Album: At Fillmore East
Artist: The Allman Brothers Band
Date: July 6, 1971
This week we are celebrating the 36th anniversary of the release of one of the most influential live albums of all time, At Fillmore East by The Allman Brothers Band. The album was recorded on March 12-13, 1971 at the New York City music venue Fillmore East. At Fillmore East runs 78 minutes in length and finishes with a 23-minute version of their song ‘Whipping Post’.
Even though they were known as one of the best live acts at the time, The Allman Brothers Band was really struggling to connect their fans to their recorded music. After playing roughly 300 concerts during their extensive 1970 tour, the band quickly realized how much more of an impact their live music has on their fans. The band had an energy at their concerts that couldn’t be matched to their pre-recorded music. The album even got the attention of guitarist Eric Clapton, who insisted that Duane Allman join his group, Derek & the Dominos. Duane ultimately declined after seeing the success of the album.
Gregg Allman had a feeling the band had something special with the album, “I was always the Doubting Thomas of the bunch, and I don’t think I was convinced about the Allman Brothers until ‘Fillmore East’ hit – that one removed all doubt!” In 2004 the album was selected for preservation at the Library of Congress due to it being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important” by the National Recording Registry.
-Mark Goodwin, Music Correspondent
