UNRELEASED
The Allman Brothers Band’s Unreleased 1982 Album
by Craig Eason So what became of these tracks...
Were they recorded? Do they still exist? Are they any good? The answers to those ques- tions are “yes,” “some,” “maybe all” and “that depends”… There exists a collection of tracks purporting
to be the “Unreleased Allman Brothers 1982 album.” Rather than take the tracks as they
come on my review copy, I have organized into three very distinct groupings –
• Dickey Betts sung tracks – “Lorraine,” “Let Me Ride,” "Nobody Wants To Be Alone," • Gregg Allman sung tracks – “Anything Goes," "Feel Your Love,“ “Make It At All” • Outside demos – “Helpless,” “Need Some- body Bad Tonight,” “Face The Music,”,“Han- dle With Care,” “Blinded By Love.”,
Of these “Outside demos,” I can deter-
mine no Allman Brothers involvement at all on them – with the exception of “Need Somebody Bad Tonight,” which clearly has Dickey on guitar. This track was quite often part of the Betts Hall Leavell Trucks (BHLT – Dickeys first post ABB band) set list – with Jimmy Hall singing. So – what are the tracks like? The Dickey tracks are all very similar – fit- ting into his “Rock ‘n’ Roll” style. All benefit
from the signature sound of Chuck Leavell on keys throughout. • “Lorraine” will be familiar to BHLT fans, a
high energy slide guide rocker with a great chorus. “Lorraine – I thought it would sing good!” says Dickey at the BHLT show. Nice solos from Dickey and Chuck, with perform- ances and arrangement mirroring the BHLT version. • “Let Me Ride” of course cropped up on Seven Turns – but this is a rollicking 12 bar interpretation. Once again this rocking arrangement is how BHLT handled the song. • “Living Alone” bears striking similarities to “I Got A Right to be Wrong” from the Reach For The Sky Album a couple of years earlier, particularly in the linking guitar riffs, but no slide on this demo. Of these three tracks, this is the only one I cannot find a version of any- where else. As per all these tracks, it features nice Chuck and Dickey short and snappy solos.
So, Dickey’s tracks are fun and high
energy but do not offer anything new in terms of style or approach. At least two of the three were used in BHLT -
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