One Way Out

This Allman Brothers blues song reminds me of ‘Back Door Man’ the blues song that was written by Willie Dixon and recorded by Howlin’ Wolf in 1960. The Allman Brothers Band recorded ‘One Way Out’ on their 1972 double album Eat A Peach and it charted #86 in the US. It is still a bit of a mystery concerning who wrote ‘One Way Out’, but it has been credited to Marshall E Sehorn, Elmore James and Sonny Boy Williamson. Elmore James recorded it in 1961, but didn’t release it until ’65. Sonny Boy Williamson released a version in 1961 and 1965 and G.L. Crockett had a 1965 hit with the same song under a different name. Sehorn was a recording engineer, record producer, and all-around “record man” at Fire/Fury Records in New York, who likely engaged in the then-common practice of adding himself onto composer credits of songs that he was not actually involved in writing, to get a cut of subsequent royalties.
The song is about a man having an affair with another man’s woman in an upstairs apartment. He realizes that he is trapped when he hears another man has showed up downstairs. He figures that this is probably her man, so he decides to jump out the window to avoid any confrontation. Eat A Peach was the fourth album released by the Allman Brothers, but their first two releases The Allman Brothers Band released in 11/69 and Idlewild South released in 09/70 barely caused a ripple in the marketplace. In 07/71 they released a live album At Filmore East where they played three nights from March 11th through the 13th in 1971 and they were paid $1250 per show. Eat A Peach was a part live album.
Eat A Peach made it to #4 on the US Top 200 Pop Albums. On Eat A Peach, Duane Allman played slide guitar, lead guitar and acoustic guitar, Dickey Betts played lead guitar and sang, Gregg Allman did lead vocals, played organ, piano, and acoustic guitar, Berry Oakley played bass guitar, Jai Johanny Johanson played drums and congas and Butch Trucks played drums, percussion, timpani, gong, vibes and tambourine. Peaches are delicious, but you could get messy when you eat them. Duane read the T. S. Eliot poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, which contains the lines, “Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?” The peach is a metaphor for life, something one must experience before growing old. The album may have got its title from a quote by Duane Allman, “Every time I’m in Georgia I eat a peach for peace, … the two-legged variety”, making a reference that the Georgia women were hotter than asphalt. Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident at the age of 24, four months before Eat A Peach was released.
In May of 2012, biographer Alan Paul wrote a book titled One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band which became a New York Times best seller. One Way Out is also the title of the Allman Brothers 23rd album, which was released in March of 2003. ‘One Way Out’ was included on the 2003 5-CD box set, Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: A Musical Journey soundtrack to the Martin Scorsese PBS documentary series The Blues. The box set attempts to present a history of the blues from the dawning of recorded music to the present day. This is one of the most comprehensive, broad spanning blues music collections ever assembled.

Ain’t but one way out baby, Lord I just can’t go out the door
Ain’t but one way out baby, and Lord I just can’t go out the door
‘Cause there’s a man down there, might be your man I don’t know

Lord you got me trapped a woman, up on the second floor
If I get by this time I won’t be trapped no more
So raise your window baby, I can ease out soft and slow
And Lord, your neighbors, no they won’t be
Talking that stuff that they don’t know

Lord, I’m foolish to be here in the first place
I know some man gonna walk in and take my place
Ain’t no way in the world, I’m going out that front door
‘Cause there’s a man down there, might be your man I don’t know
‘Cause there’s a man down there, might be your man I don’t know
‘Cause there’s a man down there and Lord, it might just happen to be your man

Lord, it just might be your man
Lord, it just a might be your man
Oh baby, I just don’t know

The challenge today is to focus on this song and use it for inspiration in any form of creative expression (including but not limited to short stories, a piece of flash fiction, poems, lyrics, artwork, photography, (etc.) that you can share with the writing community. Alternatively, if you are a musician, and you have played this song solo or in a group, it would be awesome if you could post a video to showcase your own work. You could write about how you learned to play the chords or how you learned the lyrics. There is no need to stick with this song, as if you like to write about another Allman Brothers, or Elmore James, or Sonny Boy Williamson song, or another song about being trapped and needing to get out, that would work. You might also go with a song that is about a love triangle or about cheating.
The whole point of this MM Music challenge is to get you to think, to trigger something so that you can show how creative you are and everyone is welcome to participate. This challenge is very loose, so pretty much whatever you come up with will be acceptable. I try to throw some ideas out there for you and if they seem right, then go with it. You could write about your favorite fruit or how eating fruit is good for you. If you were ever trapped somewhere, I am sure that would make an interesting story for you to write about.
Dylan Hughes has next Friday, November 23 with her First Line Friday and then I will be back on Friday, November 29 with another MM Music Challenge where we will discuss the song ‘Lime in the Coconut’. When you are finished writing your post, create a ping back to this post, but you can also place your link in the comments section below if you desire. This Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie MM Music challenge has a special feature called Mr. Linky, which will allow you to instantly link your post after you click the Mr. Linky Button, and then follow the directions that are given.

About newepicauthor

My About Me section is meant to provide my readers with an honest picture of myself that gives a little bit of background information on who I am and I will wrap this up with a catchy image. I am a story teller and I like to use my imagination. I am interested in many things, but a few of my favorites are watching the NFL and playing golf. I do not like onions and I always make sure that my food does not contain any. I had two wonderful parents, my dad Herb Adams was a television repairman and my mother Mary Adams was mostly a stay at home mom. They are both deceased now and I miss them. I am a retired Electrical Engineer specialized in control systems. I held many different positions because I worked mostly as a consultant. I did work as a Substitute Teacher, for a while, but the kids were awful. I am happiest when I am writing, as this gives my life has a purpose. Forming a sentence with meaningful words that articulate my inner feelings is an everyday quest for me. Every writer needs to tell their story, and all writers have their own style. All stories starts off with characters, who are able to entertain the reader. Creating realistic lovable characters is the best way to tell a story. If you are able to develop characters that become real to you, then you will know exactly what they will do say and do next and this lets your story progress to the completion. Writing changes everything and having the calling to create something new through the power of words is much more than just making marks on a page. Once written, a book can be used by many people to learn and be entertained. The act of writing can be compared to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle as it contains an inherent fuzziness, because various people may derive different meanings from reading the same words. You can never know the true nature of written words and the best I can do is hope is that people will understand the meanings that I am trying to convey. There are no clear-cut laws on how to write and it is impossible for me to determine how my readers react to my books.

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