ideologyhunter
Contributor
Dickey Betts died Thursday at age 80 (the same age at which we lost Robbie Robertson last year -- another guitar master.)
7 ways to remember him:
1- In Memory of Elizabeth Reed -- Who else at the start of the 70s could produce such a fluid mix of jazz and rock? (Well, maybe Miles, in a different context and tradition.) My favorite version is on At Fillmore East.
2- Mountain Jam - The version on Eat a Peach contains a searing Betts solo that starts with a startling 6-note riff that he continues to play until it rolls into a fast-fingered passage that goes on and on, building in intensity.
3- Blue Sky - a perfect country rock cut, from Eat a Peach.
4- Ramblin' Man - the Allmans' biggest hit. Listen to the 7-minute version from the 9/73 Winterland concert included in the deluxe Brothers and Sisters set.
5- Jessica - My favorite rock instrumental, bar none, ever since I first heard it 51 years ago. This track never gets old. Insanely creative playing from Betts and Chuck Leavell on piano (who, it's pretty clear, deserved a composer credit with Betts.) The Winterland concert has a 10-minute take that fully explores every twist and turn of this infectious tune.
6- Disc 4 of the Grateful Dead's concert of 6/10/73, from the Here Comes Sunshine 1973 box, has Dickey and Butch Trucks sitting in with the Dead, which gives you a perfect Dead/Allmans alloy, with the ringing, joyuous tones of Jerry's and Dickey's guitars creating golden interstitching through a half dozen rockers. Wonderful stuff.
7- Pegasus, Dickey's instrumental track from Enlightened Rogues, doesn't dislodge Jessica as the peak of his composing, but delivers its own spirited, heady melody and enough changes to carry its 7-minute length.
Players like Dickey Betts are irreplaceable and have such a distinctive style that you can identify them instantly from a couple seconds of music. It's a shame that his split with the Allman band in 2000 was final, but in his prime years he created a rich catalog of songs. I've never heard any other guitarist cover Jessica. Perhaps someone has, but, really, once Dickey played it, it was complete and definitive.
7 ways to remember him:
1- In Memory of Elizabeth Reed -- Who else at the start of the 70s could produce such a fluid mix of jazz and rock? (Well, maybe Miles, in a different context and tradition.) My favorite version is on At Fillmore East.
2- Mountain Jam - The version on Eat a Peach contains a searing Betts solo that starts with a startling 6-note riff that he continues to play until it rolls into a fast-fingered passage that goes on and on, building in intensity.
3- Blue Sky - a perfect country rock cut, from Eat a Peach.
4- Ramblin' Man - the Allmans' biggest hit. Listen to the 7-minute version from the 9/73 Winterland concert included in the deluxe Brothers and Sisters set.
5- Jessica - My favorite rock instrumental, bar none, ever since I first heard it 51 years ago. This track never gets old. Insanely creative playing from Betts and Chuck Leavell on piano (who, it's pretty clear, deserved a composer credit with Betts.) The Winterland concert has a 10-minute take that fully explores every twist and turn of this infectious tune.
6- Disc 4 of the Grateful Dead's concert of 6/10/73, from the Here Comes Sunshine 1973 box, has Dickey and Butch Trucks sitting in with the Dead, which gives you a perfect Dead/Allmans alloy, with the ringing, joyuous tones of Jerry's and Dickey's guitars creating golden interstitching through a half dozen rockers. Wonderful stuff.
7- Pegasus, Dickey's instrumental track from Enlightened Rogues, doesn't dislodge Jessica as the peak of his composing, but delivers its own spirited, heady melody and enough changes to carry its 7-minute length.
Players like Dickey Betts are irreplaceable and have such a distinctive style that you can identify them instantly from a couple seconds of music. It's a shame that his split with the Allman band in 2000 was final, but in his prime years he created a rich catalog of songs. I've never heard any other guitarist cover Jessica. Perhaps someone has, but, really, once Dickey played it, it was complete and definitive.
