Whipping Post

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History

The Allman Brothers Band emerged in 1969 and, like several Bay Area bands, blended blues roughness and jazz looseness back into rock, which elsewhere was diverging into showmanship and away from the music itself. Even the Bay Area scene had by then become watered-down, with pseudo-psychedelic tailcoat riders. But the Allmans, from the Appalachian foothills of central Georgia, came with a harder edge that suggested less LSD and more Jim Beam. No surprise, then, that writer Gregg Allman had to work to convince the rest of the band to take up “Whipping Post.” The song is full of raging riffs and historic bridges, but the lyrics go deeper and dark: inspired by Gregg’s romantic and contractual difficulties at the time, they speak of being a run-down, lied-to, cheated-on fool stuck in bad times and drowning in sorrow. But the band succumbed, and the song has become a signature of the Allmans. It has since been covered by scores of artists from Los Lobos to Frank Zappa, and released by perhaps a dozen more. 

The Allman Brothers Band, “Whipping Post” – 9/23/70, New York, NY

Long a favorite among Phish fans, “Whipping Post” was played roughly every fourth show or so through 1988, and then declined both in raw frequency and in fraction of shows. Its first two appearances (11/3/84, into a nice drums jam, and 5/3/85, segueing nicely into “McGrupp”) featured two guitars (plus Jeff Holdsworth on lead vocals) and so the band was able to faithfully mimic the Allmans’ co-wailing axes. Its next appearance (without Jeff) was as the vehicle for Mike’s religious epiphany, an extended jam (11/23/85) that included parts of both “Norwegian Wood” and “Harry Hood.” Beyond that, Trey took over vocals starting on 8/10/87, and the cover remained somewhat faithful; check out 5/15/88, 9/24/88, or 11/3/88 (with “Dave’s Energy Guide” teases) for excellent examples. It was a straight cover, ripped from the golden days of rock and used by a bar band to communicate earnestness, with powerful placement (out of “Little Drummer Boy” 12/6/86, and out of a show-opening “Low Rider” jam 10/31/87) and strong jamming (as on 5/25/88, 4/27/89, 5/9/89, and 5/13/89, possibly one of the most improvisational versions Phish has performed).

Phish, “Whipping Post” – 7/25/99, Noblesville, IN

As Phish got bigger (and sillier), performances of the song became something of a joke. It was first revised as a Fishman romp, through his lead vocals (e.g. 3/9/90), lead on fretless guitar (10/28/91 and 12/6/91), and, of course, vacuum solo (12/5/92 and 8/10/96). 

But the song was too strong for the joke to last and, as Mike noted in one interview, Phish was playing venues that the Allmans were playing, “...so it wasn’t so much of a joke anymore.” They tried to pull it off 8/10/96 at Alpine Valley after a three-year, 285-show absence, but the next day felt guilty for the weakness of that version. So when it returned on 7/25/99 at Deer Creek after a second three-year and 208-show absence, Trey was on vocals for the first time since the 1980s and the performance was hard-core, true to the song’s beginning. “Whipping Post” hasn't graced the Phish stage since.

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