Ramblin' Man Whipping Post Seven Turns The Allman Brothers Band

Ramblin' Man Album: Brothers And Sisters (1973)
Whipping Post Album: The Allman Brothers Band (1969)
Seven Turns Album: Seven Turns (1990)
by The Allman Brothers Band

Allmans guitarist Dickey Betts wrote Ramblin' Man, taking the title from the 1951 Hank Williams song "Ramblin' Man." Betts also sang lead on the track, which he described as mostly autobiographical, telling the story of a guy whose travels take him to many places, and who takes life as it comes.

"When I was a kid, my dad was in construction and used to move the family band and forth between central Florida's east and west coasts," he said in the book Anatomy of a Song. "I'd go to one school for a year and then the other the next. I had two sets of friends and spent a lot of time in the back seat of a Greyhound bus. Ramblin' was in my blood."

Ramblin' Man was the first Allman Brothers Band single recorded without their leader, Duane Allman, who was killed in a 1971 motorcycle accident. Duane's work is on their 1972 album Eat a Peach, but for their next album, Brothers and Sisters, they had to fill the creative and sonic void left by his passing. Dickey Betts stepped up in a big way with "Ramblin' Man," which became the group's biggest hit and proved they could survive the loss.

A key line in Ramblin' Man emerged in 1969 when Dickey Betts was playing in various bands in Florida. He would often stay with a friend, Kenny Harwick, who had a habit of asking questions and then answering them. One day, he asked Betts how he was doing and then answered for him: "I bet you're just trying to make a living and doing the best you can."

Betts held onto that line until 1972, when he wrote the rest of the lyric at the house the band shared in Macon, Georgia.
The five-second intro on this track is very effective, making the song instantly identifiable and launching it right into the chorus. Betts called it "a fiddle-like opener built on a pentatonic scale" (his dad played the fiddle). That section is his guitar and Chuck Leavell's piano.

After a chorus/verse/chorus/guitar solo/verse/chorus, Ramblin' Man resolves for another two minutes in an intricate section inspired by the end of "Layla," a track Duane Allman played on. This was Dickey Betts' idea. To accomplish it, he first tried overdubbing lots of guitar parts, but then recruited his friend Les Dudek, who was in the studio, to play lead with him, as Duane would have. They played together, creating a bed by repeating the guitar line over and over, then doing it again in a lower register, which they then overdubbed onto the track. Betts then overdubbed a lead part on slide guitar, coming in and out of the track as he listened to the bed.

This section served as a tribute to Duane Allman, as it built on the twin-guitar harmony sound he forged with the band. It also gave the band lots of room to show their chops when they played it live.

The original working title of the song was "Ramblin' Country Man." A heretofore unknown third verse was sung by Dickey Betts on his Instant Live CD released in 2004.

The band played Ramblin' Man the premiere of an ABC show called In Concert. It was their first national TV appearance, and also Berry Oakley's last performance, as the bass player died in a motorcycle accident a week later. The show aired after his death and was dedicated to him.

Ramblin' Man the last song Berry Oakley recorded. He died in a motorcycle accident on November 11, 1972.

This was kept out of the #1 spot by Cher's "Half Breed." Gregg Allman married Cher in 1975.

Ramblin' Man was referenced in the Nickelodeon Cartoon Hey Arnold! briefly and not by title, but by lyric. In the episode "The Journal," when discussion of the title Character's birth springs up, his grandmother responds, "I Thought he was born in the back seat of a Greyhound bus going down highway 41."

A short part of Ramblin' Man appears in the 1973 movie The Exorcist. It's used in a bar scene when the priest is in the bar.

This searing song is about a man who has been betrayed by his woman to the point where he feels like he's helpless - just tied to the whipping post, awaiting more punishment. Gregg Allman wrote it in Jacksonville in 1968, just after he returned from Los Angeles.

Gregg wrote Whipping Post on an ironing board using burnt matches. He got the idea in the middle of the night and couldn't find a pen.

Whipping Post became a staple of their live shows. They usually played it as an extended jam, often improvising so it did not sound the same twice.

Whipping Post was the last song on the first Allman Brothers album.

Berry Oakley came up with the bass line, which the band worked around. Oakley having died in a motorcycle accident in 1972.
A 22-minute live version appears on At Fillmore East. Since Whipping Post took up almost an entire side, it became a double album. The band insisted on keeping the price close to that of a single album.

Fans would scream out for Whipping Post even at concerts for other bands.

The chorus to Whipping Post is written in 11/8 time, but the verses are written in 12/8. When asked by American Songwriter magazine how he came to compose such songs with progressions that are definitely nothing resembling blues or typical rock and roll, Allman replied that he's not entirely sure. "Man, I just stumbled onto 'em," he said. "I really didn't know exactly what I was doing, I just did it. My brother had to tell me that 'Whipping Post' was in 11/4 time; I had no idea."

Seven Turns refers to a Navajo belief that there are seven times in life that you must make a decision that determines your life path. Taking the wrong path means you must either backtrack or stay on the road to ruin.

Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts wrote Seven Turns after producer Tom Dowd asked him to write something similar to "Blue Sky," which he composed for the band's 1972 album Eat A Peach.

Seven Turns was the title track to the Allman Brothers comeback album. They had not recorded together for nine years.

Seven Turns was one of the few Allman Brothers songs where Betts sang lead.

Features Warren Haynes on slide guitar. His addition to the band on the Seven Turns album allowed them to play with two guitars, like they did before Duane Allman died in 1971.