SONG OF THE DAY
“Blue Sky” by The Allman Brothers (Eat A Peach, Capricorn Records, 1972). Written by Dickey Betts.
WHERE I HEARD IT
Woodstock Radio (WDST), of course. Who else would play this amazingness?
INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)
– “Blue Sky” is the eighth track by the Allman Brothers Band off the Eat a Peach album.
– Dickey Betts wrote this about his Native American girlfriend, Sandy “Bluesky” Wabegijig. And for a while, Betts refused to perform this after their 1975 divorce.
– Although Duane Allman was part of the recording of this song, he died before its release on Eat a Peach.
– Duane Allman and Dickey Betts played on the bridge solo – Duane going first followed by Dickey. They switch half way through – they can be heard synching up on a riff for two measures or so right around 2:30 into the track.
– There are only four known live recordings of the song with Duane Allman, one of them being from their archival live album S.U.N.Y. at Stonybrook: Stonybrook, NY 9/19/71 released in 2003, in which there is a blistering live performance of “Blue Sky.”
– This is the first time Dickey Betts sang lead vocals on an Allman Brothers song.
– The song has been covered several times, with perhaps the best known cover being Joan Baez’s 1975 recording of the song on her Diamonds & Rust album.
– Eat a Peach is a 1972 double album by the American Southern rock group The Allman Brothers Band; it was the last to include founding member and lead slide-guitar player Duane Allman, who was killed in a motorcycle accident while the album was being recorded.
– This album came close on the heels of their breakthrough At Fillmore East (1971) set and featured live tracks that did not make it onto that album, including boogie classic “One Way Out” and two entire album sides devoted to “Mountain Jam”, a 33-minute improvisation based around Donovan’s song “There Is a Mountain.” The remainder of the album was recorded in-studio and served to cement the band’s reputation as innovative Southern rockers.
– Several tracks featured a new emphasis on more-lyrical acoustic work, notably on “Melissa” and the guitar classic “Little Martha.” The lilting “Blue Sky” became an album-oriented rock radio staple, while “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” served as both a quiet generational anthem and a personal statement of purpose by the band in the face of Duane’s death.
– The widespread story regarding the origin of the album’s title, that the truck involved in Duane’s fatal motorcycle accident was a peach truck, is not correct; the truck involved was a flatbed lumber truck. Rather the album name came from something Duane said in an interview shortly before he was killed. When asked what he was doing to help the revolution, Duane replied, “There ain’t no revolution, it’s evolution, but every time I’m in Georgia I eat a peach for peace.” The album’s name was originally slated to be The Kind We Grow in Dixie and the artwork for the album showed a peach. Band members were dissatisfied with the name and the image suggested Duane’s quote instead.
– The album art was selected by Rolling Stone magazine in 1991 as one of the 100 greatest album covers of all time. The album cover was done by Flor Noi (James Flournoy Holmes), who lives in Atlanta, Georgia.