One of the best live albums of all-time.
Back in 2019 when we wrote our Masters Series, we did a month's focus on the blues. When it came to our best live blues album list, we ranked Live at Fillmore East third. This is what we said about it then and it still holds up:
What will easily be our most debated pick on this list, At Fillmore East is blues filtered through The Allman Brothers southern fried Macon style. It is considered one of the best live albums ever and the definitive work of the original incarnation of the band at it's peak, but is not always considered a blues record which doesn't make much sense. Formalists can argue but as Tom Dowd has stated the group "was a rock 'n' roll band playing blues in the jazz vernacular. And they tore the place up."
Covering legends T-Bone Walker, Blind Willie McTell, and Elmore James, the Allman's blues influences are right there on the record sleeve and while the exploratory extended "Whipping Post" certainly moves them into different territory of harder rock and roll, just listen to their version of "Stormy Monday" and try not to weep; one of the best versions of this song recorded.
If At Fillmore East falls into your "Rock" category and you are looking for more "pure live blues" (which is silly) here are the albums which just missed out on our top five, (in order) Hound Dog Taylor's Beware of Dog!, Lightnin' Hopkins The Swarthmore Concert and Townes Van Zandt's Live at the Quarter House but if people don't like Allman's in this slot they probably wouldn't like Townes either.
So today, play the album loud. Here are a few tunes to get you started:
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