RIP Alvin Lee

[rs]

Alvin Lee of "Ten Years After" died yesterday morning. For me, the best memory of him was at the Woodstock Music Festival where he played a version of "I'm Goin' Home" where I thought his guitar was simply going to catch on fire from friction. The performance is electrifying, raw and even to this day, 43 years later, watching it on YouTube brings goose bumps.

He played with a speed and ferocity that is simply unbelievable. His playing was all fretwork, not finger tapping (like Eddie Van Halen's "Eruption", another electric guitar classic tour du force) which makes it all the more impressive. (No disrespect to EVH... Eddie was "disqualified" for "Guitarist of the Year" by Guitar Magazine because they said that no one else could win so long as EVH was alive.)

May he rest in peace.

P.S. I did not see him at the actual festival, I saw the movie and bought the soundtrack album.

 

[caballero reyes]

Ten Years After is an English blues-rock band, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Between 1968 and 1973, Ten Years After scored eight Top 40 albums on the UK Albums Chart.[1] In addition they have had twelve albums enter the US Billboard 200,[2] and are best known for their tracks "I'm Going Home", "Hear Me Calling", "I'd Love to Change the World" and "Love Like a Man".(wikipedia)

"I'd Love to Change the World"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzrUqAtUcpU

Lyrics:
Everywhere is freaks and hairies
Dykes and fairies, tell me where is sanity
Tax the rich, feed the poor
Till there are no rich no more

Id love to change the world
But I dont know what to do
So Ill leave it up to you

Population keeps on breeding
Nation bleeding, still more feeding economy
Life is funny, skies are sunny
Bees make honey, who needs money, monopoly

Id love to change the world
But I dont know what to do
So Ill leave it up to you

World pollution, theres no solution
Institution, electrocution
Just black and white, rich or poor
Them and us, stop the war

Id love to change the world
But I dont know what to do
So Ill leave it up to you (more)

 

[loreta]

Here is Alvin Lee at Woodstock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW5M5xljdCI

He was good.

 

[Gonzo]

I saw Alvin Lee performing iin a club in Toronto 20 years or so ago. I simply could not believe how fast he could play. The music of 10 Years After brings fond memories for me.

Stompin' Tom Connors, a Canadian music legend died the other day as well.

Hard to see them go. RIP, and thanks for the music.

 

[Nancy2feathers]

RIP Alvin Lee.

 

[SeekinTruth]

I love "I'd Love to Change the World." I used to play it a lot on the guitar. I'll play it today and sing along (since the lyrics were posted) in memory of Alvin Lee. May he rest in peace.