Alvin Lee Rides Again

British blues rockers Ten Years After are finally given a multi-disk set which combines their Decca/Deram material with their later material on Chrysalis. The band is perhaps best known for the lightning fast guitar pyrotechnics of one Alvin Lee. Lee also served as vocalist and main songwriter. The band's appearances at such festivals as Woodstock, the Newport Jazz Festival, the Isle Of Wight, the Texas Pop Festival, and the Atlanta Pop festival cemented the band's reputation as an exciting live concert draw. The first disk concentrates on the band's Deram material prior to the stardom at Woodstock. The band at this point relied more on cover material like Willie Dixon's "Spoonful", Sonny Boy Williamson's "Help Me", and the Blues Project's "I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes". These covers provide the band with a framework for their blues/jazz/rock improvisations and provide staples for their concert set lists. Other highlights include the jazzy "I May Be Wrong, But I Won't Be Wrong Always" and their most known cut at this point "Hear Me Calling". Cuts like the failed single "Rock Your Mama" are rewrites of blues tunes, in this case B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby". The last cut on the disk "Boogie On" spotlights the individual band members. Leo Lyons was one of the better bass players of the period. Chick Churchill's keyboards provided a great foil for Alvin's guitar, while Ric Lee's drumming could be either jazzy or fat depending upon the situation. My only quibble with the first disk is the exclusion of their jazzy cover of Woody Herman's "At The Woodchopper's Ball."

The second disk begins around the time of Ten Years After's new found popularity. Highlights of this period include a cover of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" the jazzy "Me And My Baby" the progressive "50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain" and the organ/guitar workout "One Of These Days". The disk also contains the band's three best known numbers the singles "Love Like A Man", the anti-war "I'd Love To Change The World" and the band's showstopper "I'm Going Home" recorded live at Woodstock. The band became less reliant on cover material by this point but continued to write blues/jazz boogie based material with the occasional ballad thrown in. I have a few issues with the second disk. First the last three years of the band which encompass three albums are not represented at all. Even if this fact is not taken into account there are a few changes in song selection on the second disk I would make. I would delete "If You Should Love Me" and "Me Baby Left Me" and replace them with "Bad Scene" and "She Lies In The Morning" which came from the same albums and were more often played in concert. I would also replace "Here They Come" with "Working On The Road" another concert favorite which is from their best album "Cricklewood Green".

I would actually rate this set 4 1/2 stars due to the exclusion of the material on the second disk. However, unless someone releases a three disk set it is not likely that a set which is more representative of the band will appear in the near future. Do not let the omissions from the second disk dissuade you from enjoying one the great bands of the late sixties and early seventies. Fans of bluesy guitar/organ interplay and improvisional jamming will be highly interested in this release. If you enjoy this set I also recommend the new vault release the 2 cd set "Live At The Fillmore East 1970" for taste of the excitement the band could generate in concert.

Stuffed 2-CD anthology of British blues legends

The tight playlists of Classic Rock radio has shortchanged the legacy of numerous bands, especially those whose reputations were minted in the emerging era of underground FM radio. Today's skyrocketing radio station values have left no time for the extended jams that were TYA's calling card. As such, an entire generation of rock fans knows the band only by their 1971 (air-time-friendly 3'44") hit "I'd Love to Change the World," and the occasional VH1 snippet of their breakout performance at Woodstock. What these fans haven't heard are the riches available on the band's albums, of which there were more than a dozen.

Hip-O's 2-CD collection gathers cuts from eight of the band's original albums (leaving out only 1972's "Rock & Roll Music to the World" and 1974's "Positive Vibrations"), plus a pair of singles and a track from Woodstock, creating a superb overview of the band's original run. This is both a splendid introduction to the band and a well-procured collection of tracks for the TYA fan.

1967's eponymous debut lays out TYA's blues base on four covers, "I Want to Know," Al Cooper's "I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes," Willie Dixon's "Spoonful," and Sonny Boy Williamson's "Help Me." Even at this early stage Alvin Lee's guitar shows itself to be the incisive instrument that would be showcased in longer jams on later albums.

The 1968 single, "Portable People," is an uncharacteristically genteel A-side for TYA, with a B-side, "The Sounds," that leans heavily towards the psychedelic. Their other non-LP single from the era, "Rock Your Mama" is a straight-ahead blues affair, with a B-side, "Spider in My Web," that takes the sound low and slow. (It's a bit mysterious as to how the seven-plus minute "Spider" was fit onto a 7" 45!).

