The Perfect Beat: Arthur Baker's Baker's Dozen

Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

5. The Allman Brothers BandAt Fillmore East

I saw them live before Duane died, so I saw them right around the time this album was recorded. I saw them in Boston. It’s probably my favourite album. Again, it’s a double album and live. You wouldn’t think it would be something that you’d want to listen to over and over again. But they were just the best. They were also the best live act, and it was interesting because they didn’t have a front man who was dancing around like The Stones, or Sly.

They had a Black drummer – Jaimoe, when they were a Southern band, and it caused them a lot of problems, but they stuck with it. And Duane played on Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett records. They are another band that never made it over to the UK because he died. And then the band went on forever. I mean, they were playing for a very, very long time after, but for me, after he died, the band was done. They had two albums before this one, but when the live album came out, it just blew them up. It’s great blues, it’s great jamming. It’s sort of the predecessor of all the jam band stuff, it’s so rootsy, bluesy. Miles Davis loved them, and at the time I was like, ‘oh Miles Davis even likes them!’ The cover of the record is great as well, they’re in front of their equipment, laughing. 

I went to the recording studio in the house they lived in in Macon, Georgia. It’s like a museum, it’s just amazing. It has so much of their memorabilia, so it’s an amazing place to visit, it felt like there were ghosts in the room there, you know?

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