Well DANG! --- RIP Forrest Richard (Dickey) Betts

[rct]

5 hours ago, Phil OKeefe said:

 

IMO, Dickey Betts & Great Southern is nearly criminally underrated. I love that album. Dan Toler and Dickey are both really good on that record. 

They were.  Somewhere in my DVDs I burned one from some VHS Night Flight and other tv shows of the 80's I have a short lived version of The Allmans with the Toler brothers in there, Gregg and Dickey.  Really great stuff with them two.

rct

[moosesyr]

He taught me how to play lead guitar more than any other player.  Major, Mixolodian, Dorian, diminished in Elizabeth Reed intro.  The hours I spent picking up the stylus and replaying riffs trying to figure them out. 

I never quite forgave ABB for kicking him out of the band although I understood the reason.

RIP Dickie.

 

 

[Dub-T-123]

^^ I think that’s one of the most interesting things about his playing. The way he uses different modes and scales was so unique and interesting. Obviously a very smart guy, he was a real master of the guitar. 

[Sgt. Pepper]

I think we have 3 Dickey threads going now.

[rct]

But remember this.  They weren't modes and scales to him.  They were notes.  2nds and 9ths, 6ths and 13ths, 4ths suspended beyond suspension.  There is major tension as well as minor tension, this is where he lived, major tension and relief.  Lots of jazz in that country boy.  Lots of mistakes too, you only had to see them a few times to catch a bad night or a bad romp through one of their best.  Sometimes he just didn't hit the note(s), and you could tell, he didn't hide it at all.  But rhythm.  Man, that guy could comp behind anyone at anything, just one or two times through Blue Sky and you would see a man happy to play behind Warren or Jack Pearson.  The live one from the late 90's, An Evening With The ABB, man, that Blue Sky is just a lesson in how to play that song by the guy that wrote that song.  Just incredible to listen to that, a joy to see him do it.  Holmel NJ, 4 or 5 times or so in the late 90's they did Franklin's Tower into that one and he was perfect each time.  Joyous, the only word I got.  Him and a couple chords, his shoulders and Butch following his shoulders, Jaimoe following Butch, Oteil following both of them, it was magic sometimes.

"We gotta long way to go this evening so if you don't hear what you wanna hear well, that's just tough.  This is an old song called BLUE Sky..."

I could just cry.

rct

[Sgt. Pepper]

12 hours ago, rct said:

But remember this.  They weren't modes and scales to him.  They were notes.  2nds and 9ths, 6ths and 13ths, 4ths suspended beyond suspension.  There is major tension as well as minor tension, this is where he lived, major tension and relief.  Lots of jazz in that country boy.  Lots of mistakes too, you only had to see them a few times to catch a bad night or a bad romp through one of their best.  Sometimes he just didn't hit the note(s), and you could tell, he didn't hide it at all.  But rhythm.  Man, that guy could comp behind anyone at anything, just one or two times through Blue Sky and you would see a man happy to play behind Warren or Jack Pearson.  The live one from the late 90's, An Evening With The ABB, man, that Blue Sky is just a lesson in how to play that song by the guy that wrote that song.  Just incredible to listen to that, a joy to see him do it.  Holmel NJ, 4 or 5 times or so in the late 90's they did Franklin's Tower into that one and he was perfect each time.  Joyous, the only word I got.  Him and a couple chords, his shoulders and Butch following his shoulders, Jaimoe following Butch, Oteil following both of them, it was magic sometimes.

"We gotta long way to go this evening so if you don't hear what you wanna hear well, that's just tough.  This is an old song called BLUE Sky..."

I could just cry.

rct

I saw and met Jack in Nashville. He plays a few times a month at an old converted train station. The night I saw him he played Elizabeth Reed, he might have done another ABB song, I had a few beers in me. He definitely played Reed.

Edited April 21 by Sgt. Pepper