The Allman Brothers Band — Melissa
Album: Eat A PeachAvg rating:
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Total ratings: 1713
Length: 3:45
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Crossroads, seem to come and go, yeah.
The gypsy flies from coast to coast
Knowing many, loving none,
Bearing sorrow havin' fun,
But back home he'll always run
To sweet Melissa... mmm...
Freight train, each car looks the same, all the same.
And no one knows the Gypsy's name
No one hears his lonely sigh,
There are no blankets where he lies.
In all his deepest dreams the Gypsy flies
with sweet Melissa... mmm...
Again the morning's come,
Again he's on the run,
Sunbeams shining through his hair,
Appearing not to have a care.
Well, pick up your gear and Gypsy roll on, roll on.
Crossroads, will you ever let him go? (Lord, Lord)
Will you hide the dead man's ghost,
Or will he lie, beneath the clay,
Or will his spirit fall away?
But I know that he won't stay without Melissa.
Yes I know that he won't stay without Melissa.
The gypsy flies from coast to coast
Knowing many, loving none,
Bearing sorrow havin' fun,
But back home he'll always run
To sweet Melissa... mmm...
Freight train, each car looks the same, all the same.
And no one knows the Gypsy's name
No one hears his lonely sigh,
There are no blankets where he lies.
In all his deepest dreams the Gypsy flies
with sweet Melissa... mmm...
Again the morning's come,
Again he's on the run,
Sunbeams shining through his hair,
Appearing not to have a care.
Well, pick up your gear and Gypsy roll on, roll on.
Crossroads, will you ever let him go? (Lord, Lord)
Will you hide the dead man's ghost,
Or will he lie, beneath the clay,
Or will his spirit fall away?
But I know that he won't stay without Melissa.
Yes I know that he won't stay without Melissa.
Comments (74)add comment
gplaytest
It’s hard to believe there are only 72 comments. Such a wonderful song.
A segue from Beck"s This Morning to Allman Brothers Melissa.
RP never seems to miss the inspirations.
Well played
RP never seems to miss the inspirations.
Well played
Can it be 50 years?
June in southern Mexico, but I got a chill at the beginning of this one, after hearing it for the thousandth time. :-)
Highlowsel wrote:
Great story which, with a few minor tweaks, could be my own. Army brat, highs and lows and always a vagabond. Some health issues have slowed me down now but wouldn't change anything, it's been a good life!
Ahhhh yes....plying the highway in a beat up piece of shit (can I say that on RP?) Harley in the summer of 1972. 
Newly released from High School and traveling this country, one I'd never really seen for having grown up a military brat in countries overseas. This tune was one of my traveling songs then....and is still one of my traveling songs now.
A lot of time and road from then to now. I've been stupid and I've been brilliant along that way, but I'm still here with most of my marbles intact, I've been poor, especially at the beginning; and I've had more money than my military father could have ever dreamed. But today I'm just a hi-tech nomad don't'cha know, with little need for all that used to drive me, traveling on and moving light. And I still have my health, amazingly enough, though the mirror says "Son you've got some wear and tear on you now."
Truth be told maybe I've done it all for lack of a proper Melissa, though there have been a few who I tried to fit the bill and failed. Then again maybe I'd have done it just the same even if I'd known how it would all end up.
Regardless I've always thought this was a beautifully done song, a counterpoint to my life.
Highlow
American Net'Zen
Newly released from High School and traveling this country, one I'd never really seen for having grown up a military brat in countries overseas. This tune was one of my traveling songs then....and is still one of my traveling songs now.
A lot of time and road from then to now. I've been stupid and I've been brilliant along that way, but I'm still here with most of my marbles intact, I've been poor, especially at the beginning; and I've had more money than my military father could have ever dreamed. But today I'm just a hi-tech nomad don't'cha know, with little need for all that used to drive me, traveling on and moving light. And I still have my health, amazingly enough, though the mirror says "Son you've got some wear and tear on you now."
Truth be told maybe I've done it all for lack of a proper Melissa, though there have been a few who I tried to fit the bill and failed. Then again maybe I'd have done it just the same even if I'd known how it would all end up.
Regardless I've always thought this was a beautifully done song, a counterpoint to my life.
Highlow
American Net'Zen
Great story which, with a few minor tweaks, could be my own. Army brat, highs and lows and always a vagabond. Some health issues have slowed me down now but wouldn't change anything, it's been a good life!
misfitz wrote:
And now I like this song even more. Thanks misfitz!
Such a beautiful song. My name is Melissa, so of course it's my favorite. Even after finding out that the girl who inspired the famous Melissa was a toddler!
