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MIAMI
In early 1970,
Tom oversaw the design and construction of rooms at Criteria
Recording Studios in Miami. He relocated
to Florida, and soon brought in a Memphis rhythm section,
the Dixie Flyers, to work as the house band. 'Atlantic
Records South' was born.
One of the first projects Tom undertook
in Miami was with a Florida-born guitarist he had met and
recorded in Muscle Shoals. Now playing with his brother Gregg,
Duane Allman and The
Allman Brothers Band came south.
Because of conflicting dates the previous year, Tom had been
unable to record 'The Allman Brothers Band' (engineered by
Tom's assistant, Adrian Barber), the group's first album.
Soon though, he had recorded the band's second album, 'Idlewild
South,' in the Criteria studio, and then in 1971 produced
the perennial favorite, 'The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore
East.' Thus began a collaboration with the ABB that has covered
25 successful years filled with moments of great joy and pain,
periods of frustration, moments of re-birth, wall's filled
with Gold albums, and ultimately the acceptance of The Allman
Brothers as one of the legendary groups in rock history.
It was during their initial 'Idlewild South'
collaboration that a phone call led to one of the great albums
of rock history. In an unusual move for him, Tom took a call
during recording. Tom remembers, "The band finished playing
and I was still on the phone. Duane came in and waited until
I had finished. I apologized and described that I had to take
that call because it was from Eric
Clapton's manager. Duane then ran
titles and songs and sang some of Eric's solos to me. I then
went on to tell him that Eric had a group that he wanted to
record and was coming to Miami for that purpose in late August.
Duane asked if he could come by the sessions, as he and the
Brothers were doing a concert somewhere on Miami Beach around
the same time. Normally, knowing how shy Eric was (having
recorded Cream), I would have said no, but then Duane was
such a soft human being, I knew he would adjust to whatever
the circumstances were. Sure' I said, 'give us a call when
you get in town'."
Upon the arrival of Eric and his band,
Carl Radle, Jim Gordon and Bobby Whitlock, Tom recalls, "I
couldn't believe my eyes when the equipment came into the
studio. The bass amp was an Ampeg piggy back with a single
15" speaker and the guitar amp was a Fender Champ! The
alternate guitar amplifier was a Fender Princeton. The last
time I had recorded Eric he and Jack
Bruce were employing double stacks
of Marshall's!"
 "The
next day, Duane called, the Brothers were going to play in
town that night. Now I told Eric about the phone call and
The Allman Brothers Band and Duane's wanting to drop by. Eric's
eyes lit up and he looked at me and said, 'you mean the chap
who played on the end of Hey Jude?' the Wilson Pickett record
for which Duane had played a sensational solo. 'Matter of
fact, yes.' Eric wanted to see this man play and meet him!
I arranged for a limo to take us to the show and I notified
one of the crew that we'd try to sneak in. They were waiting
for us as we rolled up and they guided us around the side
of the stage and we crawled into the space between the stage
and the audience where the photographers usually stand.
Duane was playing a solo when he spotted us. He stopped playing
and Dickey Betts looked up to see what the problem was and
promptly started playing his own solo. Nobody else in the
band knew what was going on, but they went on to do a great
show. After the show, we all exchanged greetings backstage,
and then The Allman Brothers Band and Derek and the Dominoes
decided to go back to the studio and jam. What a free for
all."
"The rest of the Allman Brothers left, but Duane stayed
on for a few days as he and Eric were deeply moved by each
others' style of playing. With each being soft spoken and
in awe of the other's abilities, ego's were on permanent vacation.
And so started ten days of recording and overdubbing, with
Duane going and then coming back, that captured about 99%
of the now famous 'Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs' album."
The rest of the '70's proved to be a very
busy time for the veteran producer. He got divorced and then
remarried. Cheryl, his second wife, gave birth to his first
daughter. Having managed to retain the friendship of most
of the people he worked with, he was able to call on unusual
combinations of artists and musicians to make many records.
Along with this, he had the ability to coerce musicians and/or
artists to unique performances. It was easy for him to help
the new generation of artists and musicians make better recordings,
faster.
Thus began a string of recordings with
the likes of Eric Clapton
('461 Ocean Blvd.'), Rod Stewart
('Atlantic Crossing', 'A Night On the
Town', 'Foot Loose & Fancy Free', 'Blondes Have More Fun'),
re-mixes for Willie Nelson
('Shotgun Willie & Phases and Stages')
and enormously successful albums with Lynyrd
Skynyrd ('Gimme Back My Bullets',
'Street Survivors' and 'One More For/From the Road'). Another
decade came to an end with Tom Dowd utilizing his engineering
skills and musical expertise to further his impressive career.
Would the time ever come to settle down?
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