Charles U Farley
Well-Known Member
Haven't seen many blues tunes posted recently, so here's a rarity you might not have heard before. It's the Allman Brothers Band, Live at Filmore in 1970, recorded a year before the album you've heard thousands of times (at least I have). The band had been together less than a year and they were just starting to tour their asses off. The first thing you're gonna notice with this is Greg's vocals are much more rougher than they were a year later. But the rest of the band are down in their groove, notice the shroom logo? 
The second thing you're gonna notice is the pristine clarity of the recording. It was done by Owsley "Bear" Stanley, who was, among many other things, the sound man for the Grateful Dead. I'll cut and paste something I wrote a while back about him to give you something to read while you listen to the tune:
"Listen closely to the Allman Brothers video from the last post and you will be able to easily discern the high quality of the sound recording. This is not the commercial release of the Live at Filmore East album, this sound came from the recording of Owsley "Bear” Stanley about a year before that album was recorded. He was there to manage and record the Grateful Dead but he also recorded other groups that were performing that night. The sonic purity of this recording speaks for itself and of his ability to know, understand and communicate with sound.
It's a sonic fucking masterpiece of live recording.
For more information, visit owsleystanleyfoundation period org. If you're a Deadhead, which I am not, it is your moral duty and solemn obligation to donate money. You would not be who you are today without this man.
I won't attempt to summarize the life of Owsley Stanley in some succinct, witty way because I can't. I don't think I could do it even if I spent the next year devoted only to this subject. I'll hit the high points most are familiar with: he and partner Melissa Cargill were the first human beings without corporate support to synthesize LSD and purify it via chromatography, which is a monumentally difficult process even with corporate financing; he financially supported and was essential to the creation and development of The Grateful Dead; along with friend Bob Thomas, he conceived, designed and created The Dead logo; he created their Wall of Sound and his pristine sonic journals recorded the history of rock and roll; he was instrumental in the foundation of Meyer Sound Labs and Alembic; a skilled artist and craftsman of enamel and bronze casting; extremely knowledgeable and experienced cultivator of cannabis… I'll stop now but could obviously go on."
The second thing you're gonna notice is the pristine clarity of the recording. It was done by Owsley "Bear" Stanley, who was, among many other things, the sound man for the Grateful Dead. I'll cut and paste something I wrote a while back about him to give you something to read while you listen to the tune:
"Listen closely to the Allman Brothers video from the last post and you will be able to easily discern the high quality of the sound recording. This is not the commercial release of the Live at Filmore East album, this sound came from the recording of Owsley "Bear” Stanley about a year before that album was recorded. He was there to manage and record the Grateful Dead but he also recorded other groups that were performing that night. The sonic purity of this recording speaks for itself and of his ability to know, understand and communicate with sound.
It's a sonic fucking masterpiece of live recording.
For more information, visit owsleystanleyfoundation period org. If you're a Deadhead, which I am not, it is your moral duty and solemn obligation to donate money. You would not be who you are today without this man.
I won't attempt to summarize the life of Owsley Stanley in some succinct, witty way because I can't. I don't think I could do it even if I spent the next year devoted only to this subject. I'll hit the high points most are familiar with: he and partner Melissa Cargill were the first human beings without corporate support to synthesize LSD and purify it via chromatography, which is a monumentally difficult process even with corporate financing; he financially supported and was essential to the creation and development of The Grateful Dead; along with friend Bob Thomas, he conceived, designed and created The Dead logo; he created their Wall of Sound and his pristine sonic journals recorded the history of rock and roll; he was instrumental in the foundation of Meyer Sound Labs and Alembic; a skilled artist and craftsman of enamel and bronze casting; extremely knowledgeable and experienced cultivator of cannabis… I'll stop now but could obviously go on."
