Dickie Betts - ...and on guitar (1977)
Forrest Richard (Dickey) Betts was born on December 12, 1943 and grew up in a musical family, listening to traditional bluegrass, country music and Western swing. He started playing ukulele at five and moved on to mandolin, banjo, and guitar, but by age sixteen he was feeling the need for something 'a little faster', and so joined a series of rock bands on the Florida circuit, before forming Second Coming with Berry Oakley in 1967. In 1969, Duane Allman had turned his success as a session player into a contract with Southern soul impresario Phil Walden, and had formed The Allman Brothers Band with his brother Gregg, and had invited Betts to join, introducing a melodic twin guitar attack which rewrote the rules for how two rock guitarists can work together. After the death of Duane Allman in late 1971, Betts became the band's sole guitarist and also took on a greater singing and leadership role, practicing slide guitar intensively over the course of one night's traveling in order to cover the majority of Duane's parts. He went on to write 'Jessica' and the Allmans' biggest commercial hit 'Ramblin' Man', and drove the band on to great commercial success over the next three years. In 1974 he released his first solo album 'Highway Call', and it was at this time that he also started to offer his services to other bands who wanted to include some slide guitar or dobro on their records. In 1974 he played with Charlie Daniels and Sly Stone on Elvin Bishop's 'Let It Flow' record, trading guitar licks with The Marshall Tucker Band's Toy Caldwell on the lenghty 'Travelin' Shoes'. He also played with Daniels again that same year on his band's 'Fire On The Mountain' album, and rounded out the year adding some guitar to Grinderswitch's 'Honest To Goodness'. Also in 1974, Kitty Wells, the Queen of Country Music, went to Georgia to record with a rock band for the first time, and chose The Allman Brothers and The Marshall Tucker Band to back her, giving Betts the opportunity to play with a country legend on her 'Forever Young' album. The following year he played with The Marshall Tucker Band themselves, and also added slide guitar to Bobby Whitlock's 'One Of A Kind' album. 1976 saw him playing with Bonnie Bramlett, Billy Joe Shaver, and on Buddy Miles' funky R&B 'Bicentennial Gathering Of The Tribes' album, where he slows things down a bit with the country-ish ballad 'Searchin' (For Love)'. We end with some great funky guitar-work from Betts on Corky Laing's 1977 album, showing that he's not just a good-ol' country boy when it comes to his guitar-playing.
Track listing
01 Kiss The Blues Goodbye (from 'Honest To Goodness' by Grinderswitch 1974)02 Travelin' Shoes (from 'Let It Flow' by Elvin Bishop 1974)03 Long Haired Country Boy (from 'Fire On The Mountain' by Charlie Daniels Band 1974)04 My Love Never Changes (from 'Forever Young' by Kitty Wells 1975)05 You Don't Have To Be Alone (from 'One Of A Kind' by Bobby Whitlock 1975)06 Searchin' For A Rainbow (from 'Searchin' For A Rainbow' by Marshall Tucker Band 1975)07 Ain't That Loving You Baby (from 'Lady's Choice' by Bonnie Bramlett 1976)08 Love You Till The Cows Come Home (from 'When I Get My Wings' by Billy Shaver 1976)09 Searchin' (For Love) (from 'Bicentennial Gathering Of The Tribes' by Buddy Miles 1976)10 On My Way (To The River) (from 'Makin' It On The Street' by Corky Laing 1977)
I've built one of these for Frank Zappa if you're interested...
ReplyDelete01 All Night Long (from ‘Animalism’ by the Animals 1966)
02 Circle (from ‘An Evening with Wild Man Fischer’ by Wild Man Fischer 1968)
03 The Taster (fancy version) (from ‘An Evening with Wild Man Fischer’ by Wild Man Fischer 1968)
04 How Would You Like to Have a Head Like That? (from ‘King Kong: Jean Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa’ by Jean Luc Ponty 1970)
05 Raye (from ‘Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up’ by Jeff Simmons 1970)
06 Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up (from ‘Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up’ by Jeff Simmons 1970)
07 Well (Baby Please Don’t Go) [live at Fillmore East – June 6, 1971] (from ‘Some Time in New York City’ by John Lennon and Yoko Ono 1973
08 Dedicated to the One I Love (from ‘For Real!’ by Ruben and the Jets 1973)
09 Old Slippers (from ‘Feel’ by George Duke 1974)
10 Love (from ‘Feel’ by George Duke 1974)
11 Out to Get You (from ‘Good Singin’ Good Playin’’ by Grand Funk Railroad 1976)
I had to fade the end of "Well (Baby Please Don't Go)" since it's a live track and is followed by the rest of John & Yoko's appearance at the Zappa/Mothers gig on the album (but it was first released on a Lennon album, so it counts for this in my opinion!), but the rest were left as they are.
A solid 51 minute album, running the gamut from garage rock, to blues, to jazz-fusion, to doo-wop, to the psychedelic outsider madness of Wild Man Fischer's stuff. If you want me to send you the cover I made for it, let me know.
