Dickey Betts died. I don’t have any Allman Brothers records to play or insights about Betts to offer. I did remember that the Allman Brothers made a hit of Statesboro Blues, a Blind Willie McTell song I happen to own a copy of. I noticed the lyrics are a little different. McTell sang that his mother died and left him reckless; his father died and left him wild, wild, wild. That got trimmed a bit by the Allman Brothers Band for a reference to a rock and roll favorite—sister Lucille. McTell complains about a mighty mean woman; he mentions but doesn’t name a sister, brother, auntie, uncle, cousin, and friend. He mentions a classic steam engine that had a ‘colored fireman’ who worked hard, and he asked someone to hand him his traveling shoes.
Elsewhere on the record he sang about a topic dear to my heart—writing paper. By today’s standards I write a lot of letters. For now I’m using up accountants’ forms dating from before Excel that my father brought home from the office and graph paper left from various sources. Maybe I’ll need to buy stationery someday.
converselyspeaking 