Ten Years After

Ten Years After - The Classic Performances - 1976 - Chrysalis (Germany)

This is a very underrated compilation album from the great British blues rock band. The album received poor reviews when first released. As usual, as in all compilation albums, somebody's favourite track/s are omitted, which always leads to mixed reviews. Alvin Lees' brilliant guitar was the nucleus of Ten Years After's sound. A terrific, no frills blues rock album, and great to hear. The album is a vinyl rip, and sound is a bit "crackly" in spots, but it won't spoil your enjoyment too much. Check out their albums, " Cricklewood Green ", and " Ssssh ". To hear the band at their best, listen to their "Live At The Fillmore East 1970" album. N.B: "The Classic Performances" was later released on an 11 track CD, with the bonus track, "Love Like A Man". There is info on TYA "Now" album @ TYA/NOW and check out the "Alvin Lee In Tennessee" album @ ALEE/TSEE

TRACKS

A1 I'd Love To Change The World (3:43)
A2 Baby Won't You Let Me Rock 'n Roll (2:15)
A3 It's Getting Harder (4:24)
A4 One Of These Days (5:55)
A5 I'm Going Home (2:49)

B1 Choo Choo Mama (3:58)
B2 Positive Vibrations (3:58)
B3 Tomorrow I'll Be Out Of Town (4:27)
B4 Good Morning Little Schoolgirl (7:58)
B5 Rock 'n Roll Music To The World (3:49)
All songs composed by Alvin Lee, except Track, B4 by Sonny Boy Williamson

BAND

Alvin Lee Guitar, Vocals
Leo Lyons Bass
Chick Churchill Drums, Keyboards
Ric Lee Drums

REVIEW

Often tagged as a second generation blues boogie band, Ten Years After actually showed somewhat more musical dexterity than their Fillmore-clogging peers. The atmospheric "I'd Love to Change the World", for instance, sounds like it came from a completely different band than the clavinet-driven funk of "It's Getting Harder". Neither of those cuts, of course, have much in common musically with what Ten Years After will most likely remain forever famous, their 10 minute version of "I'm Going Home" from Woodstock. It's included here, albeit edited down to a mere 3 minutes, which means it's only got the first and last verses and omits the incessant guitar and bass noodling. Purists may carp, but this album really isn't meant for them. Rather, it's meant to introduce newcomers unaware of much of Ten Years After's catalogue to their lesser known tunes that sound different from that. Besides, the inclusion of "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl", with its extended guitar solos, makes up for it in spades. It's true that Ten Years After never matched their musical prowess with lyrical depth, and that even at their best, they never showed the vision of a Led Zeppelin, but for above average early ‘70s blues-rock, this collection will fit the bill nicely. © Victor W. Valdivia, allmusic.com

SHORT BIO

Ten Years After is a British blues-rock quartet consisting of Alvin Lee (born December 19, 1944), guitar and vocals; Chick Churchill (born January 2, 1949), keyboards; Leo Lyons (born November 30, 1944) bass; and Ric Lee (born October 20, 1945), drums. The group was formed in 1967 and signed to Decca in England. Their first album was not a success, but their second, the live Undead (1968) containing "I'm Going Home," a six-minute blues workout by the fleet-fingered Alvin, hit the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Stonedhenge (1969) hit the U.K. Top Ten in early 1969. Ten Years After's U.S. breakthrough came as a result of their appearance at Woodstock, at which they played a nine-minute version of "I'm Going Home." Their next album, Ssssh, reached the U.S. Top 20, and Cricklewood Green, containing the hit single "Love Like a Man," reached number four. Watt completed the group's Decca contract, after which they signed with Columbia and moved in a more mainstream pop direction, typified by the gold-selling 1971 album A Space in Time and its Top 40 single "I'd Love to Change the World." Subsequent efforts in that direction were less successful, however, and Ten Years After split up after the release of Positive Vibrations in 1974. They reunited in 1988 for concerts in Europe and recorded their first new album in 15 years, About Time, in 1989 before disbanding once again. In 2001, Ric Lee was preparing the back catalog for rerelease when he discoverd the Live at the Fillmore East 1970 tapes. He approached Alvin about getting back together to promote the lost album, but Alvin Lee declined. The rest of the band was up for it, though, and together with guitarist Joe Gooch, Ten Years After started touring again. In addition to touring the world, this new incarnation recorded their first new material in about a decade and a half and released Now in 2004 and added the live double CD set Roadworks in 2005. © William Ruhlmann, allmusic.com

BIO (Wikipedia)

Ten Years After are an English blues rock band, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After several years of local success in the Nottingham/Mansfield area as a band known since 1962 as The Jaybirds (its core was formed in late 1960 as Ivan Jay and the Jaycats), and later as Ivan Jay and the Jaymen, Ten Years After was founded by Alvin Lee and Leo Lyons. Ivan Jay sang lead vocals from late 1960 to 1962 and was joined by Ric Lee in August 1965, replacing original drummer Dave Quickmire, who had joined in 1962. In 1966 The Jaybirds moved to London, where Chick Churchill joined the group. That November the quartet signed a manager, Chris Wright, and decided to change their name to Blues Trip, Blues Yard (under which they played a show at the legendary Marquee Club supporting Bonzo Dog Band), and finally in November 1966, to Ten Years After ( in honour of Elvis Presley, an idol of Lee's whose momentous year in rock, 1956, helps to better explain the band's title). They became the first band of the soon-to-be Chrysalis Agency. They secured a residency at the Marquee, and received an invitation to play at the renowned Windsor Jazz Festival in 1967. That performance led to a contract with Deram, a subsidiary company of Decca – the first band so signed without a hit single. In October, their 1967 self-titled debut album was released. In 1968, after touring Scandinavia and the United States, Ten Years After released their second album, live Undead, which brought their first classic, "I'm Going Home." This was followed in February 1969 by studio issue, Stonedhenge, a British hit, that included another classic, "Hear Me Calling" (it was released also as a single, and covered in 1972 by British glam rock rising stars, Slade). In July 1969 they appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival, in the first event to which rock bands were invited. In August, the band performed a breakthrough American appearance at Woodstock; their furious-to-soft-to-furious rendition of "I'm Going Home" was featured in both the subsequent film and soundtrack album and catapulted them to star status. During 1970, Ten Years After released "Love Like a Man," their only hit in the UK Singles Chart. This song was on their fifth album, Cricklewood Green. The name of the album comes from a friend of the group who lived in Cricklewood, London. He grew a sort of plant which was said to have hallucinogenic effects. The band did not know the name of this plant, so they called their album Cricklewood Green. It was the first record to be issued with a different playing speed on both sides – one a three-minute edit at 45rpm, the other, a nine-minute live version at 33rpm. In August, Ten Years After played the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 to an audience of 600,000. In 1971, the band released the album A Space in Time which marked a move toward more commercial material. It featured their biggest hit, "I'd Love To Change The World." But a few albums later, the band broke up after the 1974 album "Positive Vibrations." They re-united in 1983 to play the Reading Rock Festival and this performance was later released on CD as "The Friday Rock Show Sessions - Live At Reading '83' ". In 1988, they re-united for a few concerts and recorded the album About Time (1989). Alvin Lee has since then mostly played and recorded under his own name. In 2004, the other band members replaced him with Joe Gooch and recorded the album Now. Material from the following tour was used for the 2005 double album Roadworks. Ric Lee is currently in a band called The Breakers, along with Ian Ellis (Clouds).