Whipping Post (song) - Other Allmans Versions

Other Allmans Versions

Live versions of "Whipping Post" surfaced on other, later Allman Brothers Band albums, although none approached At Fillmore East in sales, airplay, or influence. The Allmans closed Fillmore East on June 27, 1971 with a concert broadcast over many radio stations; that rendition of the song was in 2006 incorporated into a Deluxe Edition extra CD of the Eat a Peach album, although the Allmans' into-the-early morning performance the night before, which also included "Whipping Post", is considered more memorable. Earlier 1970 renditions of "Whipping Post" have subsequently been released, such as an 8-minute run on Fillmore East, February 1970 and a 14-minute effort on Live at the Atlanta International Pop Festival: July 3 & 5, 1970. Some additional website-only Allmans archival releases, such as Boston Common, 8/17/71, also capture "Whipping Post" takes from the original band.

The archival release Macon City Auditorium: 2/11/72 features a "Whipping Post" from the five-man-band period following Duane Allman's death. Keyboardist Chuck Leavell was then added to the band, and for a very brief period in late 1972 was there while Berry Oakley was still on bass. A November 2, 1972 performance of "Whipping Post" from Hofstra University was shown on the national late-night ABC In Concert show, introducing television audiences to both the band and song for the first time. Briefer than usual, and with Leavell taking an electric piano solo in the first slot, Betts still led the band through some of the tempo changes and emotional currents of the song. At the end, Gregg Allman changed the lyric to "... That I feel, that there just ain't no such thing as dying." But within days, Berry Oakley too would be gone.

After the Allmans broke up and re-formed in 1989, "Whipping Post" was carried forward by various personnel configurations. A 2003 Beacon Theatre performance showed up the following year on the live album One Way Out, and features the Warren Haynes/Derek Trucks era of the band.

Gregg Allman himself performs "Whipping Post" with his outside-the-Allmans Gregg Allman and Friends group's concerts, but in a style that he describes as "its funky, real rhythm n’ blues-like" and in which he plays guitar rather than organ. Allman re-recorded the song for his 1997 album Searching for Simplicity, giving the song a jazzier groove, but rendering it in straight 4/4 time instead of the complex triple time of the original composition.