Since he just died, I'm also researching to see if one can be done for Eddie Van Halen. That one I'm a little iffy on if there's enough material, and whether or not to include "Beat It," which he only played the solo on, with Steve Lukather playing the iconic riffs.
If I do put it together, I'll let you know.
Glad to have inspired you to do this. I've put it together so that I can listen to it, and in doing so I tracked down another four songs - two 1967 single with uncredited guitar (one had Mike Bloomfield on it as well!), a couple by a band called Flint, and one from Robert Charlebois, so with those as extras I can pick the best of the tracks where you had two songs from an album (I try to just use the best example from each artist) and keep it around the 45-50 minute mark. Do send me the cover (email address is on my other site from my profile), and if it's OK with you I'll add this to the series. You might struggle with Eddie Van Halen, as I can only see around half a dozen tracks, but good luck.
DeleteWhat are the other tunes? I'd love to grab them to check them out for myself!
DeleteAnd absolutely! I'd be honored for you to add it to the series!
Choosing to include "Beat It," even though he just plays the solo, and including a soundtrack piece with his brother Alex, a Gene Simmons demo he and Alex played on, and a song from a Christmas album... I put together a 47 minute Eddie Van Halen release.
DeleteMuch of it comes from the '90s and it ends in 2013, but it's still a full collection.
1 Have Love Will Travel [1976 demo for “Got Love for Sale”] (from ‘Gene Simmons Vault’ by Gene Simmons 2017) – also featuring Alex Van Halen
2 Can’t Get Away from You (from ‘Nicolette’ by Nicolette Larson 1978)
3 Beat It [solo only] (from ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson 1982)
4 Blues Breaker (from ‘Star Fleet Project EP’ by Brian May + Friends 1983)
5 Eagles Fly (from ‘I Never Said Goodbye’ by Sammy Hagar 1987)
6 Respect the Wind (from the soundtrack to the film ‘Twister’ 1996) – Eddie and Alex Van Halen
7 Lost Boys Calling (from the soundtrack to the film ‘The Legend of 1900’ by Ennio Morricone, this song by Roger Waters 1998)
8 Joy to the World (from ‘Santamental’ by Steve Lukather 2003)
9 We’re the Greatest (from ‘Authentic’ by LL Cool J) – also featuring Travis Barker
I'm sending you the cover via e-mail in case you're interested.
I did some custom work to try to make the V and H in his name match the classic logo, but if you do work with this album and want to copy/paste the lettering or fix it in some other way, I wouldn't be offended.
I'm not a huge Van Halen fan. I like a lot of the original David Lee Roth era, and at least a few songs from Van Hagar (I should check out that lineup's stuff on the "Best of Both Worlds" compilation sometime), and Eddie's playing isn't my favorite, but since he just died recently, I felt like I should at least try to put one together... and so I have.
Delete...track list may see an update since I discovered he played on a couple Thomas Dolby tracks, and maybe some other stuff, too.
Delete1 Have Love Will Travel [1976 demo for “Got Love for Sale”] (from ‘Gene Simmons Vault’ by Gene Simmons 2017) – also featuring Alex Van Halen
Delete2 Can’t Get Away from You (from ‘Nicolette’ by Nicolette Larson 1978)
3 Beat It [solo only] (from ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson 1982)
4 Blues Breaker (from ‘Star Fleet Project EP’ by Brian May + Friends 1983)
5 Eagles Fly (from ‘I Never Said Goodbye’ by Sammy Hagar 1987)
6 Eastern Bloc (from ‘Astronauts and Heretics’ by Thomas Dolby 1991)
7 Respect the Wind (from the soundtrack to the film ‘Twister’ 1996) – Eddie and Alex Van Halen
8 The Water Sings (from ‘Fatherless Child’ by Rich Wyman 1996)
9 Lost Boys Calling (from the soundtrack to the film ‘The Legend of 1900’ by Ennio Morricone, this song by Roger Waters 1998)
10 Joy to the World (from ‘Santamental’ by Steve Lukather 2003)
11 We’re the Greatest (from ‘Authentic’ by LL Cool J) – also featuring Travis Barker
Slightly long at just over 55 minutes now, but you could cut a song or two now if you want to shorten it. "Beat It" would be a decent option since he just plays the solo, but for the other... "Respect the Wind" is him and Alex, or you could cut the Xmas tune "Joy to the World," or if you don't enjoy the rapping, "We're the Greatest" could get the axe...
Anyway, for personal listening, I'm keeping the whole thing, but you can do what you want with it.
(For a theoretical vinyl version, I would cut "Beat It" and have side 1 end with "Eagles Fly" either leaving the rest to be a slightly long side 2, or possibly cut "Joy to the World" *shrug* ... I'll stop 'spamming' this comments thread now. If I make another volume, I'll save it for the next post in the series.)
DeleteI love this series! Had no idea Dickey was willing to share the wealth as it were. THis picture is weirding me out - seeing Dickey at that age without a Gibson in hand is a strange thing to contemplate.
ReplyDeleteVery cool!
ReplyDelete