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letra de please be with me (winter tour excerpt) - galadrielle allman

virginia beach, va
holiday inn

thanksgiving day
[november 27, 1969]

dear donna

well, our tour got off to a really great start, we didn’t even play our first date here in virginia. i am not feeling too good at all about the whole thing tonight. i guess i’m pretty disappointed and more than a little homesick for you and the baby. i guess i’m tired, too

did you have turkey? i sure hope so. they had a giant spread here at the holiday inn and it was pretty good

i’m too sad to write, i’ll write more later after something good happens

all my love forever
duane

the brothers left home for most of december and january, and even missed christmas. in letters home, duane and berry both hedged, saying maybe something would change and they’d get back to macon in time for santa, but seeing as they were booked to play the following day at the fillmore east, that didn’t seem likely

donna, linda, and candy would all head to their families for the holiday

this was the first taste of what 1970 would be like: a constant tour with short runs home

donna’s dad, gil, drove for eleven hours from st. louis to macon to pick donna and me up and take us home for christmas. he turned right around after we were loaded into his car and drove all the way back without a rest. mom sat me in my pumpkin seat between them and enjoyed the funny faces her dad kept making at me, and the high, silly voice he used to talk to me while he drove. by then i weighed twelve pounds and had started to get little chipmunk cheeks that my daddy would squeeze, saying, “spit out those nuts!” mom was proud and happy to take me home to her brother and sisters. she felt like a grown woman

on december 26 the allman brothers played the fillmore east for the first time. bill graham’s fabled theater on second avenue and sixth street in manhattan’s east village was the perfect size, just over two thousand seats, with great acoustics and character. the theater had a high ceiling with a chandelier, a deep balcony, fancy gilded woodwork everywhere, and rows of velvet seats, all a little shabby and comfortable

graham was willing to take risks on musicians he believed in, and often paired rock and blues acts together. it could make your career to play well at the fillmore east. the techs in the theater were mostly new york university students, and word of mouth in the city was a powerful thing; bill graham’s personal support was even better. he was the most influential and respected venue owner in america

the allman brothers opened for blood, sweat & tears, another band they had little in common with. as with don law in boston, phil had called in a favor with graham, and he booked the band without hearing them. the outcome was just as disappointing as the boston tea party shows with the velvet underground. the crowd even booed the brothers, although they were happy with the way they played. back in the dressing room, gregg said, “man, i don’t want to play if they don’t want to listen,” and duane laid into him

“what’s the matter with you? i don’t care if there’s a godd-mn brick wall out there, you play to that wall just like you’d play to anyone.”

after the show, twiggs went to collect their pay from kip cohen, the managing director of the fillmore east. kip told twiggs he thought the band was great and everybody had enjoyed working with them. he recognized that the bill had worked against them. he wanted to have them back as soon as possible. then he asked twiggs, “who do the guys like? who are they listening to and influenced by? who would they buy a ticket to go see?”

“well, i don’t know. b. b. king . . . the grateful dead . . . buddy guy . . . ,” twiggs answered

within the month, phil got a call from bill graham offering the band a gig at the fillmore west with b. b. king and buddy guy. when twiggs went to collect the money in san francisco after that show, bill graham took twiggs into his office and asked, “how did the band enjoy playing here? i love your band.”

“oh, it was great,” twiggs said. “being able to work with b. b. king was like heaven. we never thought we’d be on the same bill with him.”

“he was your first choice, wasn’t he?”

