It's Not My Cross to Bear
{{Infobox song
| name = It's Not My Cross to Bear
| cover =
| alt =
| type =
| artist = The Allman Brothers Band
| album = The Allman Brothers Band
| released = November 4, 1969
| format =
| recorded = 1969
| studio =
| venue =
| genre =
| length = 5:04
| label = Capricorn
| writer = Gregg Allman
| producer = Adrian Barber
}}
"It's Not My Cross to Bear" is a song by the Allman Brothers Band, written by Gregg Allman, that was released on their 1969 debut album. The song was written about a former lover.{{cite book
|last = Freeman
|first = Scott
|title = Midnight Riders: The Story of the Allman Brothers Band
|year = 1996
|publisher = Little, Brown and Company
|isbn = 978-0316294522 |page=60}} It was also one of the first songs Allman introduced to the group.{{cite magazine |last1=Browne |first1=David |title=Gregg Allman: 20 Essential Songs |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/gregg-allman-20-essential-songs-125069/its-not-my-cross-to-bear-1969-125222/ |magazine=Rolling Stone |access-date=21 August 2018 |date=27 May 2017}} In 1986, Allman recorded an arrangement for his record, I'm No Angel.
Blues resemblance
The song conveys the feel and tone of a blues song, but does not follow any of the usual eight-bar blues or twelve-bar blues progressions. The song has harmonic resemblance to Howlin' Wolf's recordings of "Sitting on Top of the World" in its inclusion of a minor IV chord in the fourth measure of the progression, while also harmonically resembling "Trouble in Mind", a blues standard.{{cite journal | author=Christopher M. Reali |year=2018 |title=The Allman Brothers Band: Conveying the Blues Idea |journal=Rock Music Studies |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=109–110 |doi=10.1080/19401159.2017.1416448|s2cid=195007040 }} The eight-bar blues progression in "It's Not My Cross to Bear" is played using B major as the tonic chord:
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" | |||
| style="width:25%;"| I7 | style="width:25%;"| I7 | style="width:25%;"| IV7 | style="width:25%;"| iv7 |
| I VI | II V7 | I7 | V |
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Allman Brothers Band}}
{{authority control}}
Category:The Allman Brothers Band songs
Category:Song recordings produced by Adrian Barber
Category:Songs written by Gregg Allman
{{1960s-song-stub}}