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Born in Nottingham England, ALVIN LEE began playing guitar age 13 and formed the core of the band Ten Years After by aged 15. Originally influenced by his parent's collection of jazz and blues records, it was the advent of rock and roll that truly sparked his interest and creativity, and guitarists like Chuck Berry and Scotty Moore provided his inspiration.
Alvin Lee in Concert 1974 |
The self titled debut album surprisingly received play on San Francisco's underground radio stations and was enthusiastically embraced by listeners, including concert promoter Bill Graham who invited the band to tour America for the first time in the summer of 1968. Audiences were immediately taken with Lee's distinctive, soulful, rapid fire guitar playing and the band's innovative mix of blues, swing jazz and rock, and an American love affair began. TYA would ultimately tour the USA 28 times in 7 years, more than any other U.K. band.
Alvin Lee New Album 1973 |
TYA had great success, releasing ten albums together, but by 1973 Lee was feeling limited by the band's style. With American gospel singer Mylon LeFevre and a host of rock talents like George Harrison, Steve Winwood, Ron Wood and Mick Fleetwood , he recorded and released On The Road To Freedom, a highly acclaimed album that was at the forefront of country rock. A year later, in response to a dare, Lee formed Alvin Lee & Company to play a show at the Rainbow in London and released it as a double live album, In Flight.
Ten Years After 1967 |
The 80s brought another change in Lee's direction, with two albums that were strong collaborations with Rarebird's Steve Gould and an extensive tour with the Rolling Stones' Mick Taylor joining his band.
Lee's overall musical output includes more than 20 albums, including 1985's Detroit Diesel and the back to back 90s collections of Zoom and 1994 (I Hear You Rocking). Guest artists on both albums include George Harrison, whose brilliant slide guitar perfectly complements Lee's lead. Their duet on 1994's The Bluest Blues led one reviewer to call it "the most perfect blues song ever recorded."
In Concert 1971 |
Their debut album was largely ignored and it took months of gruelling club work to establish their claim. The superb live Undead, recorded at Klooks Kleek club, spread the word that Lee was not only an outstanding guitarist, but he was the fastest by a mile. Unfortunately for the other three members, Lee overshadowed them to the extent that they became merely backing musicians in what was described as the Alvin Lee show. The band began a series of US tours that gave them the record of more US tours than any other UK band. Lee's furious performance of 'Goin' Home' at the Woodstock Festival was one of the highlights, although that song became a millstone for them.
Ten Years After - August 28 1971 |
When they reconvened, their spark and will had all but gone and remaining albums were poor. After months of rumour, Lee admitted that the band had broken up. In 1978 Lee formed the trio Ten Years Later, with little reaction, and in 1989 the original band re-formed and released About Time, but only their most loyal fans were interested.
Ten Years After are similar to Jethro Tull, if only in the sense that it's yet another unjustly forgotten great rock group. They have a serious difference, though: they don't exist as a group any more (unless you count the occasional reunions, but that's something really rare and really peculiar). So if the Tullers are still able to remind the world of their presence on the Planet, they usually do it by releasing one more mediocre or horrible album (sorry Tull fans). To dig Ten Years After, though, one can only rummage through their back catalog.
Ten Years After - Cricklewood Green 1970 |
But fast-fingeredness isn't everything, in the end; I wouldn't really appraise the band were its reputation based exclusively on Alvinguitar heroics. There are plenty guitar heroes in the world, and many have demonstrated a far more perfect finger-flashing technique than Alvin (take Ritchie Blackmore or Yngwie Malmsteem, for instance). Nay, there's more to the band than that.
It's not exactly songwriting, though: I couldn't really say Alvin was a great songwriter. In the earliest days, most of his output simply consisted of stolen blues melodies with new lyrics to them; only somewhere around 1969 did he finally upgrade his skills to writing something creative. (If it's Alvin's creativity you're looking for, start with 1972's A Space In Time, one of the most unfairly dismissed rock classics of all time.)
Ten Years After - February 8 1969 |
What really sets the band's music apart from a lot of their contemporaries is the sheer level of energy, passion, authenticity and youthful drive that fills the best of their studio records and both of their outstanding live records. Like I said, Alvin wasn't the most superb, technically gifted musician in the world. But he never stood on stage with a cold grin on his face, churning out his lightning-speed guitar fills out of pure self-indulgency and a burning desire to fill the top spot in any of the innumerable 'best guitar players' chart.
What he did was completely giving himself into the music - and the result is that, while his guitar might sound a bit sloppy and raw at times, it also sounds completely enthralling, almost magically so, and intoxicating. Just a young, unexperienced, blueswailing kid from some murky British suburb putting on a guitar and ripping it up with a nearly punkish energy, but not to a devastating effect - he always had a con-, rather than de-structive edge, to everything he played.
Ten Years After - Record Mirror March 16 1968 |
A Space In Time is as close to 'progressive' as they ever got, and even that one is not as close as could be. They definitely lose to the Faces in terms of vocal power, as Alvin was never that great a vocalist, and, furthermore, few vocalists could ever compete with Rod Stewart in his prime; but they definitely win in terms of musical power and tightness - Ten Years After's sloppiness is the kind of intentional sloppiness that only really skilled and talented players can allow themselves, simply letting their hair down a little to allow the music be somewhat more downhome and hard-hittin', while the Faces usually played sloppy because they had one too many Martini before the show.
