By Steve Newton
As most readers of Ear of Newt have probly figured out by now, I’m something of a guitar freak. I just love the sound of a guitar, especially when it’s in the hands of someone really, really good. (I also spell the word probably as “probly” because that’s how it sounds to me, and I just don’t give a shit anymore.)
But getting back to the guitar thing. My passion for a killer solo has resulted in me writing blogs with titles like God bless Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser’s guitar solo on Blue Oyster Cult’s “Burnin’ for You” and God bless Steve Cropper’s guitar solo on Rod Stewart’s “Stone Cold Sober”.
I was gonna continue the six-string theme and write a post called God bless Michael Schenker’s guitar playing on UFO’s “One More From the Rodeo”, but then I got sidetracked by the sound of a keyboard solo on a tune from the Allman Brothers’ Brothers and Sisters album from the Year of our Lord, 1973.
I’ll admit that at first all I used to focus on in that tune was the piercing lead-guitar work of its composer, one Dickey Betts, who I’ve interviewed four times and can’t get enough of. But then one day I was cruisin’ along in the car with The Road Goes on Forever in the CD player and I couldn’t quite believe how goddamn tasty and absolutely perfect Chuck Leavell’s piano solo was on “Southbound”.
It starts at the 3:06 marks and ends at 3:52, and every single honky-tonkin’ note of that 46-second solo is precisely what I want to hear. I betcha Duane woulda dug it too.
To hear the full audio of my interviews with former Allman Brothers Band members Dickey Betts, Gregg Allman, Derek Trucks, and Warren Haynes subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 350 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with the legends of rock.