Berry Oakley

Jim Morrison was gone, found sprawled in a Paris bathtub in July 1971. a victim of his own indulgences at 27.

The Dead's Pigpen, the Allman Brothers' Dwayne Allman and Barry Oakley, Mama Cass, Graham Parsons and Clarence White of the Birds, Canned Heat's Al Wilson, Jimmy and Janice, all of them died in the 70s, each death another slap in the face of rock and roll.

Not to mention another needle to the ever-deflating balloon of generational hope for alternative lifestyles as a viable improvement on their parents' drab 9-to-5.

By 1972, the scoreboard read, Squares 1, Freaks 0.

The literal violence would come later that evening when the band attempted to get paid by the promoter.

The promoter, a guy by the name of Angelo Aliota, told Allman Brothers bassist Barry Oakley that the $1,000 guarantee that the band is supposed to get paid that night was not going to happen.

He said, the promoter said, that the band went on late, so he was only going to pay them $500.

Now, Oakley, the bass player, relayed this message to the Allman Brothers' road manager, a dude by the name of Twigs Linden Jr.

It would start with Duane Allman's slide guitar playing, and then Dickey Betts would answer back with a bluegrass-inspired lick.

And Jaimoe and Butch Trucks would toss drum fills back and forth like hot potatoes, with Berry Oakley holding it down on bass.

And then Gregg's organ would swoop in and take it over the top on songs like Midnight Rider and Whipping Post.

While the music played, Gregg could forget about all the bullshit back in Macon, and the taunts about his long hair, and the slurs hurled at his drummer, the threats from the local cops.

Out of nowhere, it shot to number 13 on the album charts.

But 13 proved, of course, to be an unlucky number for Gregg and the band, because a few weeks later, his brother Duane died in a motorcycle accident in downtown Macon.

A year later, bassist Berry Oakley would die in his own motorcycle crash just a few blocks away.

And despite this double dose of tragedy, the band soldiered on.