Ten Years After - June 14 1968 |
So their music never had a lot of impact. So they didn't have any serious chart-toppers - some of the albums sold well, some not, but nothing special. And of course Lee wasn't the best guitarist on Earth, and his colleagues weren't above 'satisfying' with their instruments. So what? Taken together, they were still a prime band - not the best one around, but very decent, at times approaching brilliant.
And even if Lee isn't the best guitarist, he certainly has a unique style - you can't mistake a great Alvin Lee guitar solo for anything in the world.
Review of Ten Years After's 1st Album 1967:
Not bad for a first effort. A decent blues album with lots of drive and energy.
Ten Years After 1st Album UK 1967 |
Besides that, the production is somewhat lame: the engineers, including future Elton John starmaker Gus Dudgeon, were probably told not to bother very much with this 'experimental' band. So it ends up sounding like a lot of this stuff was recorded with just a hand-held tape recorder, and the production is just as muddy and dizzy as the album cover. All the better: this really gives the effect of a raw, young, happy, energetic and powerful band letting go - unlike the later, much more polished records.
Ten Years After August 7 1968 |
And the famous cover of Willie Dixon's 'Help Me', the band's most essential stage favourite from the album, does pick up steam near the end, but in the middle it's just a lengthy marathon of rather average soloing. I mean, Alvin does the 'tension build-up' bit rather well, steadily going from modest, self-contained licks to an all-out guitar hell, but ten minutes of tension build-up are a bit too much even for good-natured Blues Tolerators like me.
Most of the other songs, however, easily compensate for the lengthy wankfests - short, compact and snappy. My all-time favourite here is 'Losing The Dogs', co-written by Alvin with Gus Dudgeon: its intoxicating guitar rhythm interspersed with some piano boogie chops really lifts you off the ground, and (specially for all you haters of bleeding guitars) there's not even a tiny bit of soloing to be found - just those awesome guitars going in and out, in and out, in and out!
Ten Years After in Concert 1971 |
All the other tracks are minor efforts, but most are quite delectable. Churchill's solo spot - one more jazzy shuffle, this time the instrumental 'Adventures Of A Young Organ' - is quite hilarious, with some of his best, funniest organ passages; and the three Alvin Lee 'originals' on the second side are passable, acceptable blues numbers, especially the acoustic 'Don't Want You Woman' that borrows its melody from the traditional acoustic blues 'Hey Hey' (find it on Clapton's Unplugged, for istance, with Eric churning out exactly the same chords). The contrast between the cheerful, nonchalant atmosphere of this one and the immediately following gloomy, grizzly 'Help Me' is particularly stunning.
Ten Years After 1970 |
Maybe it's Alvin's raucous vocals that do the trick. Maybe it's the rudimentary elements of studio gimmickry - like the mighty bass/drums line on 'Help Me'. Maybe it's the crystal clear (ah what the hell, forget all these things I've said about the bad production) electric and acoustic guitars obeying the hand of a real master. I dunno. But I highly recommend this debut album for everybody - even for those who don't have no freakin' penchant for blues music. Maybe this'll help you love it.
“The Lost Cricklewood Green Show”
Ten Years After Live At The Olympic Auditorium
Los Angeles California, March 21, 1970
Personel:
• Alvin Lee – guitar, vocals, harp (1966–1974, 1983, 1988–2003; died 2013)
• Leo Lyons – bass (1966–1974, 1983, 1988–present)
• Chick Churchill – keyboards (1966–1974, 1983, 1988–present)
• Ric Lee – drums (1966–1974, 1983, 1988–present)
Ten Years After Albums:
• Ten Years After Deram, 1967
• Stonedhenge Deram, 1969
• Ssssh Deram, 1969
• Cricklewood Green Deram, 1970
• Watt Deram, 1970
• A Space in Time Columbia, 1971
• Rock & Roll Music to the World Columbia, 1972
• Positive Vibrations Columbia, 1974
• About Time Chrysalis, 1989
• Now 2004
• Evolution 2008
Ten Years After Live Albums:
• BBC Sessions 1967–1968
• Recorded Live Columbia, 1973
• Live at the Fillmore East 1970 (double live album) 2001
• One Night Jammed (Live) 2003
• Roadworks (double live album) 2005
• Live at Fiesta City (live DVD) 2009
Alvin Lee Solo Albums:
• In Flight (1974)
• Pump Iron! (1975)
• Let It Rock (1978)
• Rocket Fuel (1978)
• Ride On (1979)
• Free Fall (1980)
• RX5 (1981)
• Detroit Diesel (1986)
• Zoom (1992)
• Nineteen Ninety-Four (1994)
• In Tennessee (2004)
• Saguitar (2007)
• Still on the Road to Freedom (2012)
Tracks:
01. Love Like A Man 8:15 02. Good Morning Little School Girl 6:55
03. Working On The Road 3:30
04. Spider In My Web 3:45
05. 50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain 9:25
06. I’m Going Home 11:10
07. Help Me 14:20
Added tracks:
08. I’m Going Home 11:00
09. Somebody Calling Live 6:40
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