Hitchin' A Ride
Long before rappers called each other "Dog", that nickname was used by Duane Allman. The girls called him Skydog.
With Duane's long face, mutton like sideburns he did kind of resemble a puppy.
The Great Speckled Bird was the underground paper in Atlanta that I became the high school correspondent for and also sold to make ends meet. I was living in a duplex house, 3 floors with two roommates. Our rent was $90 a month, which meant with gas and electric, we had to come up with around $45 each for bills. It was very cheap to be a hippie. The Bird had wisely latched onto the music scene in Piedmont Park that had begun by accident. The Hampton Grease Band (who make an early appearance on The Mothers Of Invention LUMPY GRAVY album) spotted electrical plugs in the ground and set up to play. No one stopped them.
The Hampton Grease Band improvised a music set- during a riot! More on that later......
There were no permits necessary. Bands began to show up and just play. The Bird created a music scene by making these weekend free music scenes the focal point of the emerging hippie scene, but it was the Allman Brothers who began to attract several thousand fans every time they played.
Duane was people. The day the band signed a record contract I congratulated him as he walked by me. I was sitting on the sidewalk selling the Bird, he stopped, said hello to me and sat down next to me on the sidewalk. He talked about what it meant to sign, how now they had to get better equipment and they had to do sets, not just jamming away as the mood struck them onstage.
Greg was not. I congratulated him when he walked by me later and he didn't even turn to say thanks. Was I surprised when he later married Cher? No.
Those weekends watching one of the greatest guitarists ever play I will never forget.
But that isn't my favorite Duane story.
When a new batch of acid was around dealers would go to the hardcore and give away hits to the hippies on the street that wanted them. It was marketing. By the weekend the reviews were in and the thousands of weekenders arrived and would search out and buy the highly praised hits. I was always on the strip, so when given the chance to try the latest orange barrel I said sure.
I never had a bad trip, and often wondered how others did. It wasn't until years later that I realized in those days there was no treatment or medication for depression. If someone had an anxiety attack or bout with depression, doctors told them to snap out of it. That was it. Judging from the numbers of people on anti-depressants today, there were many people who should have avoided psychedelics. In those days the thought was LSD was causing anxiety and depression attacks, today a doctor would treat the patient for bi-polar or depression issues.
So I've taken the orange barrel and no longer feel like selling The Bird and camp out on the sidewalk. The tingling in my jaw had given way to a big grin and then
Duane comes up and we talk, and he asks me what I think about the blues.
Like most southern white kids, I knew B.B. King and that was about it. I knew the UK bands that were influenced by the blues, The Animals, The Yardbirds, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, The Stones but knew next to nothing about actual blues music.
He invited me to ride on his bike to his place and listen to his blues collection, and I accepted.
Riding on the back of a motorcycle tripping my ass off wasn't part of my non-plan for the evening, but I went with the flow.
Duane was the first person I ever met that collected records. He had 78's, 45's, albums and music sold in little towns in Mississippi but nowhere else. He opened a bottle of wine and produced a joint and I sat down to listen.
From Delta blues to Chicago, from the Cajun country of Louisiana to the shanties of Alabama, for the next 8 hours I got the ultimate lesson on the blues. He would tell me the region, what he knew of the artist and the stories of jail, chaingangs, riding the rails, falling in love with the wrong woman- everyone liked the blues but no one wanted to have the blues. For 8 hours I got a course on the blues from Duane while tripping.
I passed out on the couch with the sound of Duane playing his slide guitar.............
