"In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" is an instrumental composition by the American group The Allman Brothers Band. It first appeared on their second studio album, Idlewild South (1970), released on Capricorn Records. The jazz-influenced piece was written by guitarist Dickey Betts, among his first writing credits for the group. Betts named it after a headstone he saw for Elizabeth Jones Reed Napier in Rose Hill Cemetery in the band's hometown of Macon, Georgia. Multiple versions of the composition have been recorded, with the version performed on the group's 1971 live album At Fillmore East generally considered the definitive rendition.
Overview
The original studio recording of "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" is the fourth track on the group's 1970 album Idlewild South. Composed by Dickey Betts, it is the first instrumental written by a band member, and the first of several that Betts would write and become known for. The original Rolling Stone review of Idlewild South said the piece "just goes and goes for a stupendous, and unnoticed, seven minutes."
"In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" was inspired by a woman Betts was involved with in the group's hometown of Macon, Georgia. She was the girlfriend of musician Boz Scaggs, with Betts later saying she "was Hispanic and somewhat dark and mysterious—and she really used it to her advantage and played it to the hilt." To cloak her identity, the composition is named after a headstone Betts saw at the Rose Hill Cemetery, where band members often ventured in their early days to relax and write songs. Considerable legend developed about the piece's genesis and what Betts was doing at the time, much of it fueled by a put-on interview band leader Duane Allman gave Rolling Stone. "Duane told some crazy shit about that graveyard. I don't wanna tell all--but that's the part that matters," Betts later said. For his part, vocalist Gregg Allman was candid about his experiences in the cemetery: "I'd be lying if I said I didn't have my way with a lady or two down there." The cemetery later became the final resting spot of Duane and Gregg Allman, along with bassist Berry Oakley and drummer Butch Trucks.
The Rolling Stone Album Guide called "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" in its original studio incarnation "the blueprint of a concert warhorse, capturing the Allmans at their most adventurous." The New York Times has written that "its written riffs and jazz-ish harmonies [allow] improvisers room." Accordingly, "Elizabeth Reed" has appeared in many Allman Brothers concerts, sometimes running half an hour or more, and on numerous Allman Brothers live albums, but first and most notably on At Fillmore East, which many fans and critics believe is the definitive rendition. In 2007, Rolling Stone named "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" one of its Fifty Best Songs Over Seven Minutes Long – and in giving it Honorable Mention on its 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time list made 2008, Rolling Stone called the At Fillmore East performance "transcendent".
At Fillmore East recording
In this performance, taken from the March 13, 1971 (first show) concert by the group, Betts opens the piece with ethereal volume swells on his guitar, giving the aural impression of violins. Slowly the first theme begins to emerge, Duane Allman's guitar joining Betts in a dual lead that variously doubles the melody, provides a harmony line, or provides counterpoint. The tempo then picks up in the next section to a Santana-like, quasi-Latin beat, a strong second-theme melody driven by unison playing and harmonized guitars arising.
Betts next plays a solo using the second theme as a starting-off point. This leads into an organ solo from Gregg Allman, with the two guitars playing rhythm figures in the background. Throughout, percussionists Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny Johanson play in unison, laying what has been described as "a thick bed of ride-snare rhythm for the soloists to luxuriate upon."