Friday, 21 June 2024

  

In this month's Mojo magazine their obituary column 'Real Gone' informed me that The Allman Brothers Band's guitar great Dickey Betts left us on April 18th. 
It goes on to say that "in Britain even car enthusiasts with little affinity with down-home 70s rusticity would recognise 'Jessica', the Betts penned composition BBC tv show 'Top Gear' adopted as its long standing theme-tune".
The buoyant instrumental named after his then infant daughter would in 2006 be called 'a true national heirloom' by The Wall Street Journal. 

The tune maybe familiar to 'Top Gear' fans but barely 30 seconds gets played at the beginning and end of shows. I recently reminded myself of the full track in particular the Chuck Leavell piano section two and a half minutes in and then just over a minute later the soaring guitar solo from Dickey Betts that follows. I'm posting here the original 7:30 album track for purists (like me). I do have a 'live' video but it's shorter and the piano not as good.  

The Mojo article ends by saying a statement posted on the 
The Allman Brothers Band official website after Betts died imagined him touring "in that old Winnebago in the sky". "Play on Brother Dickey" - 

FYI Ladies & Gentlemen 'Take it away': Live in 1982 'Jessica'  - right here 

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