SOD: Duane Allman "Going Down Slow"

Seriously? If this doesn't floor you, clean your ears out. This is music with more emotion than some pregnant women. Duane Allmans guitar is better than any voice in the world. He says far more with that thing, than any words could. The force of it, the tugging of the heart string, the gut-punching bends. It's almost too much to handle without having a physical reaction. For me at least.

"Goin Down Slow"(1941) is an old blues tune by a self-taught piano man named St. Louis Jimmy Ogden. But it's been covered more times than my bed. Zep did a nice little play on it during the "Whole Lotta Love" medley on the How The West Was Won compilation. By the way, if you even half like Zeppelin and you haven't heard this album, than you're doing yourself a diservice. 

Nonetheless, this version is included on the Duane Allman Anthology. It's some of the best guitar playing I've ever heard, top three compilations easy. And believe me, I wouldn't say that lightly. But I'm a convert. I love the slide guitar, and I love Duane Allman, now more than ever. I'd say I jumped on the wagon a bit late, I wasn't listening to the Allman Brothers seriously at all until my last two years of college. But hey, you gotta start somewhere. And though I should be reprimanded for my previous lack of experience with Duane and the Allman Brothers Band in total, I've taken strides and covered a lot of ground. 

Derek Trucks is my favorite living guitarist. I don't know how many times I can verbally fall at this guys feet, but I'm not stopping anytime soon. I implore the world to hear and see this man work his magic. To me, he embodies what a rockstar should be like. The Jackie Robinson of the rock world. A humble, unassuming man, off the field. But on the field, he will make you relearn what you thought it was humanly possible to do. And Derek took his page right out of Duane Allman's book. And once he memorized Duane's page, he started to write his own. Of course he used a lot of the same anecdotes and ideas as Duane, but he injected his own experience into it to, giving us a whole new story. A story he's still writing today. 

I can't help but talk about these two guys together. When I mention one, the other inevitably comes up. Matt made a great comparison, as we often find similarities between music and sports. For us Yankee faithful (and those of you who even remotely know baseball), Duane Allman was the Joe DiMaggio to Derek Trucks' Mickey Mantle. It's actually damn near perfect. Joe set the standard. He re-wrote the book on Center Fielders. He was so named the "Yankee Clipper" because DiMaggio's speed and range out there in the center of fields, was comparable to the then brand new Pan-Am plane. He showed people just what a man could do on the grass. Duane did exactly the same thing, except he showed it on the axe. He gave the world a new example of what it was possible to do with a slide, a finger, or a pick, and a guitar. Then years later, along comes Mickey Mantle. The Mick had a longer career than Joe, which it seems Derek will enjoy as well. And the Mick won over the clubhouse, no question. Other musicians definitely loved Duane, but I think Derek has that "clubhouse" impact on artists today. He's played with so many people, of all different genres, and everybody has so much respect for him. He may not be the world famous, household name just yet, but damnit I hope he will be eventually. Lord knows he deserves it.