The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East (1971/2004) [SACD]

At Fillmore East is a double live album by The Allman Brothers Band. The band’s breakthrough success, At Fillmore East was released in July 1971. It ranks #49 among Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time & remains among the top-selling albums in the band’s catalogue.
Recorded at the Fillmore East concert hall, the storied rock venue in New York City, on Friday/Saturday March 12/13, 1971, it showcased the band’s mixture of blues, Southern rock & jazz. The cover of Blind Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues” which opens the set showcases Duane Allman’s slide guitar work in open E Tuning. “Whipping Post” became the standard for a long, epic jam that never lost interest (opening in 11/8 time, unusual territory for a rock band), while the ethereal-to-furious “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed”, with its harmonized melody, Latin feel & burning drive invited comparisons with John Coltrane (especially Duane’s solo-ending pull-offs, a direct nod to the jazz saxophonist).
The album was produced by Tom Dowd, who condensed the running time of various songs, occasionally even merging multiple performances onto 1 track. At Fillmore East peaked at #13 on Billboard’s Pop Albums chart.
2 other songs recorded during the same set of shows, “Trouble No More”, & the memorable “Mountain Jam”, were later released on Eat A Peach, the latter spanning 2 sides of the double album.
Album cover:
None of the pictures for the cover of the band was actually taken at the Fillmore East. The photographer Jim Marshall took the cover shot near the band’s headquarters in Macon, Georgia, where the band had relocated from Florida to be near manager Phil Walden’s new Criteron Studios. Normally the band hated being photographed; the cover of The Fillmore Concerts shows them displaying terminal boredom. However, during the session, Duane spotted a dealer friend, raced over & grabbed a bag of contraband, then returned to his seat, discreetly clutching the stash in his lap. This cracked up all the members, resulting in a memorable image.
The back cover shows their road crew gathered in the same spot with 16oz. cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer provided by the photographer as a reward to the roadies for lugging out & stacking the band’s heavy equipment for the photo shoot. Their expressions clarify their thoughts about the brand.