Gregg had the song written, but couldn't quite find the right girl's name to fit the melody. Needed something 3 syllable. Walking in a grocery store one day, this little girl runs past him. And he heard a Spanish woman yell after her "Melissa, Melissa come back, Melissa!" And he thought - that's it!
The name Melissa always does sound best with a Spanish accent :)
And now I like this song even more. Thanks misfitz!
unclehud wrote:
As a former Maconite, I can attest that the Rose Hill Cemetery is a worth visit. Bring your favorite Allman's track, a cool brew, and breath in the humid Southern air. Peace.
If you're ever in Macon -- about an hour south of the Atlanta International Airport (Idlewild South!) -- you can easily visit the graves: Duane, Greg, and Berry Oakley are in Rose Hill Cemetery a short walk from Elizabeth Reed, Little Martha, and the brick wall background for "The Allman Brothers" back cover.
The following can be found by searching Google Maps for 'Duane Allman Grave':
GPS: 32.847266, -83.631513
Google: R9W9+V9 Macon, Georgia
New brick retaining walls and a taller fence have been installed since Greg was buried there. It's a nice place, even where the train rolls through.
As a former Maconite, I can attest that the Rose Hill Cemetery is a worth visit. Bring your favorite Allman's track, a cool brew, and breath in the humid Southern air. Peace.
Top 10 all time of all music for me. A song that imparts such an emotions feeling. And I don't even know a Melissa.
The instrumentation on this is perfect on all fronts.
unclehud wrote:
If you're ever in Macon -- about an hour south of the Atlanta International Airport (Idlewild South!) -- you can easily visit the graves: Duane, Greg, and Berry Oakley are in Rose Hill Cemetery a short walk from Elizabeth Reed, Little Martha, and the brick wall background for "The Allman Brothers" back cover.
The following can be found by searching Google Maps for 'Duane Allman Grave':
GPS: 32.847266, -83.631513
Google: R9W9+V9 Macon, Georgia
New brick retaining walls and a taller fence have been installed since Greg was buried there. It's a nice place, even where the train rolls through.
The following can be found by searching Google Maps for 'Duane Allman Grave':
GPS: 32.847266, -83.631513
Google: R9W9+V9 Macon, Georgia
New brick retaining walls and a taller fence have been installed since Greg was buried there. It's a nice place, even where the train rolls through.
I’ve been a fan of the Allman Brothers music for decades. So, when riding across the deep south on a road trip I decided to visit the bands home, which is now a museum in Macon. But it's closed on Wednesday's. Guess what day I swung into town!
Such a beautiful song. My name is Melissa, so of course it's my favorite. Even after finding out that the girl who inspired the famous Melissa was a toddler!
Gregg had the song written, but couldn't quite find the right girl's name to fit the melody. Needed something 3 syllable. Walking in a grocery store one day, this little girl runs past him. And he heard a Spanish woman yell after her "Melissa, Melissa come back, Melissa!" And he thought - that's it!
The name Melissa always does sound best with a Spanish accent :)
Gregg had the song written, but couldn't quite find the right girl's name to fit the melody. Needed something 3 syllable. Walking in a grocery store one day, this little girl runs past him. And he heard a Spanish woman yell after her "Melissa, Melissa come back, Melissa!" And he thought - that's it!
The name Melissa always does sound best with a Spanish accent :)
If you're ever in Macon -- about an hour south of the Atlanta International Airport (Idlewild South!) -- you can easily visit the graves: Duane, Greg, and Berry Oakley are in Rose Hill Cemetery a short walk from Elizabeth Reed, Little Martha, and the brick wall background for "The Allman Brothers" back cover.
Find them by searching Google Maps for 'Duane Allman Grave', or try these coordinates:
GPS: 32.847266, -83.631513
Google: R9W9+V9 Macon, Georgia
New brick retaining walls and a taller fence have been installed since Greg was buried there. It's a nice place, even when the train rolls through.
Find them by searching Google Maps for 'Duane Allman Grave', or try these coordinates:
GPS: 32.847266, -83.631513
Google: R9W9+V9 Macon, Georgia
New brick retaining walls and a taller fence have been installed since Greg was buried there. It's a nice place, even when the train rolls through.
This song in particular usually gets me to stop the RP feed and dig deep through my Allman Brothers tracks.
DocStrangelove wrote:
Someone is out of their fucking mind
RP, you lost me this morning. Terrible play this so far today.
Someone is out of their fucking mind
I was brought up mainly on British rock but my appreciation of American rock I used to ignore is finally increasing.
Sublime lazy Allmans sound, seriously underrated & sorely missed.
Wonderful noise!
Wonderful noise!
DocStrangelove wrote:
Um, what? Are you kidding?
