Posts tagged Alvin Lee

(Review from starling.rinet.ru)

A Ten Years After reunion was inevitable. Furthermost because there never really was a serious reason for the band to fall apart in the first place.

They first came together in 1983, gave a few shows, then went their own ways again, then reconvened once more in 1989, gave a few more shows, saw that it was good and decided to try some of the old magic on record – once again. The emphasis was, of course, on good old rock’n'roll, the stuff they always did best. Nothing experimental, just straightahead, unnerving, rip-roaring rock.

Most of these songs are quite decent. There’s a few classy rock’n'roll riffs, there’s a few decent solos, there’s vocal hooks-a-plenty, and the most important thing is – there’s actually some active energy. They’re four long lost friends grooving together.

Highlights include “Highway of Love”, “Working in a Parking Lot” and the vintage-sounding “I Get All Shook Up”.

Line-up:
- Leo Lyons / Bass
- Alvin Lee / Guitar and Vocals
- Chick Churchill / Keyboards
- Ric Lee / Drums

Track List:
01. Highway Of Love – 5:11
02. Let’s Shake It Up – 5:22
03. I Get All Shook Up – 4:41
04. Victim Of Circumstance – 4:32
05. Going To Chicago – 4:27
06. Saturday Night – 4:08
07. Bad Blood – 7:13
08. Working In A Parking Lot – 4:57
09. Wild Is The River – 3:56
10. Outside My Window – 5:48
11. Waiting For The Judgement Day – 4:33

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(Review from amazon)

In their 1974 album, Ten Years After work hard to recreate their formula for success, throwing in good-time rock & roll (‘Going Down To Birmingham’, complete with lyrics like “boom, boom, boom, boom”, and “say hey, hey, hey, baby”), a lengthy, thoughtful epic (‘Look Me Straight Into the Eyes’, at 6:18 the longest excursion on the disc), a laid-back acoustic love ballad (‘Without You’, even with its dubious lyrics, such as, “I’m just like a grave without the flowers…”), a nod to the band’s nodding off, drug enthused chapter (‘Stone Me’, which announces, to no one’s surprise “I can’t deny… I’m high”), and a Bob Seger ‘Katmandu’ redeux, ‘You’re Driving Me Crazy’. ‘It’s Getting Harder’ brings in some horns to spice up the night, and a couple funky rock tracks with decent riffs (no surprise there) can be found in the opener, ‘Nowhere To Run’ and ‘Look Into My Life’, with lyrics harkening to ’50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain’.

The title track gives one the feeling that you’ve checked into a psychiatric hospital and the staff is trying to calm you down. The track does possess some interesting ponderings, such as Lee’s complaint about “too many wonderers, ponderers and squanderers are wondering, pondering and squandering”.

Another highlight is the closer, ‘I Wanted To Boogie’. It may seem like faux-boogie at first glance, there’s some sweet pickin’ and interestin’ lyrical work going on here. Alvin Lee really churns convincingly on his e-lectric guitar. With each verse beginning with “Well I wanted to boogie…”, and finishing with entertaining mantra’s such as “… but I wasn’t sure if I wanted what you wanted me for”, the song gets your foot tapping and you’re brain cells firing.

‘Positive Vibrations’ proved to be their last studio album before dissolving. Alvin Lee pursued a solo career and the rest of the band didn’t go on without him.

Line-up:
- Leo Lyons / Bass
- Alvin Lee / Guitar and Vocals
- Chick Churchill / Organ
- Ric Lee / Drums

Track List:
01. Nowhere To Run – 4:03
02. Positive Vibrations – 4:20
03. Stone Me – 4:57
04. Without You – 4:00
05. Going Back To Birmingham – 2:37
06. Its Getting Harder – 4:25
07. You’re Driving Me Crazy – 2:26
08. Look Into My Life – 4:18
09. Look Me Straight Into The Eyes – 6:20
10. I Wanted To Boogie – 3:33

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(Review from amazon)

What sets this 1971 release apart from earlier Ten Years After albums is the liberal use of tasty acoustic guitar and plenty of sound effects and studio tricks that complement the overall texture.

From tuning a radio dial to open a 12-bar boogie blaster (Baby, Won’t You Let Me Rock and Roll You) to backward tape solos (Let The Sky Fall) to 50′s Sci-Fi (Here They Come), Alvin Lee and Company were in top form on this 1971 time capsule. Lee also shows that he was no slouch on harmonica as he belts out the blues harp (One Of These Days) along with the nice licks from his trusty hot-rodded Gibson ES-335′s.

Lee’s lyrics ran the full gamut on this collection, from country honk (Once There Was A Time) to otherworldly beings “who fly out of the sun” and “know everything we must learn” (Here They Come). He sings painfully about the pitfalls of drug addiction, but optimistically about recovery (Hard Monkeys, I’ve Been There Too) and tells us that he notices the World’s ills but doesn’t know what to do, so he “leaves it up to you” (I’d Love to Change the World).

This is the one that occupied a particular “Space in Time” for its era, has a diversity of the material and subject matter. There’s just about something for everyone.

Line-up:
- Leo Lyons / Bass
- Alvin Lee / Guitar and Vocals
- Chick Churchill / Organ
- Ric Lee / Drums

Track List:
01. One of These Days – 5:50
02. Here They Come – 4:36
03. I’d Love to Change the World – 3:44
04. Over the Hill – 2:28
05. Baby Won’t You Let Me Rock’N Roll You – 2:16
06. Once There Was a Time – 3:22
07. Let The Sky Fall – 4:19
08. Hard Monkeys – 3:10
09. I’ve Been There Too – 5:44
10. Uncle Jam – 1:57

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(Review from amazon)

With its devotion to 50s rock and blues coupled to a manic, if decidedly middlebrow performance tack, Ten Years After could seem positively Jurassic, even by late-60s standards. This collection culls magnificently recorded performances from a February 1970 weekend stand at the Fillmore East, capturing the band at its post-Woodstock performing peak.

