Three blocks. That is how far apart two Macon, Georgia crashes sat, and a year and 13 days is how far apart two deaths landed. This week in rock history belongs to Berry Oakley, the Allman Brothers Band bassist who died on November 11, 1972, at age 24, the same age Duane Allman was when he died on October 29, 1971. Oakley’s crash happened just three blocks from Duane’s. We touched on Duane’s loss in our Bohemian Rhapsody week. Today we owe the bassist his own paragraph.
Berry Oakley and the Allman Brothers Band: Stop Calling It a Curse
Here is the take: the “curse” story is lazy. It turns Oakley into a footnote to Duane, when he was a founding member of a band formed in 1969. The real story is what came next. The band brought in Lamar Williams on bass, and Brothers and Sisters, their biggest commercial success, arrived in 1973. Oakley and Duane are buried next to each other at Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon. A band that loses its guitar hero and then its bassist and still makes its best-selling record is not cursed. It is stubborn, and stubborn is the most rock and roll thing there is. Duane gets the legend and Berry gets the footnote, and that is backward. Anyone who has watched a great band wobble after losing one chair knows how hard it is to keep playing in the empty space. The Allmans kept playing, and that, not the spooky coincidence, is why we still say the name.
More Dates This Week in Rock History
Nov. 9, 1967: Rolling Stone Puts John Lennon on Its First Cover
Volume 1, Number 1 landed in San Francisco with Lennon on the cover in costume for How I Won the War. The magazine was founded by Jann Wenner and Ralph J. Gleason. Love it or roll your eyes at it, it gave rock a front page.
Nov. 10, 1981: KISS Release Music From “The Elder”
The concept album from KISS was a commercial failure with no supporting tour, and it debuted at No. 75. It is also the one record where KISS risked being something other than KISS. Defend it or bury it.
Nov. 11, 2011: Black Sabbath’s Original Four Announce a Reunion
At the Whisky A Go Go, Black Sabbath announced a first studio album in 33 years and a 2012 world tour. Relive the ending in our Ozzy and Sabbath: One Last Ride post.
Nov. 12, 1945: Neil Young Is Born in Toronto
Neil Young was born in Toronto and turns 81 this week. He is still making headlines, as our Friday Roundup showed. The guy still will not coast.
The Question
Last week we argued that Led Zeppelin IV proved the chart is just a scoreboard. So here is this week’s argument: after Macon, was the Allman Brothers Band still the same band? And which loss hurts a band more, the star guitarist or the bassist holding it together? Make your case in the comments.
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