Dickey Betts, the legendary guitarist, singer, songwriter, and co-founder of The Allman Brothers Band has died at the age of 80.
The man who wrote and sang on ‘Ramblin’ Man’ – the lead single from their fourth studio album, 1973’s Brothers and Sisters, and the band’s biggest-ever hit – passed away yesterday at his home in Osprey, Florida, David Spero, Betts’ manager of 20 years, confirmed. Betts had been diagnosed with cancer and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Spero said.
The Allman Brothers Band were formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1969 by brothers Duane and Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks, and Jai Johanny ‘Jaimoe’ Johanson. Subsequently relocating to Macon, Georgia the band soon carved out a strong reputation based upon an incendiary live sound which was built around their twin lead guitar (Duane Allman and Betts) and double-drum attack.
To this day, The Allman Brothers Band’s third release, At Fillmore East (pictured above) remains, to my mind, one of the greatest live recordings ever produced (it and Thin Lizzy’s Live and Dangerous). The record provided them with their artistic and creative breakthrough. If in any doubt about this just listen to the second track on side three of the vinyl version of this album, all 12 minutes and 46 seconds worth of ‘In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed’, an instrumental written by Dickey Betts which had originally featured on the Allmans’ previous album, Idlewild South.
Brothers and Sisters marked the peak of The Allman Brothers Band’s commercial success reaching number 1 on the American Billboard chart and providing two singles – ‘Ramblin’ Man’ and another Betts’ composition, ‘Jessica’ – which became classic staples of rock radio.
Dickey Betts was to remain with The Allman Brothers Band until the year 2000, albeit punctuated by periods when he had left the band due to what appears to have been a combination of clashes with Gregg Allman and substance misuse problems. Betts continued to produce music thereafter playing solo and with his own band Great Southern, which included his son, guitarist Duane Betts.
It remains one of my main musical regrets that I never saw The Allman Brothers Band in concert, even more so given the fact that two of my very good pals travelled down from our hometown of East Kilbride to see them play at the Knebworth Festival in 1974. That night in the Hertfordshire countryside they had played for nearly four hours, including ‘In Memory of Elizabeth Reed’, ‘Ramblin’ Man’, ‘Jessica’ and ‘Blue Sky’, the only song that Dickey Betts had written when he first joined the Allmans.