RP, you lost me this morning. Terrible play this so far today.
Um, what? Are you kidding?
DocStrangelove wrote:
Answering the question "Who the hell hates the Allman Brothers?".
RP, you lost me this morning. Terrible play this so far today.
Answering the question "Who the hell hates the Allman Brothers?".
so beautiful, timeless (hmmmm, yeah, where's my liddle doobie now that you mention it : )
Lazarus wrote:
Long ago some old friends and I drove to Macon, Georgia, and we passed around reefer joints as we stood by Duane Allman's grave...
this music is heavenly...
Long ago some old friends and I drove to Macon, Georgia, and we passed around reefer joints as we stood by Duane Allman's grave...
this music is heavenly...
I always get such a warm feeling from this song. Brings back fond and poignant memories of a Melissa from my high school days; someone whom I loved and then disappointed. Nearly 40 years on, I still think about her when I hear this song.
Highlowsel wrote:
Nice post and a great song
Ahhhh yes....plying the highway in a beat up piece of shit (can I say that on RP?) Harley in the summer of 1972.
Newly released from High School and traveling this country, one I'd never really seen for having grown up a military brat in countries overseas. This tune was one of my traveling songs then....and is still one of my traveling songs now.
A lot of time and road from then to now. I've been stupid and I've been brilliant along that way, but I'm still here with most of my marbles intact, I've been poor, especially at the beginning; and I've had more money than my military father could have ever dreamed. But today I'm just a hi-tech nomad don't'cha know, with little need for all that used to drive me, traveling on and moving light. And I still have my health, amazingly enough, though the mirror says "Son you've got some wear and tear on you now."
Truth be told maybe I've done it all for lack of a proper Melissa, though there have been a few who I tried to fit the bill and failed. Then again maybe I'd have done it just the same even if I'd known how it would all end up.
Regardless I've always thought this was a beautifully done song, a counterpoint to my life.
Highlow
American Net'Zen
Newly released from High School and traveling this country, one I'd never really seen for having grown up a military brat in countries overseas. This tune was one of my traveling songs then....and is still one of my traveling songs now.
A lot of time and road from then to now. I've been stupid and I've been brilliant along that way, but I'm still here with most of my marbles intact, I've been poor, especially at the beginning; and I've had more money than my military father could have ever dreamed. But today I'm just a hi-tech nomad don't'cha know, with little need for all that used to drive me, traveling on and moving light. And I still have my health, amazingly enough, though the mirror says "Son you've got some wear and tear on you now."
Truth be told maybe I've done it all for lack of a proper Melissa, though there have been a few who I tried to fit the bill and failed. Then again maybe I'd have done it just the same even if I'd known how it would all end up.
Regardless I've always thought this was a beautifully done song, a counterpoint to my life.
Highlow
American Net'Zen
Nice post and a great song
Ahhhh yes....plying the highway in a beat up piece of shit (can I say that on RP?) Harley in the summer of 1972.
Newly released from High School and traveling this country, one I'd never really seen for having grown up a military brat in countries overseas. This tune was one of my traveling songs then....and is still one of my traveling songs now.
A lot of time and road from then to now. I've been stupid and I've been brilliant along that way, but I'm still here with most of my marbles intact, I've been poor, especially at the beginning; and I've had more money than my military father could have ever dreamed. But today I'm just a hi-tech nomad don't'cha know, with little need for all that used to drive me, traveling on and moving light. And I still have my health, amazingly enough, though the mirror says "Son you've got some wear and tear on you now."
Truth be told maybe I've done it all for lack of a proper Melissa, though there have been a few who I tried to fit the bill and failed. Then again maybe I'd have done it just the same even if I'd known how it would all end up.
Regardless I've always thought this was a beautifully done song, a counterpoint to my life.
Highlow
American Net'Zen
Newly released from High School and traveling this country, one I'd never really seen for having grown up a military brat in countries overseas. This tune was one of my traveling songs then....and is still one of my traveling songs now.
A lot of time and road from then to now. I've been stupid and I've been brilliant along that way, but I'm still here with most of my marbles intact, I've been poor, especially at the beginning; and I've had more money than my military father could have ever dreamed. But today I'm just a hi-tech nomad don't'cha know, with little need for all that used to drive me, traveling on and moving light. And I still have my health, amazingly enough, though the mirror says "Son you've got some wear and tear on you now."
Truth be told maybe I've done it all for lack of a proper Melissa, though there have been a few who I tried to fit the bill and failed. Then again maybe I'd have done it just the same even if I'd known how it would all end up.
Regardless I've always thought this was a beautifully done song, a counterpoint to my life.
Highlow
American Net'Zen
Tugging at my heartstrings again...
