"Ramblin' Man" was first created during songwriting sessions for
Eat a Peach. An embryonic version, referring to a "ramblin' country man," can be heard on the bootleg
The Gatlinburg Tapes, featuring the band jamming on an off-day in April 1971 in
Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Betts continued to work on the song for a year, but the lyrics came together in as little as twenty minutes. "I wrote "Ramblin' Man" in
Berry Oakley's kitchen [at the Big House] at about four in the morning. Everyone had gone to bed but I was sitting up," said Betts in 2014. Drummer
Butch Trucks noted that the band acknowledged it was a good song but were reluctant to record it, as it sounded too
country for them. New member and keyboardist
Chuck Leavell enjoyed the song, noting, "It's definitely in the direction of country but that didn't bother me in the least [...] I think our attitude was, 'Let's take this thing and make it as great as we can.'" The song was inspired by a 1951
song of the same name by
Hank Williams. It was one of the first songs recorded for
Brothers and Sisters (1973), alongside "Wasted Words". The band went to the studio to record a song demo to send to a friend, where the extended guitar jam near the song's finale was created. Having not considered it an Allman Brothers song before, they felt the solos fitted the band well and decided to put it on the album. Guitarist
Les Dudek, who was contributing to
Brothers and Sisters, was sitting in the control room when the song was being recorded. He and Betts had worked out the harmony parts together. Betts continued approaching him for his thoughts on the recordings. Eventually, he asked him to record the song with him. "We played it all live. I was standing where Duane would have stood with Berry just staring a hole through me and that was very intense and very heavy," said Dudek. When the song was completed, the management team and road crew gathered to listen to it. According to Dudek, the room was silent after it ended, and roadie
Red Dog remarked, "That's the best I heard since Duane." Johnny Sandlin, producer of
Brothers and Sisters, remarked that he thought it was "crazy" to be released as a single because "nothing else sounds remotely similar, with the possible exception of '
Blue Sky,' which had a similar, upbeat
major-key bounce." ==Composition==