benedetto
July 8, 2014 at 2:15 am
One of the all time greatest bands of the 70’s!!!
Bobby D
July 8, 2014 at 5:33 am
eat a peach has mountain jam from march 1971. Not June
Robin
July 8, 2014 at 8:23 pm
In search of some classic Allman Brothers, I did come across the Bill Grahams introduction and have downloaded it so it won’t be new to some. My point, some of this stuff is out there but it truly would be nice to have it all in once nicely boxed set. I myself, can never get enough of the Allman Brothers, yesterday and today!
Randy Lindsey
July 8, 2014 at 11:26 pm
I have many bootleg shows and am concerned the unreleased tracks will be from those , not sure I should spend that much just to replace music I may already have . If I buy at all it will be the Bluray for surround sound !!!
uDiscover
July 9, 2014 at 3:01 pm
Just to let everyone know what is different, and we think better, about this reissue. Even though much of this material has been issued before, including the June 27th Final Fillmore Concert, all the material on the upcoming sets has been remixed from the original multis in hi-res stereo and 5.1 surround sound.
The blu-ray set will present the new mixes in 96/24 5.1 surround sound and 96/24 stereo, while the CD set and 4LP highlights set will be stereo only. Also the 4LP highlights set was cut from the high res files.
Thanks for commenting everyone, as always we appreciate the feedback about the music we all love!
Timothy Lyon
July 9, 2014 at 8:40 pm
I am so grateful that I heard these guys play many years ago. Their wonderful music has been one of the enduring realities of my life and I would sincerely thank them if I could. I hate to see them quit playing but I guess everyone at some time in life after a lifetime of hard work needs to rest and do other things. God bless this incredible amazing group of guys.
Jose k.Hernandez
July 20, 2014 at 12:11 pm
Eat a Peach” Mountain Jam” should be considered A Rock and Roll Masterpiece. Live at The Fillmore one of my Top ten albums since it came out. Still can’t decide the other top 9 albums except Jimi Hendrix Are you Experienced.
Dave
August 1, 2014 at 4:06 am
It’s called marketing. Hopefully they do a better job of remastering or you’re just getting ripped off