.DickeyBetts, AlanWalden & more on Capricorn Records' 50th
In some ways, it feels like the blink of an eye for Dickey Betts. "Then I look at my big white beard and realize it was a long time ago," Betts says with a rascally laugh, calling from his Osprey, Fla. living room.
At Capricorn, Alan toggled between management, accounting and production hats. The flamboyant, larger-than-life Phil Walden became the label's face and driving force. "My brother could sit down in a meeting, drink a half bottle of scotch and get so damn creative that it was just amazing," says Alan, calling from his lakefront home outside Macon.
Wet Willie took up residence in a large Macon antebellum home at 1172 Georgia Ave. The house was only about five or 10 minutes from the Allmans' shared residence at 2321 Vineville Ave., the so-called Big House. "It was just a special time," Hall says, "because we were living there, writing songs in that house and having these big communal meals. It's a real bonding thing.
Unfortunately, tragedy struck the Allmans just as their star was finally rising after years of road work. In summer 1971 the band releasedan album capturing their spellbinding live show. Just a few months later in Macon, Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident on Hillcrest Avenue. Betts also had brought to those sessions a wistful road song with a chorus partially inspired by a ranch-hand friend. Betts had written "Ramblin' Man" at the Big House kitchen table, in the wee hours on acoustic guitar. It became the Allmans' lone Hot 100 top 10, peaking at No. 2. "Back then AM radio was top 40," Betts says. "We didn't like it when they played our stuff on AM, we thought that was corny stuff." Too bad -- the Allmans became superstars.
Capricorn is known for Southern rock. But it was more than that. The label's acts included soul singers Dobie Gray and Bonnie Bramlett; hard rockers Hydra and Captain Beyond; country-folkers Cowboy and Jonathan Edwards; trippy combo White Witch; fusion band Dixie Dregs; and blues-bop vocalists Elvin Bishop and Delbert McClinton.
Alan Walden left Capricorn in the early '70s and managed Lynyrd Skynyrd. He says Capricorn passed on that "Freebird" band because Phil thought Skynyrd's Ronnie Van Zant "couldn't sing" and "was too cocky." Sibling rivalry, much? "Like many brothers," Alan says, "we had years we were close and years we weren't on the same page."
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