Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Shapes of Things [#] - Allman Joys
2. Spoonful [#] - Allman Joys
3. Crossroads [#] - Allman Joys
4. Cast off All My Fears - The Hour Glass
5. Down in Texas - The Hour Glass
6. Ain't No Good to Cry [#] - The Hour Glass
7. B.B. King Medley: Sweet Little Angel/It's My Own Fault/How Blue Can Y - The Hour Glass
8. Morning Dew - The 31st of February,
9. God Rest His Soul - The 31st of February,
10. I Feel Free - Second Coming, Second Coming
11. She Has Funny Cars - Second Coming, Second Coming
12. Goin' Down Slow - The Allman Brothers Band, Duane Allman
13. Dreams [#]
14. Don't Want You No More
15. It's Not My Cross to Bear
16. Trouble No More
17. Dreams

Disc 2:

1. Statesboro Blues [#]
2. (I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man
3. Midnight Rider
4. Dimples [Live]
5. I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town [Live][#]
6. Revival
7. One More Ride [#]
8. Whipping Post [Live]
9. In Memory of Elizabeth Reed [Live]
10. Drunken Hearted Boy [#]

Disc 3:

1. You Don't Love Me/Soul Serenade [Live][#]
2. Blue Sky
3. Little Martha
4. Melissa
5. Ain't Wastin' Time No More [Live]
6. Wasted Words
7. Ramblin' Man
8. Southbound
9. Jessica
10. Midnight Rider
11. One Way Out [Live][#]
12. Long Time Gone - Dickey Betts

Disc 4:

1. Can't Lose What You Never Had
2. Come and Go Blues - Gregg Allman
3. Bougainvillea - Dickey Betts & Great Southern, Great Southern
4. Can You Fool - Allman and Woman,
5. Good Time Feeling - Dickey Betts & Great Southern, Great Southern
6. Crazy Love
7. Can't Take It With You
8. Just Ain't Easy [#]
9. In Memory of Elizabeth Reed [#]
10. Angeline
11. Things You Used to Do
12. Nancy [#] - Dickey Betts
13. Rain [#] - Gregg Allman
14. I'm No Angel - Gregg Allman Band
15. Demons - Gregg Allman Band
16. Duane's Tune - Dickey Betts

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6874 in Music
• Released on: 1989-06-08
• Number of discs: 4
• Format: Box set
• Dimensions: 1.86 pounds

Amazon.com
This four-CD celebration offers an incredibly comprehensive look at the Allman Brothers, adding early demos, rare live recordings, alternate takes, outtakes, remixes, and solo efforts to the already powerful "official" catalog. Their progression from '60s Invasion-style rockers to blues cover band with a taste for B.B. King to dynamic rock & roll juggernaut is astonishing, and the inclusion of sundry oddities will make collectors happy. The booklet is thorough and lovingly produced. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews

Great introduction/overview of an astounding band
Boxed sets such as this typically are a mixture of "Greatest Hits" material with enough unreleased material to hook die-hard fans into going ahead and spending money. "Dreams" is no exception to this, but it is better organized than most boxed sets. Die hards who already own the albums will get a lot of duplicate material, but roughly a third of it is unreleased and/or difficult to find. Those interested in discovering the group are in for a real treat! This boxed set is the perfect introduction.

Disc one is mostly cuts from the Pre-ABB groups The Allman Joys, Hour Glass, The 31st of February, and The Second Coming. When I saw the track listings after buying the set, I was initially disappointed by this, as I have little interest in being an Allman's "completist." However, I was relieved that all of the early cuts are at least pretty good, and at times, sublime! You hear a clear progression from psychedelic cover band to blues virtuosos to jazz/rock/country fusion. The second half of the disc is downright excellent.

Discs two and three are, by and large, greatest hits from the ABB golden era. If you don't already have a copy of the amazing Live at Fillmore East, there are three remastered cuts of probably the best tracks from Fillmore. Most ABB fans will already have Fillmore, but if you don't it's great to have these.

Over half of Disc four is solo and side project material by ABB members. As with disk one, all of these cuts are at least pretty good, with some really excellent numbers thrown in as well.

I'd rate this as one of the best boxed sets available because it doesn't contain any unnecessary filler tracks. You won't find yourself hitting the skip button very much at all. The breadth of ABB's musical heritage is laid out clearly and will continue to amaze after many listens.

If you're new to the band, as I was, this is a can't-go-wrong purchase.

An impressive career overview with a few twists
This is not the place to start your Allman Brothers collection (unless you have money to burn), but it is a fine stop along the way for devoted fans of the band.

"Dreams" is a four-disc, 55-song compilation, handsomely presented in a LP-sized box with a large, well illustrated and well written 30-page booklet.
It includes songs recorded between 1966 and 1988, so the Allmans' latter-day comeback is not documented. That detracts from "Dreams" as a career overview, of course, but all of that latter-day material is easily available anyway, so no great harm done.

Disc one includes a number of early recordings by Duane and Gregg Allman and their pre-ABB outfits, The Allman Joys, The Hourglass, 31st Of February, and the too-psychedelic Second Coming. Some of it is pedestrian, but there is actually quite a lot of good stuff as well, particularly the three Allman Joys numbers. And the late Duane Allman takes a rare lead vocal on the 1969 single "Goin' Down Slow" (previously only available on the Duane Allman "Anthology" from 1972).

The last two discs also include a number of songs from the solo careers of Gregg Allman and original co-lead guitarist Richard "Dickey" Betts. There is some really good stuff, particularly Gregg Allman's almost spiritual-like version of the Beatles' "Rain", Betts' up-tempo country-rockers "Crazy Love" and "Good Time Feeling", and the utterly beautiful outtake "Nancy". And you also get most of the good stuff from the Allmans' otherwise forgettable late 70s/early 80s LPs.
About a dozen of these 55 songs are previously unreleased (or were at the time), and some are hard-to-find singles or B-sides or just obscure album tracks. Those songs will certainly attract serious ABB fans, but more casual fans will probably find that one of these four discs could have been omitted with no great harm done.
Still, there is no denying that "Dreams" comes awfully close to delivering the definitive word on the Allman Brothers Band. All their classic songs are here, alongside studio outtakes like "Statesboro Blues" (!) and "One More Ride", previously unreleased live recordings of "One Way Out", "Elizabeth Reed" and "Just Ain't Easy", and a live-in-the-studio radio broadcast medley of "You Don't Love Me" and "Soul Serenade".

Serious ABB fans will definitely want this fine set in their collection, and lots of "mid-level" fans (like me) should find an awful lot to like as well. Even if they already have most of the ABB stuff, "Dreams" may well turn them on to the underappreciated solo career of Dickey Betts.
Oh, and that studio version of "Statesboro Blues"? Terrific! Why that one was never released is a mystery.

One of the top ten boxed sets ever released
This was one of the top boxed sets compiled and released along with Clapton Crossroads, and Bob Dylan Biograph.

This box mixes great album tracks, outstanding live cuts (the quadrophonic Fillmore East cuts of Whipping Post and In Memory of Elizabeth Reed for example), terrific unreleased tracks (the Idlewild South outtake of Statesboro Blues, as an example), and thoughtful and insightful solo ventures.

One of the best paced boxed sets. If you only want one Allman Brothers' release this fits the bill nicely.

Oh, and had they done the Doobie Brothers' box (a group that had a similar career) the same way, that would get five stars as well!