At Fillmore East the band was paid $1250 each show. The shows were typical performances for the band, and regarded as slightly above average by drummer Jai Johanny Johanson. Ads for the shows read: "Bill Graham Presents in New York — Johnny Winter And, Elvin Bishop Group, Extra Added Attraction: Allman Brothers." While Winter was billed as headliner, by the third night the Allman Brothers were closing the show. Tom Dowd produced "At Fillmore East"; he had previously worked on their second studio album, "Idlewild South". He had recently returned from Africa from working on the film "Soul to Soul", and stayed in
At Fillmore East doing the [studio] records, and I think, consequently, our next album will be ... a live recording, to get some of that natural fire on it." "We were not intentionally trying to buck the system, but keeping each song down to 3:14 just didn't work for us," remembered Gregg Allman. "And we realized that the audience was a big part of what we did, which couldn't be duplicated in a studio. A lightbulb finally went off; we needed to make a live album." "At Fillmore East" was recorded over two nights — March 12 and 13, 1971 — for which