Definitely one of those songs that stops me, whatever I'm doing, and makes me listen and try to connect all the times I've heard it...
One of the many 10s off a album that is most likely a timeless classic for ages to come
I had this album, didn't remember this tune on it.
it has been a while.
it has been a while.
Wonderful William thank you!
The summer of 1974. Months before my freshman year in college. In my cocoa brown 1972 hot rumbling Camaro with the ear blasting 8 track. Windows down, ripping up Rte. 23, or down the Parkway, or west to the Delaware. And this...perfection of connection.
Crossroads, will you ever let him go? Lord, Lord.
Or will you hide the dead man's ghost?
Or will he lie, beneath the clay?
Or will his spirit float away?
Or will you hide the dead man's ghost?
Or will he lie, beneath the clay?
Or will his spirit float away?
very, very, very nice song!
Oh, Sweet Phyllisa - I miss you. Your memory always brings a smile...
Also belongs with Dear Prudence. Don't know why.
Lazarus wrote:
you've got my vote bro ; )
you've got my vote bro ; )
This song is so summery - a hot, breezy summer day in the American South.
should be in rotation with summer brease isley bros. it just feels like summer now.
EarthMama wrote:
Agreed.
Perfection....I grew up listening to this coming from my brother's room......LOVE
Agreed.
7:55 on Wednesday on a rainy Florida day. Headphones on before the daily floggings begin. What a great song to start the day with. Thanks Bill.
Perfection.
Everybody in my mushrooming multitude of churches be dancing buck ass naked all over the world like bowlegged gypsy muleskinners... love this song soooo much... love sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll...
Perfection....I grew up listening to this coming from my brother's room......LOVE
A great song from an excellent album. Those boys they sure could rock the place in their day. Then one died, and one got eaten by Cher, and they were never the same again.
So it goes.
Highlow
American Net'Zen
So it goes.
Highlow
American Net'Zen
Long ago some old friends and I drove to Macon, Georgia, and we passed around reefer joints as we stood by Duane Allman's grave...
this music is heavenly...
Very nice! Saw Greg Allman in BN (Germany) two years ago. Very nice concert.!
I was a senior in high school when this came out.
Still have the album.
Still have the album.
One of my all-time favorite bass lines...
Talk about leaving the party too early, miss ya Berry.
Talk about leaving the party too early, miss ya Berry.
Up, up, up....turning it up to 11. Twirling in my kitchen! 
marvelous... love it...
Everybody in my church loves this song!!!!
special delivery
Never a more classic or memorable sound, song or album. It would be a stretch to call Melissa uplifting — the guitar is crying for God's sake — but it is among the highest forms of bittersweet.
Thanks for Bill's background information about the song's title. Very interesting, and I'm going to read Greg's autobiographie, but there is no german translation available I'm afraid.
BORING BROTHERS BAND
(album is great, of course!)
Terrific song from a terrific album. I don't know about anyone else here who was around at that time but I got really upset about hearing of all these deaths of all these rock giants. Just added to the somber mood with the war and Nixon, the assassinations, Kent State, etc.
Love this song. Least favorite on the record. Signified...plus...that girl-
Such a great song and as far as college memories go....
My best friend in college was always seriously dating one girl or another, but always breaking up with them also. Then he met Melissa who he was completely crazy about and totally in love with, until he wasn't and, of course, broke up with her. So three of us are sitting around on an afternoon playing our guitars and in walks my best friend with a totally glum look on his face for he is, for this brief moment anyway, without a girlfriend. "Hey, let's play one for Bill". We launch into a great, for us anyway, version of this song. Bill flips us the bird and walks out of the room. We all collapse in laughter at our dear friend's expense.
Ahh, college life!
My best friend in college was always seriously dating one girl or another, but always breaking up with them also. Then he met Melissa who he was completely crazy about and totally in love with, until he wasn't and, of course, broke up with her. So three of us are sitting around on an afternoon playing our guitars and in walks my best friend with a totally glum look on his face for he is, for this brief moment anyway, without a girlfriend. "Hey, let's play one for Bill". We launch into a great, for us anyway, version of this song. Bill flips us the bird and walks out of the room. We all collapse in laughter at our dear friend's expense.
Ahh, college life!
This song reminds me of my sister! Brings back good memories!
cc_rider wrote:
So true.
I will never hear this song again without thinking of our friend.
So true.
Really loved this album when I was in college. Good memories.
Such sweet, sad refrain for Duane. Fly on, Gypsy, fly...
this band is everything to me 
I will never hear this song again without thinking of our friend.
special delivery
has this song ever been played? i think it should. my fiance was named after this one :D