TEN YEARS AFTER 'RECORDED LIVE' ORIGINAL RARE LIVE LP 73 ARCHIVE MINT
$
34
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Description
TEN YEARS AFTER SEALED ORIGINAL ALBUM
Chrysalis, UK, 1973
CTY 1049
As a cornerstone of the British blues boom, guitarist Alvin Lee and his band Ten Years After shot to worldwide acclaim on the back of their blistering appearance at the Woodstock Festival, further reinforced by the release of subsequent motion picture. His rapid-fire guitar playing and intense stage presence attracted a devoted following entranced by his ability to fuse traditional blues with edgier melodic rock. Albums such as ‘Ssssh’ and ‘Cricklewood Green’, smashed into the top-twenty on both sides of the Atlantic, the latter, of course, providing the hit-single ‘Love Like A Man’.
In an age where the guitar hero reigned supreme, Lee was regarded as one of the great innovators, advancing a style that was as much influenced by jazz as it was by traditional blues. His lighting-fast solos incorporated unmistakable elements of Barnie Kessel, Les Paul and Django Reinhardt, as well as Jimi Hendrix, Albert King and T Bone Walker, but the results were not necessarily all about nostalgia, as the songs displayed a desire to explore new sounds and, for the time, unorthodox directions. ‘Recorded Live’, although appearing a few years after their creative peak, is an excellent example of how both old and new schools could be married and yet remain footloose and fancy free.
The eleven-minute ‘Help Me’ is as good an example to choose from containing one of his most schizophrenic exhibitions, that delivered by almost anyone else would be unfocused and ragged. For Lee it is a wonderful calling card, bringing together elements of gifted competition like Jeff Beck, Rory Gallagher and Jimmy Page, before resolving in a hail of Hendrixian feed-back. Al Kooper’s ‘I Can’t Keep From Cryin’ Sometimes’, provides a platform for similar experimental excursions, but it’s during the traditional twelve-bar rock of ‘Good Morning Little Schoolgirl’, ‘One Of These Days’ and ‘Choo Choo Mama’ that Lee unleashes the kind of balls-to-the-wall virtuosity which had become his trademark.
Fittingly, there is an exhilarating rendition of ‘I’m Going Home’ included - an eleven-minute rush of pure power, with some of the fastest guitar playing of his career. Yes, it is even better than the Woodstock version.
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