Dickey Betts, RIP

[westen44]

Dickey never quite received the attention he deserved while in the Allman Brothers or after, IMO.  I don't know the details of his passing away.  This particular song was written by Billy Ray Reynolds.  The Dickey Betts' version was not all that well known.  I think the Waylon Jennings' version may have received more attention.  On the other hand, Waylon is known more for being a singer than Dickey, while Dickey, needless to say played by Duane Allman's side.  When it comes to guitar credentials, that's going pretty high. 

[uwe]

Dickey never quite received the attention he deserved while in the Allman Brothers or after, IMO.

Huh  , he basically hijacked the band after Duane's untimely death and kept it going while Gregg was sinking into his heroin and whatever-induced stupor.

Rest in peace. Excellent guitarist in a band that had an embarrassment of riches as great guitarists go. I was under the assumption that his health had suffered under decades of substance abuse too.

[westen44]

Dickey never quite received the attention he deserved while in the Allman Brothers or after, IMO.

Huh  He basically hijacked the band after Duane's untimely death and kept it going while Gregg was sinking into his heroin and whatever-induced stupor.his

Rest in peace. Excellent guitarist in a band that had an embarrassment of riches as great guitarists go.I was under the assumption that his health had suffered under decades of substance abuse too.

It depends on your perspective.  The people I was around a lot, some of which even had some contact with the Allman Brothers before they got famous, tended to put Dickey in the shadows and elevated Duane.  I'm sure I have told this story before.  But I went to high school with an amazing guitarist who once got the chance to jam with Duane Allman.  His name was Edwin and he had long red hair.  He said after playing with Duane, he put down his guitar for two weeks, thinking there was no need to attempt trying to be a guitarist after that experience.  In all the years I've known him, that was the only time I ever saw true humility in Edwin.  Because the fact is he was a great guitarist.  Certainly the best local guitarist.  But trying to compare himself to Duane Allman was another matter. 

[uwe]

This will get me killed, but technically Dickey, a taught banjo player, was likely superior to Duane. All that Bluegrass influence and even Jazz.





Duane had feel and style in loads + that slide thing, but he was also a bit of a one trick pony.

And when you hear the Allmans on Classic Rock radio it's almost inevitably either Jessica or Ramblin' Man, both Betts compositions after Duane's passing. Or Midnight Rider, a Gregg Allman song.

Now lynch me!





Fame attaches itself for the weirdest reasons, but Joe Perry isn't the best guitarist in Aerosmith either, that laurel belongs to Brad Whitford. Or to put it with Duane about Dickey: "I'm the famous one, but he's the real guitar player!"

[westen44]

I just really did like Duane Allman's sound.  Plus, I did go through a formative period in which the people I was around were literally fanatical Duane Allman fans.  These were mostly people who knew even more about music than I did.  That had quite an impact.  Also, all the albums Duane was on were my favorites.  Of course I've got practically everything else they did after Duane, too. 

I definitely agree about Brad Whitford.  The only reason I know much about this is being around a friend who is an Aerosmith fan.  She prefers Joe Perry, but I don't. 

[patman]

I really liked how both Duane and Dickey soloed like jazz horn players

[uwe]

I think that arranging that dual stuff was mainly Dickey's do. Don't believe that Duane bothered much with the circle of fifths. 

[westen44]

Yes, it was Dickey's idea to do the dual stuff.  By coincidence an Allman Brothers documentary came on earlier in the day which flooded me with info.  It made me realize that at least some of what I posted even on this thread was based on my subjective view of it all.  If you look at it objectively, there may be a different way to put things. 

It got me to thinking how I tend to focus on the earliest albums of a band.  My perception of them is often based on that.  Often it seems to me a band's best albums are the early ones.  Of course there are many exceptions.  But for me personally, it turns out that way a lot.  Certainly for me I liked the early Allman Brothers the best.  And it wasn't just because Duane Allman was there.  It had more to do with the songs themselves.  Those were just killer songs to me.  The band itself ended pretty impressively with a virtuoso like Derek Trucks on guitar.  But it ended that way only after going through many ups and downs, mostly downs it seems.  Among many other things, for instance, who would have dreamed that Gregg Allman at one point would become a laughingstock due to his marriage with Cher.  I think everyone on earth regretted that that happened.  The documentary did a good job in presenting the ugliness of that. 

[ajkula66]

I favour the original line-up, and the early records. Prefer D.A. to D.B. but...had the latter only written "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed" that would've been enough for me to hold him in the highest regard...

[uwe]

I got to know the Dickey Betts sans Duane-version of the Allmans with Jessica and Ramblin' Man long before I heard the Fillmore recordings. Based on that listening experience, they were to me first and foremost a country rock band writing jaunty songs in major keys, I heard that improvisational stuff only much, much later. So I always thought that Dickey Betts was the de facto leader and musical director. While Gregg Allman was out of it most of the time.

And I don't think that album with Cher was awful (just unremarkable), I even own some obscure CD version of it from South America, I don't think it was ever officially released digitally. With the number of mostly younger men she's had, Cher must have undeniable qualities. You can't beat experience.

[westen44]

I never closely observed what was going on with the Cher situation.  Cher can sometimes get on my nerves, but I thought that Sonny and Cher TV show was actually entertaining.  In the case of Gregg and Cher together, it struck me that the public was just being cruel.  I never listened to the Gregg and Cher music enough to have an opinion.  When she was young, I thought Cher looked quite pretty.  I liked her in "Mermaids."