The classic 1971 live version of “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” the Allman Brothers’ wonderful mini symphony within a ballad, opens with a gently swinging Dickey Betts guitar solo evocative of a smoke-filled jazz club late at night.
As Betts slowly tricks out the song’s primary theme, he is joined by the creamy signature slide sound of Duane Allman’s guitar. Allman at first plays behind Betts but they soon join in unison as the tempo picks up and gallops into a quasi-Latin beat . Betts takes a solo, then Duane’s brother Greg does a turn on organ as Betts and Duane play rhythm figures behind him.
Then it is Duane’s turn to solo: A rephrasing of the theme that builds to a high-pitched scream with Berry Oakley laying down a thunderous counterpoint on bass. Duane backs down and then climbs again, reaching an even more furious peak that begs comparison to a John Coltrane saxophone solo. He backs down again as Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny Johanson, the drummer-percussionist duo, take a brief turn. The full band then comes in and blazes to a thunderous climax.
The seminal recording of this instrumental clocks in at barely 13 minutes on the Live at Fillmore East album. But because of its wonderful mood and time signature shifts it seems much longer even after repeated listenings over the years, and each and every time I am reminded what an extraordinary ensemble the Allman Brothers were (and are) and what an extraordinary musician Duane Allman was.
There may have been better slide guitar players technically than Allman, but none had his improvisational abilities.
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