Cricklewood Green
click the image to get it in cd-cover size
| Release Date: |
November 30, 1969 |
| Label: |
EMI Special Markets |
| Rating: |
5.0 |
Description: Ten Years After guitarist Alvin Lee's hyperactive guitar solos (fretboard attacks a speed-metal guitarist would be proud to unleash) caught the ear of British rock fans and built a bridge to the blues. The well-produced
Cricklewood Green, consisting of all-original material by Lee, is the group's best studio effort. For a band that made its reputation with live performances, most conspicuously at the Woodstock festival, that's probably minor praise, but it's praise nevertheless. The extended workout of the hit single "Love Like a Man" is the centerpiece of the album, one that opens with the frantic buzz of the back-to-back road songs "Sugar the Road" and "Working on the Road." But Lee, ably assisted by keyboardist Chick Churchill, fleshes out the trademark Ten Years After blues frenzy with an assortment of atypical approaches and styles. "Me and My Baby" delivers Lee and the band in a relaxed, almost swinging, mode, while "Circles" is a rare ballad offering. The sci-fi blues of "Year 3000 Blues" and semi-psychedelia of "50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain" and "As the Sun Still Burns Away" further extend the album's reach without sacrificing any of Lee's guitar excursions.
--Michael Point
Tracklist of Cricklewood Green
Reviews:
a great place to start and end
if you take all of the best songs from the the albums before and after cricklewood they would not come close to being as good as this album.
Ten Years After's Stunning 1970 Release!
Released in 1970, "Cricklewood Green" was one of the bands best recordings to date. With this album, their fifth, The British Blues Rock band even surpasses their prior album "Ssssh" released a year earlier. The album is a combination of blues represented here by "Year 3,000 Blues" and "Me And My Baby" and no holds barred rockers such as "Sugar The Road", "Working On The Road" and the classic "Love Like A Man". Ten Years After also adds a psychedelic touch to "50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain" and "As The Sun Still Burns Away". Guitarist Alvin Lee needs no introduction as he was clearly the fastest guitarist of the late 60's and seventies beating out Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. "Cricklewood Green" should be in any classic rock lover's collection as it represents the band close to it's peak. This version of "Cricklewood Green" is obviously not from the "original master tape" as it's loaded with tape hiss. For slighly more money I would buy the U.K. remastered version. The difference is like night and day.
Alvin Lee at his best
Contains three classic TYA tunes- Love Like a Man, Working on the Road and my favorite- 50000 Miles Beneath My Brain. Buy this CD, along with Live at the Fillmore East and hear even better versions of these songs live.
