Is that a major difference in haircuts or just giant headphones on "Howard's" head? Or was "Forrest" just late getting word about the Bay-area look? What is his background, anyway? Was/is he the sole source of all those old southern- lullaby motifs that characterize the ABB's sound?

Ever notice how Southerners usually go by their middle names?

Salt: You know, you're right! I never gave it much thought, but both of my boys go by their middle names and my daughter has one of those double names for girls that some consider to be "rednecky" [at least hers is "Mary Katherine" and not "Tammi- Faye"]. I think we must do it because most of us are of Scots Irish descent (a minority group to be sure, but still, there are about 27 million of us in the USA) and those clannish folks used to have very rigidly-observed naming traditions. As a sign of respect to the elders and to preserve old family names they made regular use of tradional family names, particularly mothers' and grandmothers' maiden names. That's also why you find so many Southerners with surnames for first names (though I acknowledge that that particular tradition seems to have caught on nationwide during the last generation (eg, count all the "Ashleys" you know). My daughter is named after two of her grandmothers.

Pick, Forrest, pick!

ROTFLMAO@Mike. Hee. That was good.
Life is like a backstage orgy; you never know what you're gonna get?

This was post-Bay Area. Dickie was the oldest of the bunch, and he ditched the hippie accoutrements and went back to being a shitkicker. That's how it is with folks from SW Florida!
I've had the Dickie Betts argument a million times. The things that kept me listening to ABB after Duane were what Dickey added to the music. I gotta have some twang in my rock music, and it was Dickey throwing the twang in there. I'm glad that another Florida boy, Gram Parsons, got that sort of mix going in a big way.

I was two-namer until I went away to college. Mr. Cracker is at least the fourth generation of fellows in his family always going by the middle name. It's definitely part of our Southern heritage.

BTW, Donnah, on my trip to the Mississippi coast I listened to, among other things, Lynyrd Skynryd's greatest hits and the ABB Millenium CD. It was interesting having the leisure to compare them. And in a way it was your Wednesday Duane pictures that prompted me to revisit these bands which, though a Southerner, I only paid modest attention to.

Do you think Greg Allman and that fellow in Lynyrd really talk in black dialect? Like pronouncing "turn" as "toin." Or is it just a "singing voice?"

When the heck does anybody say 'toin', Salt? Give me some lyrics.
I always thought that ridiculous affectation was limited to John Fogarty.

Dang, can't remember. I'll have to re-listen to both CD's. But it's in there. Maybe in "Three Steps" the guy sings "He toined and screamed at Linda Lu and that was the break I'd been lookin' for"?

He's saying "tained."
I thought you were having him say it like John Fogarty saying "Big wheel keep on toinin'," which is ridiculous.
Ronnie, however, is vocalizing a mellifluous "tained."

And I just remembered -- right at the start of "Sweet Home, Alabama" he says "Toin it up." Maybe it's "tain." I hope so. I hate that asshole Fogerty.

Heavens, no, he's not saying 'toin' at the beginning of SHA.
He's turning over in his grave right now at the suggestion. Either that, or the fans have busted in again.

I like Ronnie "The Hawk" Hawkins to he was a cool old rocker....