In Memory of Elizabeth Reed
"[3] To cloak her identity, the composition is named after a headstone Betts saw at the Rose Hill Cemetery, where band members often ventured in their early days to relax and write songs.
[3] Considerable legend developed about the piece's genesis and what Betts was doing at the time, much of it fueled by a put-on interview band leader Duane Allman gave Rolling Stone.
The Rolling Stone Album Guide called "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" in its original studio incarnation "the blueprint of a concert warhorse, capturing the Allmans at their most adventurous.
[10] In this performance, taken from the March 13, 1971 (first show) concert by the group,[11] Betts opens the piece with ethereal volume swells on his guitar, giving the aural impression of violins.
[12][13] Slowly the first theme begins to emerge, Duane Allman's guitar joining Betts in a dual lead that variously doubles the melody,[14] provides a harmony line,[15] or provides counterpoint.
[14] The tempo then picks up in the next section[13] to a Santana-like,[2] quasi-Latin beat, a strong second-theme melody driven by unison playing and harmonized guitars arising.
Throughout, percussionists Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny Johanson play in unison, laying what has been described as "a thick bed of ride-snare rhythm for the soloists to luxuriate upon.
"[17] Duane Allman then[13] starts quietly rephrasing the first theme, gradually building to a high-pitched climax, Berry Oakley's bass guitar playing a strong counterpoint against the band's trademark percussion.
"[10] Following the Duane Allman solo the band drops off to a relatively brief but to-the-point percussion break by Trucks and Johanson reflecting Kind of Blue drummer Jimmy Cobb's work.
In reaction, Bruce Eder's Allmusic review of this album stated: "It is also a slightly less honest release [than the original], where 'In Memory of Elizabeth Reed' is concerned—Dowd edited the version here together from two different performances, first and second shows, the dividing line being where Duane Allman's solo comes in.
"[21] C. Michael Bailey of All About Jazz also stated that the 1992 The Fillmore Concerts represented "digital editing" combining multiple takes of "Elizabeth Reed" onto one track.
[23] A rearranged take on "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed", running seventeen minutes and featuring an electric piano played by Chuck Leavell in place of the Duane Allman guitar parts, appeared on the band's generally unloved 1976 Wipe the Windows, Check the Oil, Dollar Gas double live album.
Eder of Allmusic states that the band knew "they could never spark more fire than the version from the Fillmore, so they transform it into a moodier piece with more space for the keyboards to open up.
