“Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” Honors Duane Allman

“Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More,” recorded by the Allman Brothers on their their third studio album “Eat a Peach,” was written by Greg Allman after his brother Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle crash in 1971. Most of the music was recorded before Duane died, but it was after his death that Greg penned the song’s lyrics sitting at a piano at Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida, where the song was recorded.  The track was one of the first that the band recorded without Duane.  

The song describes the shadow that grief casts over everything: “Last Sunday morning, the sunshine felt like rain,” Allman sings, though the song is mostly a song about carrying on despite grief. The first verse ends with the lyrics, “With the help of God and true friends, I’ve come to realize/I still have two strong legs, and even wings to fly.” 

The song addresses someone named Miss Sally, apparently in mourning, and reminds her that despite her grief, she is still alive and that there’s still beauty and love in the world: 

Well, Lord, Lord, Miss Sally, why all your cryin’?

Been around here three long days, lookin’ like we’re dyin’

Go step yourself outside, and look up at the stars above

And go on downtown, baby, find somebody to love

Credit: musicnotes.com

“Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” is primarily a song about the ways the untimely death of a loved one reflects back to us how limited our time on this earthly plane is, and how the amount of it we have left is always an unknown.  In the refrain, the narrator sings, “Meanwhile, I ain’t a-wastin’ time no more” followed by lines that describe the passage of time as “hurricanes and faster things and pouring rain and much faster things.” 

In the third verse of the song, there is a reference to war. According to Greg Allman the song was influenced both by Duane’s death and by “the people coming back from the war in Vietnam.” He sings:

Well, by and by, way after many years have gone

And all the war freaks die off, leavin’ us alone

We’ll raise our children, in the peaceful way we can

It’s up to you and me brother

To try and try again

“Ain’t Wastin’ No More Time” is a song about death and grief, but it’s an upbeat, feel-good tune with a steady bottom end and some beautiful electric slide guitar played by Dickey Betts, who picked it up to fill in for Duane, who had previously handled electric slide guitar duties.  

Listen to Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” and see some great images of the band in the video below.