This is the other Allman Live album I was talking about earlier. Listening to it as I type this as I completely forget what it sounds like!
Anyway read the review and see what you think...
A customer's review:
Opening with a thoroughly bizarre introduction, and equipped with the unwieldy handle of "Live At The Atlanta International Pop Festival: July 3 & 5, 1970", this excellently remastered double live album captures The Allman Brothers Band in July of 1970, eight months before the legendary Fillmore shows.
The sound is very, very good, crisp and realistic, and the young band plays with authority and skill (singer and organ player Gregg Allman was 22 at the time, and guitarist Duane Allman little more than a year older). Duane Allman and Dickey Betts play off the muscular organ riffs of Gregg, laying down energetic, eager and (relatively) lean renditions of songs like "Every Hungry Woman", "Trouble No More", and "Statesboro Blues", versions which have a tough, rock n' roll-like immediacy sometimes lost on longer, more improvisational versions of those songs.
Disc I is the longest, although not by much. Duane Allman's slide guitar burns all the way through, and he and Dickey Betts lay down galvanizing licks behind Gregg's powerful vocals on "Trouble No More", "Every Hungry Woman" and "Don't Keep Me Wonderin'". Bassist Berry Oakley sings a great version of "(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man", and the 11-minute "Elizabeth Reed" features more high-class guitar playing than most full-lenght CDs.
"Whipping Post" includes a l-o-n-g instrumental jam which will probably appeal mostly to diehards, and this is not the best version I've heard of that song, but almost everything else on the first disc is top-notch, including the coolest, most swinging "Mountain Jam" ever!
Disc II features the original mixes of July 7th's performances of "Whipping Post" and "Statesboro Blues", first released on "First Great Rock Festivals Of The Seventies". ("Every Hungry Woman" from disc I has seen the light of day before, too; everything else is previously unreleased.)
This version of "Don't Keep Me Wonderin'" is even more magnificent than the one on disc I, a tough-as-nails rendition, all howling slide guitars and pounding drums, courtesy of Butch Trucks and Jaimoe Johnson. And the very tight, four-minute "Statesboro Blues" features, among its many other virtues, three magnificent, fiery guitar solos, including the opening one which threatens to ignite the CD player.
Disc 2's 28-minute "Mountain Jam" features a guest appearance by Johnny Winter, who plays third guitar, and if you like 28-minute Allman Brothers jams (not everybody does), this version will thrill you.
Disc II's 13-minute take on "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed" is unusually beautiful, filled with urgency and power, and while the 9-minute "They Call It Stormy Monday" is somewhat more subdued than the Fillmore version, it has lots of soul and some fine guitar playing as well.
Lots of listeners have already nmade up their mind and decided that the Allmans' "At Fillmore East" album is the greatest thing ever as far as early live Allman Brothers is concerned, and this album probably won't change their mind. But to me, these two discs match the Fillmore concerts every step of the way, due to the quality of the performances as well as the exceptionally clear sound and wonderful three-dimensional mixes.
Highly recommended!