The live jam "I May Be Wrong, But I Won't Be Wrong Always" from 1968's "Undead" LP gives Lee, keyboardist Chick Churchill, and even bassist Leo Lyons the opportunity to display their chops. The following year's "Stonedhenge" finds the band experimenting with their blues on the psychedelic boogie "Going to Try" and the jazz-tinged organ-and-guitar of "Woman Trouble." Though not their most artistically consistent album, as excerpted here, their experimental directions show some dividends. "Boogie On," recorded during the "Stonedhenge" sessions, was shelved until the 1972 odds 'n' sods release "Alvin Lee and Company," and is featured here in its entire 14-minute glory.

1969's "Ssssh" showed TYA's mastery of the electric twelve bar blues on "I Woke Up This Morning." Recorded shortly before their breakthrough performance at Woodstock (captured on this set by the blistering "I'm Going Home"), "Ssssh" features a seven-minute jam of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" (with new, on-the-nose lyrics), and the quieter, down-tempo "If You Should Love Me." Throughout, Lee's intricate guitar playing is a textbook of British electric blues.

The jamming continued on 1970's "Cricklewood Green" with "Love Like a Man" and "50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain." The jazz-based "Me and My Baby" shows the band's improvisational abilities extended outside their signature electric blues-rock. A pair of tracks from 1970's "WATT" finds the band continuing in the same direction with the high-voltage "I'm Coming Home" and the slow-to-boil boogie, "My Baby Left Me."

1971's pop-chart breakthrough, "A Space in Time" featured the band's only major radio hit, "I'd Love to Change the World." True to the single, the album's tracks were shorter, with acoustic playing taking more to the foreground. Still, the band's electric blues roots showed through on the fine "One of These Days," and provided plenty of room for Lee's guitar pyrotechnics.

TYA's blues-soaked rock 'n' roll jams were perfectly attuned to dance halls like the Fillmore, as well as an FM radio industry that was not yet challenged for airtime. Their relentless touring (nine US tours between 1968 and 1979, and twenty-eight by 1975!) made them a popular concert draw and steady record sellers. Hip-O does an superb job of highlighting both their album and live recordings on this double disc set (clocking in at an amazing 156+ minutes!), augmented by a fine essay from Dave Thompson and tightly organized discographical info.

With the length of many of TYA's best tracks, a single-disc anthology (such as "Essential" or "Very Best Ten Years After Album Ever") simply can't cover enough ground to properly explain this band. The only routes deeper than this 2-CD collection are their individual album releases, many of which are now available as remastered imports with bonus cuts. As a starting point, however, you couldn't ask for too much more than these two discs.

They Finally Get The Justice They Deserve!

There may not have been another band on the planet who could just flat-out ROCK like Ten Years After. Very, very few bands could rival their energy and intensity, fewer still who could have survived their grueling workload. Ten Years After didn't care about being superstars or being famous, they only cared about one thing - blowing your mind with unbelievable music.

First of all, the Woodstock version of "I'm Going Home" was always edited down to 9 minutes. But this compilation features the FULL version, all 12 minutes of it, in it's entirety. There has never, I repeat - NEVER been another song in the world that defines energetic, ballsy, sweaty rock 'n roll like this one. Describing it in words seems almost useless, and the energy that the boys display in the song is practically unearthly. Of course, Alvin Lee is the main hero of the song, unleashing crazy hurricanes of mind-blowing licks that are both fast and controlled at the same time. But the rhythm section is equally vicious, particularly at the end, where Ric Lee (drums) and Leo Lyons (bass) keep pounding their instruments so intensely that you'd think they were trying to shatter them! Definitely the most powerful rhythm section that I've ever heard. This song is just unreal, folks. Play it loud and feel yourself gasping for breath in no time. The end will give you a rush of adrenaline like you've never experienced. Nobody has ever played rock 'n roll like this before or since. Nobody.

This anthology also features four songs from their debut album, which is not available here in America (of course), so that's all the more reason to buy this! I can't discuss all of the songs on here, 'cause there's too many. Suffice it to say that they are ALL excellent and they all jam.