***THIS SITE IS MAINTAINED BY A FRIEND OF THE OAKLEY FAMILY AND HAS THE FAMILY BLESSING TO BE PART OF MYSPACE.***
In recent days one of the better Duane Allman sites seems to have disappeared along with a few of the ABB sites here on myspace, so before this one disappears I asked the family permission to post a note on here incase it is reported and may face being deleted. Thanks for reading and keep checking in as there is so much more to be added here in the future!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Born April 4, 1948 in Chicago, Illinois, Raymond Berry Oakley began as a lead guitarist, playing regularly in a local band, the Shanes, during the '60s. The group opened often for national acts, one such being Tommy Roe's backing band, The Roemans, with whom Oakley offered to stand in as a bassist (due the group's regular bassist being drafted). Although he didn't even own a bass at the time, Oakley persevered, dropped out of high school, and joined The Roemans full time. But Oakley's stint with the band didn't last long, as he wound up in Florida, lending his talents to various beach bands including The Second Coming along with Dickey Betts. By the end of the decade, Oakley was invited by then-session guitarist Duane Allman to join a new group he was forming, but the bassist agreed to join only one condition - that guitarist/friend Dickey Betts be included as well. An agreement was met, as Oakley, Betts, Allman, plus a pair of drummers, Butch Trucks and Jai Johnny Johanson, formed the Allman Brothers. Keyboardist/singer Gregg Allman, came along shortly after.
The group specialized in a slightly purer form of the blues rock style. Records followed shortly thereafter a contract was offered. It took the group a few albums to warm up (1969's The Allman Brothers Band and 1970's Idlewild South), as the sextet toured the U.S. relentlessly - becoming on of the era's most skilled 'jam' bands. Although most focused on either the fluid and melodic twin guitar harmonies of Dickey and Duane, or Gregg's soulful vocals, it was Oakley's sturdy bass lines and melodic playing that sometimes sounded as if it were another guitar that often kept the songs together (especially during their long and winding jams). It was also around this time that Oakley began playing a bass that he would be associated with throughout his brief career, a Fender bass that he modified himself, nicknamed "Tractor." Breakthrough success was just around the corner for the band, as they successfully captured the magic of their live show on the classic 1971 live set, At the Fillmore, which became a sizeable hit. But just as all their hard work was beginning to pay off big time, the Allman Brothers suffered their first blow, as Duane Allman died from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash on October 29th 1971, in the group's home base of Macon, Georgia. The Allmans finished up their next album (which was halfway complete when Allman died), Eat a Peach, becoming the group's first top ten hit shortly after release.
A year after Allman's passing things were beginning to look up once more for the group, as the band lived together in a house in Macon, known as The Big House (including Oakley's wife Linda,daughter Brittany, and sister Candace), as the bassist assumed Duane's previous position as 'leader' of the group. But on November 11, 1972, lightning struck twice. Oakley was riding his motorcycle with a member of the Allman Brothers' road crew, Kim Payne when he collided into a bus (just three blocks from where Allman met his fate). At first refusing medical attention, friends eventually took Oakley to the same hospital Allman was treated at, and died from head injuries and internal bleeding later that night. Oakley was buried next to Allman in Macon's Rose Hill Cemetery. The family requests if you make the trek there be respectful, take with you what you brought in and please do not cross the roped area, nor touch the graves.
As the group soldiered on once more, with newcomer Lamar Williams taking Oakley's place. Mirroring the same circumstances surrounding Allman's death, Oakley had already completed several tracks with the group for an upcoming album, which was released a year later, Brothers and Sisters. Years later, Oakley's son, Berry Duane Oakley, who was born March 30th 1973, eventually gained ownership of his father's infamous "Tractor" bass.
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