“first choice? what do you mean?” twiggs asked

“well, i asked kip because i felt so bad that i put you on the bill with blood, sweat and tears. i wanted to make it up to you. i asked kip to find out who the brothers like and he said the first band you said was b. b. king, and the second was the grateful dead. well, you’ve got two weeks to get back to the fillmore east. i’ve got you booked with the dead.”

twiggs couldn’t believe it. he had never known anyone in the music business to be generous. from then on, the brothers had a strong bond with graham; he was a champion for them. they called him uncle bill

driving from macon to new york city in the dead of winter in that godd-mn van was inhumane. ice formed on the metal walls inside the van, and the windshield would fog and freeze. at one point, red dog had to hold his lighter against the gl-ss, trying to melt a hole in the frost big enough to see through while he drove

at the end of that cycle of shows, twiggs told donna and duane he wanted to take phil walden at gunpoint and drive him to new york in the freezing van; that man had no idea what it was really like

duane had grown very comfortable in new york over the years of working there, and one of his closest friends there was thom doucette, a blues harp player he had met in st. louis’s gaslight square. he could blow so fine, he’d kept pace on stage with buddy guy and b. b. king, among others. duane loved playing with thom, whose nickname was ace, and he welcomed him onstage with the brothers whenever their paths crossed. duane’s own sound was influenced by the sound of blues harmonica players like little walter and sonny boy williamson, whose improvisations had the same fluid, vocal sound duane could get from playing slide. onstage, ace and duane had great chemistry, leaning toward each other, bending low and rocking back and forth

ace was an interesting guy, with his finger in a lot of pies. he was into real estate, renovating raw lofts in soho into artists’ sp-ces. he was also a leather worker and made beautiful sandals. ace seriously practiced yoga and meditation

ace knew everyone: painters, sculptors, writers, musicians. ace thought duane had a brilliant mind and a very clear eye; he never missed a thing. duane loved hanging with him so much, donna eventually came to see ace as a rival for duane’s time and attention. as soon as ace showed up, there went duane

duane asked ace to travel with the band for a few more gigs and he agreed, but when duane opened the back of the van, ace couldn’t believe it. six grown men crowded into that dark little sp-ce, sitting on a couple of mattresses, facing east and west. he told duane he would drive him instead, and duane reluctantly agreed

“ace, i didn’t know you had a car,” duane said

“i have eleven thousand and they’re all yellow,” he said, putting his hand high in the air, hailing a cab to the airport. you could buy an eighteen-dollar ticket for the flight from new york to boston right from your seat after getting on the plane in new york

duane was a little embarr-ssed, as if he had not seen the conditions clearly until he saw them through ace’s eyes. as soon as they were back home in macon, duane told phil they needed a better mode of transportation. blue walden, phil’s eldest brother, fronted the money for a winnebago, purchased from bud k’s kamper korral. it was a big leap forward. elbow room and insulation, hallelujah!

and just in time for their commute from new york to california

everyone made it back home to macon for new year’s eve. they threw a party at idlewild, a rustic one-room cabin on the edge of a pond, deep in the pines in forsyth, georgia, where d-ckey lived with his wife, dale, and daughter, christie. it was a country getaway for the band, and they gathered there for the peace and quiet, often practicing outdoors

the women made a huge feast and filled the bathtub with ice and beer. at the turn of the new year, everyone gathered in a large circle: the band, the crew, the wives, babies, and friends. everyone held hands and sang “will the circle be unbroken.” it was a perfect way to mark the end of 1969

on one of their last nights at home together before duane returned to the road, donna decided she needed to tell him how hard it was to be separated for such long stretches of time. when he didn’t come home with everyone else and jumped into a session or sat in with another band, it was so deeply disappointing. he sat close to her and looked into her eyes

“duane, you must go through a hundred changes while you’re away, traveling and meeting people and having adventures. i go through maybe one or two changes.”

“i guess this is what you’d call getting to know each other,” he said quietly

still, the tour schedule only got more intense. in the second week of january, the band headed to philadelphia for a few shows, and then drove straight on to california for their first gigs at the fillmore west. playing on the same bill as b. b. king, the first guitar player who had set duane and gregg on fire at the first real show they ever saw in nashville, was a major milestone. he was incredibly gracious, and duane actually felt a little starstruck. after their set, as he was walking offstage, bunky odom told duane how well he had played, saying, “man, you were great! you cut b. b. king!”

“no way!” duane said. “b.b. cut me—he opened his mouth and sang!”

- galadrielle allman

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