Whipping Post (song)
| "Whipping Post" | |
|---|---|
|
Song by The Allman Brothers Band from the album The Allman Brothers Band (studio) At Fillmore East (live) |
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| Released | November 4, 1969 (studio) July 1971 (live) |
| Recorded | August 7, 1969 (studio) March 13, 1971 (live) |
| Genre | Blues rock, southern rock, jam |
| Length | 5:17 (studio) 22:40 (live) |
| Label | Capricorn Records |
| Writer(s) | Gregg Allman |
| Producer(s) |
Adrian Barber (studio) Tom Dowd (live) |
"Whipping Post" is a song by The Allman Brothers Band. Written by Gregg Allman, the five-minute studio version first appeared on their 1969 debut album The Allman Brothers Band. But the song's full power only manifested itself in concert, when it was the basis for much longer and more intense performances. This was captured in the Allman Brothers' classic 1971 double live album At Fillmore East, where a 22-minute rendition of the song takes up the entire final side. It was this recording that garnered "Whipping Post" spots on both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list and Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Gregg Allman was 21 years old when the song was first recorded. Its writing dates back to late March 1969, when The Allman Brothers Band was first formed. Gregg had failed to make a name for himself as a musician during a late-1960s stint in Los Angeles, and was on the verge of quitting music altogether when his brother Duane Allman called and said his new band needed a vocalist. Gregg showed the band 22 songs he had written, but only "Dreams" and "It's Not My Cross to Bear" were deemed usable. Gregg, the group's only songwriter at the time, was commissioned to create additional songs that would fit into the context of the new band, and in the next five days he wrote several, including "Whipping Post".
Gregg's travails in the music business would provide the thematic inspiration for the new song, which was written quickly on an ironing board cover: He later said: "It came so fast. I didn't even have a chance to get the paper out. That's the way the good songs come—they just hit you like a ton of bricks."
The blues rock song's lyrics center on a metaphorical whipping post, an evil woman and futile existential sorrow. Writer Jean-Charles Costa described the studio version's musical structure as a "solid framework of [a] song that lends itself to thousands of possibilities in terms of solo expansion. ... [It is] in modified 3/4 time, building to a series of shrieking lead guitar statements, and reaching full strength in the chorus supported by super dual-lead guitar." The result was called by Rolling Stone an "enduring anthem ... rife with tormented blues-ballad imagery".
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