on va donc parler de CALOMNIE alors, LeChat, à propos de Betts, qui CONDAMNE FERMEMENT l’activiste de droite qu’est DANIELS et que vous, vous n’avez même pas vu !!! vous êtes lamentable, avec votre DIFFAMATION à côté de la PLAQUE !!
16 September 2004 - The San Diego Union-Tribune
It’s unfortunate how the term « Southern rock » has come to conjure up images of Confederate flags, primer-splotched Z28s and rednecks with plaque-swathed dentition screaming « play `Freebird’ maaan ! » in the direction of a mullet-festooned bar band ; how Southern rock has come to be associated with the Lynyrd Skynyrd school of Dixie boogie, when in fact, Skynyrd was the second-generation commercial beneficiary of its elders’ and betters’ pioneering work.
The group that undeniably did the Southern rock thang first, best and definitively was the Allman Brothers Band, which combined the best elements of psychedelic rock, free jazz, gut-bucket blues and Western swing into one of the most heady, spiritual and, yes, even intellectual branches on the rock ’n’ roll family tree.
If you had to place a face on the Southern rock phenomenon, you could do worse than longtime Allmans singer-guitarist Dickey Betts to represent. Betts — a Wild Bill Hickock look-alike with a guitar and vocal style sweet and reedy as a backwoods Georgia pond — is the gent who wrote such seminal Allman joys as « Ramblin’ Man, » « Blue Sky » and « Revival. »
Betts, who performs tomorrow at Humphrey’s on Shelter Island, has continued carrying on the original Southern rock tradition as a solo act the last few years, having been unceremoniously excommunicated from the Allmans fold in 2001 — via fax, no less — amid accusations of substance abuse from his former bandmates.
There’s been so much misrepresentation of Southern rock in general and Betts in particular that he seems saddened by it all, while determined to set the record straight. Lynyrd Skynyrd as torch-bearers of the music Betts played a central role in constructing ?
« There’s nothing similar between the music of Lynyrd Skynyrd and my band, » he says. « One is a real kick-out-the-jams, almost heavy metal kind of band, and my thing is more like a jam band, more like the Grateful Dead or the old Allman Brothers Band. »
Adding to the distortion of the Southern rock ethic is the prima facie fascism espoused in the last few years by such proud galoots as Charlie Daniels and Marshall Tucker Band frontman Doug Gray. Both were early Southern rockers who initially subscribed to the rustic hippie sensibility (check Daniels’ 1973 redneck-baiting hit, « Uneasy Rider »), but who more recently have hurled enough extremist invective to make Rush Limbaugh cower in embarrassment. For his part, Betts is clearly displeased by their public tantrum-tossage.
« Some of the bands are trying to get into that right-wing politics thing, and I just don’t get into it at all, » he says. « Charlie is frightening with some of his stuff, and I didn’t even know Doug Gray had gotten involved in it. I don’t mix that stuff up with the music, but Doug or Charlie don’t represent all us players down South. They’re friends of mine, I enjoy playing with ’em, and let’s just leave it at that. I think Bob Dylan can take care of all that political stuff. »
Despite the rural sensibility his best-known songs induce, Betts’ muse has always been more bebop than yee-haw. From the early Betts- penned/Allmans-generated instrumental workouts « In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, » « Les Brers in A Minor » and « Jessica » up through the more recent tour-de-force showpieces « Kind of Bird » and « One-Stop Be- Bop, » Betts’ work often features intricate arrangements and improv- intensive musicianship to make any jazzbo smile in appreciation.
« Charlie Parker is my hero, » Betts says. « I have everything he ever did. I’ve always listened to jazz players — Gerry Mulligan, Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders. I always knew what those guys were doing. »
