The blues rock song's lyrics center on a metaphorical whipping post, an evil woman and futile existential sorrow. That's the way the good songs come-they just hit you like a ton of bricks.' I didn't even have a chance to get the paper out. The song's metrical pattern and lyrics were written quickly on an ironing board cover, by Allman's telling in the middle of the night using the charcoal from extinguished kitchen matches. Gregg's travails in the music business would provide some of the thematic inspiration for the new song, but Allman has also said he is not sure where the lyrics came from. Gregg, the group's only songwriter at the time, was commissioned to create additional songs that would fit into the context of the new band, and in the next five days he wrote several, including 'Whipping Post'. Gregg showed the band 22 songs he had written, but only ' Dreams' and ' It's Not My Cross to Bear' were deemed usable. Gregg had failed to make a name for himself as a musician during a late-1960s stint in Los Angeles, and was on the verge of quitting music altogether when his brother Duane Allman called and said his new band needed a vocalist. Its writing dates back to late March 1969, when The Allman Brothers Band was first formed.

Gregg Allman was 21 years old when the song was first recorded. It was this recording that garnered 'Whipping Post' spots on both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list and Rolling Stone 's list of ' The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time', which wrote, 'the song is best appreciated in the twenty-three-minute incarnation on At Fillmore East.' Composition and studio version This was captured in the Allman Brothers' 1971 double live album At Fillmore East, where a 22-minute, 40-second rendition of the song takes up the entire final side. The song was regularly played live and was the basis for much longer and more intense performances. Written by Gregg Allman, the five-minute studio version first appeared on their 1969 debut album The Allman Brothers Band. ' Whipping Post' is a song by The Allman Brothers Band.

Gregg allman not my cross to bear