“I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. The book is full of trenchant observations by friends and contemporaries, creating a valuable perspective on the music scene in the early ’70s.Ī warm, entertaining appreciation of a key period in the career of a vital American band.Ī former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.ĭiscovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. The author covers some of the Allmans’ live shows, notably the 1973 Summer Jam at Watkins Glen concert, where they shared the stage with the Dead and The Band and played in front of 600,000 people. At times, it seems a miracle that any album got made, let alone one that Paul credibly touts as central to the era. The author also shows how Betts and Gregg had differing visions for how the band’s music could evolve: Betts leaned in the direction of lyrical tunes with a country flavor, while Gregg adhered to the group’s blues-band origins. Paul diligently explores nearly everything involving the album and time period, including the band’s encounters with the Grateful Dead, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and then–presidential candidate Jimmy Carter the drug problems of several members the dishonest business dealings of their predatory record company and domestic dramas, including Gregg’s tumultuous marriage to Cher.
The deaths of Duane and bassist Berry Oakley in 19, respectively, might have ended the band, but Gregg and guitarist Dickie Betts took over leadership roles and brought the band-with new member Chuck Leavell on keyboards-back to the studio to record Brothers and Sisters, which was released in 1973.
The author begins with Gregg’s and Duane’s musical careers before forming the band, and he follows them through their early success. Rock journalist Paul draws on extensive interviews with band members and others from their circle, including tapes recorded in the 1980s by the band’s archivist, Kirk West. The author’s second book on the Allman Brothers focuses on the early 1970s, when the band recorded the titular album.
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