Monday, September 5, 2011

Songs in the key of my life: The Allman Brothers Band - Jessica



Sometime in the mid or late 70s I finally discovered a radio program that actually did broadcast progressive innovative rock music. Bayern 2 had a youth section and its main program was weekdays at 4pm and was called Club 16 (for 16.00 o'clock). I rarely missed a show, always had a pen and a notebook with me, writing down the titles and giving the songs my own personal ratings. Over time the journalists became well-known figures to me, and I could recognize the tastes of Carl-Ludwig Reichert, Karl Bruckmaier, Inegborg Schober, to name just a few. Besides AFN this show was my main musical education, and a huge amount of this ongoing list will reflect a lot of songs from this specific program. Carl-Ludwig even managed to present an hour of music that has remained with me till this day, but I'll report on that in a later entry. However, what I want to mention here is the theme tune of the show which was The Allman Brothers Band's 'Jessica', a wonderful instrumental. As a theme song it was long time unknown to me who it was till one of the DJs decided it's about to time to play it in full length. I later became a huge fan of the band and I do cherish some of their songs even more than this one. But any time I hear just a few chords of 'Jessica' it'll activate fond memories of those days when I was discovering so much new music.

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