The running times of most of the tracks (which clock at 7+ minutes) will tip listeners to the show’s jam-heavy take on covers of Sonny Boy Williamson (an ominous, revamped “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”), Willie Dixon (a slow, 16-minute burn through “Help Me”), and Chuck Berry (atypically economic romps of “Sweet Little Sixteen” and “Roll Over Beethoven”). But with the band’s own primordial originals (the titles “Skooby-Oobly-Doobob” and “Extension on One Chord” speak for themselves) there’s an elemental, effusive–and, dare we say it–Ramones-like stoopidity to the tracks. Even Alvin Lee’s trademark fret-burner “I’m Going Home” is hard to resist.

This set perfectly captures one of the era’s hardest working bands in a concise, double-disc time capsule.

Line-up:
- Leo Lyons / Bass
- Alvin Lee / Guitar and Vocals
- Chick Churchill / Organ
- Ric Lee / Drums

Track List:
CD1
01. Love Like A Man – 9:35
02. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl – 7:26
03. Working On The Road – 3:34
04. The Hobbit – 10:52
05. 50000 Miles Beneath My Brain – 9:58
06. Skoobly-Oobly-Doobob, I Can’t Keep From Crying Sometimes, Extension On One Chord – 19:30
CD2
01. Help Me – 16:06
02. I’m Going Home – 11:57
03. Sweet Little 16 – 4:38
04. Roll Over Beethoven – 4:44
05. I Woke Up This Morning – 8:09
06. Spoonful – 8:01

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(Review from amazon, wikipedia)

In August 1969, the band performed a breakthrough in the US at the famous Woodstock with their rendition of “I’m Going Home”. As a result, the band’s fourth album released at the same time was their first hit overseas.

The album has everything you need: Roaring vocals, searing guitarwork, thundering grooves, and an overall great vibe. It lets loose right from the getgo with “Bad Scene”. The sudden changes and different riffs on the song is really groovy and psychedelic. “Stoned Woman” (actually an anti-drug song) and Good Morning Little Schoolgirl are both fiery rockers, the latter having intense guitar and bass solos.

Also, there are a few nice sounding ballads such as “I Don’t Know That You Don’t Know My Name”, the soul of “If You Should Love Me”, and the country-tinged “Two Time Mama”. On top of that, you have some good old fashioned blues rock such as the John Lee Hooker-based “Stomp”, and the basic, but still memorable “I Woke Up This Morning”.

Line-up:
- Alvin Lee / Guitar, Vocals
- Leo Lyons / Bass
- Ric Lee / Drums
- Chick Churchill / Organ

Track List:
01. Bad Scene – 3:30
02. Two Time Mama – 2:02
03. Stoned Woman – 3:21
04. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl – 7:10
05. If You Should Love Me – 5:23
06. I Don’t Know That You Don’t Know My Name – 2:06
07. The Stomp – 4:30
08. I Woke Up This Morning – 5:30

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(Review from amazon.com)

‘Cricklewood Green’ is, for the most part, a bombastic rockfest. In fact, the three tune, fifteen minute opening salvo stack up nicely against any other trio of songs from any rock and roll disc. But any album aspiring to greatness must demonstrate diversity, and ‘Cricklewood Green’ does that as well, although I could have lived with the rockfest through a double-album of this electrifying material! In my mind of minds I imagine Alvin Lee felt the same, and included songs such as ‘Year 3000 Blues’, the lone country-rock number in the set, and ‘Me and My Baby’ a Steve Miller sound-alike track and the lone jazz-rock number, simply to show everyone that Ten Years After was much more than a one-genre pony. As if that wasn’t enough, one other genre is also explored with the acoustic folk-rock number titled ‘Circles’, which adds more than just diversity. The sweet chorus, “Doesn’t/does it matter what I do…” mixes with the bittersweet sentiments and smooth-as-a-smoothie melody to produce what we in the music review business call ‘a beaute’.

The remainder of the disc builds on the solid rock foundation established by the band in four previous albums. The two longest tracks on the disc, ’50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain’ and ‘Love Like a Man’ are epics in composition and performance.

‘Sugar the Road’ opens the disc, and it is the prototypical opening number for an album or a concert, featuring great basic and lead guitar riffs, fun lyrics, cowbells, etc. ‘Working On the Road’, another gritty rocker, follows, with the sweet chorus, “I’ve got a feeling for home…”. ’50,000 Miles…’ opens with a restrained acoustic intro which builds in nicely structured gradients into an anthemic rocker, very reminicent of Tom Petty’s best work, and ending with a fine, distorted, fuzzy guitar lead. ‘Love Like a Man’ returns to the melodic guitar hooks and fleshy fretwork from maestro Alvin, in addition to a great sounding bass bridge. The original vinyl finished with the lumbering rocker ‘As the Sun Still Burns Away’, which builds steam like a locomotive, and winds up in a fog of psychedelic sound effects.

Line-up:
* Alvin Lee – guitar, vocals, harp
* Leo Lyons – bass
* Chick Churchill – keyboard
* Ric Lee – drums

Track List:
01. Sugar the Road – 4:06
02. Working on the Road – 4:18
03. 50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain – 7:39
04. Year 3,000 Blues – 2:27
05. Me and My Baby – 4:18
06. Love Like a Man – 7:32
07. Circles – 3:59
08. As the Sun Still Burns Away – 4:44

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