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Alvin’s
enduring contribution to Ten Years After and Rock Music:
Alvin was the singer, songwriter, guitarist, harmonica
player and frontman with the band Ten Years After from 1967
until 1974. He then embarked on a solo career that’s now in
its thirty second year.
Every Alvin Lee and Ten Years After fan has his or her
own favorite album and that’s the part of Alvin’s
contribution that we’d like to focus on here.
Three examples are Ssssh from 1969,
Cricklewood Green from 1970 and A Space In Time from 1971 as
these three were their biggest sellers.
First of all the production was very slick, the
links seemless for that time period and each one reflects a
different—now historical account of where the band was at
during those times. It was what was left in as Alvin has
stated in the sleeve notes that others would’ve taken out
that has made some of the difference, this includes Alvin’s
growling and his sometimes incomprehensible vocal mumblings
such as on the track Bad Scene or As the Sun Still Burns Away.
Second, Bad Scene, Love Like A Man, Sugar the
Road ect. have the most incredible guitar work ever heard.
Alvin created layers of sound through his strong vocals and
over dubbing of guitar licks and blasting off a few rocket
riffs as he himself has said, all of these things combined,
made the best "head-music", headphone music, and brought good
old Rock N’ Roll and standard twelve bar blues into the
super-sonic age.
No one made long guitar solos as interesting as
Alvin, only Clapton on Creams Wheels of Fire album came close
with the live version of Crossroads by Robert Johnson, and
Spoonful by Willie Dixon stand out.
Alvin on Undead for example was brilliant, on
their first album he was emotional and inspired and how he
pulled it off in that formal enviroment is a
miracle in itself.
On Stonedhenge (which by the way Alvin gets credit for
the albums title) there’s a slight preview of what was to
come the next year Ssssh.
What Alvin and Ten Years After did on this album was a
real work of art and their masterpiece to date.
Not to digress but put on most bands recordings
from the middle to late 1960’s and early 1970’s such as
Jefferson Airplane or Quicksilver Messenger Service and the
sound will make you cringe. Somehow the Beatles and Ten Years
After held up the best and for you Stones fans their music was
memorable but their early recordings didn’t fair so well
over time.
Cricklewood Green is Cricklewood Green, it’s the
Classic Ten Years After Album right from the time it was
released. The band sounded tight and comfortable and had that
unmistakeable sound, and above that it encompassed everything
that they had became known for.
A Space in Time was really Alvin’s first
attempt at a solo project, it’s all Alvin, back cover photo
by A.Lee, songs by A.Lee, Guitar and vocals A.Lee—Executive
Producer Chris Wright and Alvin Lee it’s fair to say from
our research.
With all due respect to Leo, Ric and Chick their work
on this recording was excellent as always but their creative
input seems to have been reduced for some reason. For now it’s all about
Alvin Lee.
After Rock and Roll Music to the World it all became a
real strain on the band and very soon Alvin was to go solo.
His work with Ten Years After can’t be overstated as he was
the driving force behind some of their biggest success and
through his innovation and experimentation set a new standard
for the next generation of guitar players such as Gary Moore
and countless others, while at the same time impressing other
legends like Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix.
Captain Speed Fingers as he was labled didn’t
begin to tell the whole story, as Alvin had the insight and
vision to explore different
areas of music and sounds as he also
learned how to put his own special touch on it to make
it his own.
Our "Tribute to
Alvin Lee"
It's set up to
be fun, informative and non linear in nature.
We've decided
that rather than put it all together in a boring chronological
order, we've chosen to keep you guessing at what's
coming next.
Every page is
constructed with you the fan in mind while at the same time
adding special links and side-trips in order to make
the viewing and reading a happy learning experience.
Our Tribute to
Ten Years After website was such a huge success that we feel
now is the time to present this new project as planned.
Tribute to
Alvin Lee is finally here. Please enjoy our content,
commitment and enthusiasm.
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