So, what have you been listening to lately?

[Basvarken]

That was pretty bad indeed.
Actually I have never heard Clapton having such bad tone.
And who on earth thought it was a good idea to let Roger Waters do the bass on this song?

[4stringer77]

It's not fair to judge Clapton's tone based on an iphone recording. Roger wasn't a virtuoso here but he got the job done as he always has with doing the least amount of work possible. They have worked together before on Roger's Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking album so not a completely bewildering ensemble. It's the thought that really counts though right?

[Basvarken]

It's not fair to judge Clapton's tone based on an iphone recording.

Oh come on. Even with an iPhone recording you can hear it's crap, can't you?

[Pilgrim]

Oh come on. Even with an iPhone recording you can hear it's crap, can't you?

My thought was also that I can't judge it based on a phone recording..although it's definitely not great, I can't hear the mix, the voices or the low end.

I'd sum it up as an effort that didn't work very well, but I'm confident it sounded a lot better in person than it did on that phone recording. The cameras in phones are amazing, but the mics are still crap.

[uwe]

No amount of bad recording quality can excuse a performance as bad as this, I've listened to enough bootlegs, believe me. Crap shines through. The song is too slow, Clapton off key (and Waters when he sings), Clapton's soloing listless and uninspired (he's playing for Ginger Baker, dammit!) and Waters playing unenergetic as if he played that iconic bass riff for the first time. We all know that Waters isn't Stanley Clarke, but even he can do better.

Both of them sure had a bad night (as it happens to all of us), pity it was recorded.

[westen44]

There was an audible influence of that on their very early albums, but since then they have probably become closer to, say, The Gaslight Anthem than to the Allmans. Songwriting and lyrics took precedence over jammy instrumentalism - of course, there is room for both, but seldom in one band.

I read some comments by one of the co-founders last night.  He said he had wanted their music to be a rebellion against Lynyrd Skynyrd and .38 Special.  Also, that he was obsessed with Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young.  Nothing was said about the Allmans, but when it gets down to it, you don't hear too many people saying anything negative about them.  I once had a girlfriend who didn't seem to like them at all.  But she seemed to be the exception to the rule.  She did cause me to miss two Allman Brothers concerts, though.  Something not to be joked about and something which I regret to this day.  With the second concert I made it to the parking lot as their were finishing their last song.  That's the closest I ever got to seeing the Allman Brothers.  By the time I got inside, the stage was empty.   

[4stringer77]

Yeah it kind of sucked. So sue them?

[westen44]

Yeah it kind of sucked. So sue them?

I should have sued my girlfriend!!.  Just joking.  I realize your post is about something else. 

[uwe]

Where's my Dutch Thin Lizzy floozy?

Rob, I have to make amends! Listened to Bad Reputation (the album) a couple of times. It's real nice (especially the ballady stuff - appeals to a wuss like me), good melodic songwriting. For the record: Downey's bass drum work on Bad Reputation (the song) is great.

And that feathery, airy Lynott bass playing ...  You can hear that he had an extremely light touch with his right hand (not a complaint, I don't dig very hard either and it got lighter and lighter over the years) which brings the old Scott Gorham comment to mind: "Phil didn't play or pick bass, he strummed it like no-one else I've heard did".

Plus that phaser-drenched sound of the bass all over the record ...  If effects endorsements had been commonplace back then, Phil would have made serious money with this "phased bass demonstration record". It sure sounds like my old Ibanez phaser - minus the hiss. 

[uwe]

Yeah it kind of sucked. So sue them?

Naw, I'm still busy preparing that big case against Led Zeppelin for emotional cruelty, idiot lyrics, sloppy solos and general behind-the-beat-dragging, can't have my attention diverted ...

[westen44]

More bad-accents-non-country-rubbish-music us easily impressionable Krauts are enticed by:

I've never heard of them.  But I did notice that Amanda Shires is in that.  She has been on a number of songs by Jason Isbell who used to be a member of Drive-By Truckers. 

[uwe]

I read some comments by one of the co-founders last night.  He said he had wanted their music to be a rebellion against Lynyrd Skynyrd and .38 Special.  Also, that he was obsessed with Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young.  Nothing was said about the Allmans, but when it gets down to it, you don't hear too many people saying anything negative about them.  I once had a girlfriend who didn't seem to like them at all.  But she seemed to be the exception to the rule.  She did cause me to miss two Allman Brothers concerts, though.  Something not to be joked about and something which I regret to this day.  With the second concert I made it to the parking lot as their were finishing their last song.  That's the closest I ever got to seeing the Allman Brothers.  By the time I got inside, the stage was empty.   

The Allmans were Southern Rock and yet they weren't. Just like Cream was and wasn't a hard rock band. There was always something more fundamentally musicianly to them than to, say, Lynyrd Skynrd, Marshall Tucker, Molly Hatchet, 38 Special, Outlaws, Charlie Daniels, Blackfoot ... There was more blues and jazz to the Allmans than to the rest put together though Dickie Betts brought in a more country'ish influence over time. The Allmans were also never identified with a Grand Old South agenda/image (just like Tom Petty, Don Felder and Don Henley, all of them Southerners, never were), the fact that they had black players in their line ups was no coincidence if you ask me. Can you imagine a black player with Lynyrd Skynyrd or Molly Hatchet?

Only mildly related, but I never knew Primus did this, the vid is a riot!

[westen44]

The Allmans were Southern Rock and yet they weren't. Just like Cream was and wasn't a hard rock band. There was always something more fundamentally musicianly to them than to, say, Lynyrd Skynrd, Marshall Tucker, Molly Hatchet, 38 Special, Outlaws, Charlie Daniels, Blackfoot ... There was more blues and jazz to the Allmans than to the rest put together though Dickie Betts brought in a more country'ish influence over time. The Allmans were also never identified with a Grand Old South agenda/image (just like Tom Petty, Don Felder and Don Henley, all of them Southerners, never were), the fact that they had black players in their line ups was no coincidence if you ask me. Can you imagine a black player with Lynyrd Skynyrd or Molly Hatchet?

Only mildly related, but I never knew Primus did this, the vid is a riot!

The Allman Brothers didn't want to be called Southern rock.  I'm not sure exactly why, except I'm sure they knew their music went way beyond that.  By their time period, though, a major shift had taken place among many young people in the South.  Racism was something more for older people.  There were exceptions, but this is the way things were in general.  Showtime released a documentary in 2015 which provided some good examples of this. It was the Atlanta Pop Festival (1970) mostly showing the reaction to Hendrix.  The audience loved him.  It also provided some info contrasting the audience to the racist governor at that time.  It was like a clash of generations going on.  Now, of course, that younger generation of the 60s and 70s is the older generation of today.  Something which I feel people don't always acknowledge when they start trying to stereotype the South. 

BTW, that Primus video is hilarious. 

[Pilgrim]

I like it!

"Performed by:

Festus Clamrod
and
The El Sobrante Twangers"

I looked it  up, and El Sobrante is a "census-designated place" in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 12,669 at the 2010 census.

[Basvarken]

Been listening to these guys a lot last few days.



Going to see them live in a month