Talk:Duane Allman

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[edit] Other Discussion

No, I don't think:

universally regarded as one of the greatest of all rock and roll guitarists

it over the top. Here are a few more opinions, collected in a few minutes from non-personal sites on the web:

I'm trying to get a copy of the Eric Clapton interview discussed on this page, and if (as I expect he will) Clapton says something similar to my characterization, it's going back (although for the sake of peace I'll change "universally" to "generally"), on the grounds that Clapton's views on the matter are probably more signicant than any of ours.

Noel 20:26, 12 Aug 2003 (UTC)

PS: What's the problem with "tragically"? It's not a tragedy when a talented artist is killed when he's only 24?

Noel 20:30, 12 Aug 2003 (UTC)

The reason I changed the phrase "universally regarded as one of the greatest of all rock and roll guitarists" because it didn't seem to convey a NPOV (if you haven't read that page yet, I recommend it. Perhaps an alternate way to phrase that might be "he is reagarded by many as one of the greatest of all rock and roll guitarists". As far as "tragically", I removed that because it seemed unnecessary to emphasize that his death at 24 was a tragedy, pedants might bring up th classical meaning of tragedy. If you want to re-insert "tragically", I won't argue. I am not very familiar with Duane Allman, so it would be good if another user with more musical knowledge looked over this page. I felt my edits made it more encyclopedic and less like a fan page, which is how the page struck me.

M123 23:54, 12 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Actually, I did ask some of my friends to proof-read it; one sent in some typos, but had no problem with the content. I have also read the NPOV page several times (it's rather lengthy :-). I cheerfully admit to being a big fan, but not to the extent that my life revolves around Duane specifically. Let me try your wording suggestion.

Noel 00:05, 13 Aug 2003 (UTC)


In my opinion, the user:DavidWBrooks fix is the best and most "encyclopedic," one so far. LadyPuffball 00:44, 23 Jan 2004 (UTC)

OK, so here are a list of specific editing points we seem to be disagreeing on, with my rationale for each:

  • "the famous studio in Muscle Shoals" - There is only one major recording studio there, and it's quite well known in the music world, so "the" is the appropriate article.
  • "he insisted on going to see their show" - An eyewitness account of the events, by Tom Dowd (his actual words given here) makes quite a point of saying how emphatic and intent Clapton was about going to go see the show. I am simply recording what participants report.
  • "hit it off immediately" - Again, Dowd's eyewitness account (again, his actual words given here) makes a point of saying how intense their connection was even though it was their first meeting, and how well they got on (which is not a given in the world of the arts, as egos can often get in the way). Again, I'm simply passing on what participants saw, and were struck by.
  • "with the result that Duane" - The first plan was to just have Duane contribute to one or two tracks; however, the connection between he and Clapton was so powerful that as the session went on he got completely sucked into the project as an equal and full contributor. I picked the wording to try and imply this, but perhaps I should just say it directly, as I don't think the words I selected did a good job here. I'll rework that section to try and improve it.
  • "greatest", "best" - When professional critics at major music organs like Rolling Stone say "best", I think it's more than just my personal enthusiasm. I have attempted to take the heat out of this issue by simply finding critics to quote, instead of putting any such words in myself.
  • "Tragically" - Rock'n'roll has lost a number of great guitar players at a relatively young age - Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, etc - but Duane's loss is, to me, at an even higher level; he was only 24 when he died, with only a handful of recordings to remember him by. We don't even have a video of him doing a concert, whereas for the other two we have several. Yet his brilliance and command of technique were remarkable for one so relatively young - two of the four albums he did are counted among the best rock albums ever! Who knows what we would have seen from him had he lived.
  • Duane vs Allman - I refer to him as "Duane" in the text of the page because i) there are two Allmans throughout the page, and in many cases "Allman" would thus be ambiguous; and ii) that's how most people I know refer to him (perhaps because of i). It has been suggested that in any paragraph where Greg is mentioned, we need to use both names, but in a new paragraph we could call him just plain "Allman," since he's the topic of the article. I am not comfortable with this for two reasons. First, I'd much rather be consistent throughout the article - pick one term, and always use that. "Allman" is not viable for that, so the choice would "Duane" or "Duane Allman" - and the latter is clunky. Second, Wikipedia style says you should refer to things using the name commonly used, and that's what I did (although that policy page is about article titles, I simple extended the basic philosophy into the article). When discussing Eric Clapton, people will say "Eric" or "Clapton", but I have never seen a discussion of Duane Allman refer to him as "Allman". I think the advantages of consistency outweigh the degree to which it might sound "fannish".

I think that's all of them. Let me go fix that clunky wording on the start of the collaboration with Clapton. Noel 02:13, 20 Mar 2004 (UTC)

IMHO, "tragically" still smacks of fandom, but it's certainly within the bounds of debatability (is that a word?) And to my surprise, all those "Duane"s read just fine. - DavidWBrooks 18:35, 22 Mar 2004 (UTC)

[edit] was vs. is

Allman is still regarded as one of the greats, even though he's dead, so the opening sentence should say "is" not "was" - since his reputation didn't change with his death. - DavidWBrooks 11:32, 19 July 2005 (UTC)

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[edit] Over-all review & comment, April 2006

I just read this page. Arrived via Google while researching Duane Allman and his death. This seemed like a fine, NPOV, useful and professional job to me. Kudos! Ned 04:48, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

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