The Allman Brothers Band: “Whipping Post”, one of their most famous songs was written on an ironing board. Gregg Allman wrote it out on an ironing board cover, using the charcoal from burned matches. One of the band’s signature songs was never released as a single. While the original studio recording is under six minutes, the live version clocks in over 22 — a whole side of the At Fillmore East vinyl album. “Whipping Post” became a signature Allman Brothers song. People would yell out for the number at concerts — and not just ones by The Allman Brothers. In a 1990s interview, Gregg Allman told how the song came about.
”I wrote that song about five days after I got to Jacksonville. I wrote it on an ironing board cover ’cause I couldn’t find any paper. There was a baby asleep in the house, a real old house that my brother was staying with this girl in, so if I was to wake up the baby, it would have been my ass. And I found a box of kitchen matches. I’d strike one, and I’d strike another one and blow it out and wrote it with the charcoal. I caught mucho hell about her ironing board cover the next day. But it all came out in one stream and by sundown the next day we rehearsed it and it was finished.”
Photo Credit: Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos
