Search - Allman Brothers :: Crackdown Concert 1986

Heavily policed and not quite sold out, the Crack-Down Concert at Madison Square Gardens on October 31st 1986, performed by an eclectic array of artists, was arranged by Bill Graham as a benefit for the Artists for Crack Education Program - which existed at the time to recruit celebrities to speak out against the use of crack. In 1986 crack was an unknown narcotic for the average American, but it was one that was already badly affecting the lives of many young people - most notably young African-Americans, and predominantly then in the New York borough in which Graham himself had grown up. It was his witnessing of what Brooklyn was becoming that spurred him into action to put on the concert. An ambitious bill had been assembled with 1960s bands, African drumming, salsa, and rap trio Run-D.M.C. The Allman Brothers had played only one other show in 1986 - prior to which they hadn't performed together since disbanding in 1982 - and had no further plans to tour or record, but were on good form. The group stuck to old material, reviving 'One Way Out,' 'Statesboro Blues,' 'Blue Skies' and 'Midnight Rider' - appropriate for a set that began at midnight. Blues-based, country-smoothed and laced with bits of jazz and gospel from pianist Chuck Leavell - who hadn't played with the others since 1976 - the high points came in Dickey Betts' guitar solos, with his ringing tone and slowly spiraling phrases, and in the crossfire between the drummers Jai Johnny Johanson and Butch Trucks. Carlos Santana, Stephen Stills and Mick Taylor joined in for the Allman's penultimate number, an already crowded 'Key To The Highway,' before a kind of Come All Ye version of 'Got My Mojo Workin' - which broke into an all-star jam as the stage filled with everybody who was anybody from the backstage cortège - and that was about it. The night was over and it is hoped some money went to the cause intended, and that some good work was thus achieved.