RIP rock guitarist, Alvin Lee, 68 years old
March 6, 2013 2:06 PM Subscribe
Alvin Lee Is Going Home: 'Ten Years After' Guitarist Dies | I'd love to change to world | TEN YEARS AFTER - A Space in Time - Full album.
Damn. That Woodstock version of "I'm Going' Home" still makes me smile whenever I hear it. Same goes for "I'd Love to Change the World" and their fine cover of Woody Herman's "Woodchoppers Ball."
RIP, Guitar Hero.
posted by jonmc at 2:21 PM on March 6, 2013 [3 favorites]
RIP, Guitar Hero.
posted by jonmc at 2:21 PM on March 6, 2013 [3 favorites]
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posted by Cookiebastard at 2:30 PM on March 6, 2013
posted by Cookiebastard at 2:30 PM on March 6, 2013
The man could PLAY.
Unexpected complications from a routine surgical procedure. Damn.
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posted by JohnnyGunn at 2:39 PM on March 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
Unexpected complications from a routine surgical procedure. Damn.
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posted by JohnnyGunn at 2:39 PM on March 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
"I'd love to change the world, but I don't know what to dooooooooooo
So I leave it up to youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..."
Now you don't have to change anything, Alvin.
RIP, man.
posted by Lynsey at 2:40 PM on March 6, 2013
So I leave it up to youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..."
Now you don't have to change anything, Alvin.
RIP, man.
posted by Lynsey at 2:40 PM on March 6, 2013
That was my favorite performance from Woodstock. RIP indeed.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 2:50 PM on March 6, 2013
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 2:50 PM on March 6, 2013
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I saw him twice at Hammerjacks in Baltimore (late '80s early '90s), with and with out Ten Years After. One of those times, my wife was heading for the bathroom, which was behind the stage, and a roadie showed her the "Woodstock" guitar.
posted by 445supermag at 3:08 PM on March 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
I saw him twice at Hammerjacks in Baltimore (late '80s early '90s), with and with out Ten Years After. One of those times, my wife was heading for the bathroom, which was behind the stage, and a roadie showed her the "Woodstock" guitar.
posted by 445supermag at 3:08 PM on March 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
First LP I purchased with my own money. RIP Alvin good times.
posted by pdxpogo at 3:26 PM on March 6, 2013
posted by pdxpogo at 3:26 PM on March 6, 2013
Goin' Home was my favorite performance from Woodstock, bar none.
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posted by tommasz at 3:29 PM on March 6, 2013
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posted by tommasz at 3:29 PM on March 6, 2013
I just figured out this is ALVIN Lee, and isn't Albert Lee, another great British guitarist - I'm getting senile.
Albert Lee shreds as well. More of a country thing.
posted by C.A.S. at 3:43 PM on March 6, 2013
Albert Lee shreds as well. More of a country thing.
posted by C.A.S. at 3:43 PM on March 6, 2013
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posted by the sobsister at 4:09 PM on March 6, 2013
posted by the sobsister at 4:09 PM on March 6, 2013
The first time I watched the Woodstock movie in high school in the 80s I did so in order to watch Jimi Hendrix because I was going my high school Hendrix phase (which never really went away). That Goin' Home blew me away. That was the part I showed to several friends. I wonder why I never pursued his music and left that one song as they only thing by him I really know?
posted by zzazazz at 4:11 PM on March 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by zzazazz at 4:11 PM on March 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
What a loss, but what a body of work, Cricklewood Green = one of my favorite albums of all time.
posted by Pressed Rat at 4:22 PM on March 6, 2013
posted by Pressed Rat at 4:22 PM on March 6, 2013
Saw Alvin Lee and 10 Years After at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago in 1972; it was our senior class trip. My first concert!
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posted by coldhotel at 4:58 PM on March 6, 2013
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posted by coldhotel at 4:58 PM on March 6, 2013
Pressed Rat, here's the Ten Years After - Cricklewood Green (1970) Full Album.
posted by nickyskye at 5:04 PM on March 6, 2013
posted by nickyskye at 5:04 PM on March 6, 2013
Excellent
posted by Pressed Rat at 5:13 PM on March 6, 2013
posted by Pressed Rat at 5:13 PM on March 6, 2013
Thanks for the music, especially Goin' Home. I'm sorry I lost track of the GIANT poster of you I used to black out my bedroom window 'way back when...
posted by maggieb at 5:29 PM on March 6, 2013
posted by maggieb at 5:29 PM on March 6, 2013
I hope he and Danny Gatton are jamming their asses off together again.
posted by ssmug at 6:02 PM on March 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by ssmug at 6:02 PM on March 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
Oh this news sucks. Ten Years After was one of the first rock concerts I saw - back in the day when concerts were small, often in a college gym. That was the case for the concert I saw. The freaks and the jocks in my college were diametrically opposed -- I guess it was ever thus -- and so there was some controversy over the band choice. The jocks wanted The Association -- the horror -- but the freaks prevailed and Alvin Lee & crew it was. His guitar playing blew me away, I had never heard anything like it - it was just so alive and exciting. I remember thinking, "damn, this is why some girls just abandon everything and become groupies." (Because few of us would have thought of being a rock guitar goddess ourselves back then, sadly enough.)
Since hearing the news, I've been surfing around a bit and reliving my rock salad days at this fantastic Alvin Lee/Ten Years After fan site - there's a great collection of articles, interviews, ticket stubs, posters, trivia - much of it discussing other greats of the era, too. And there were greats: One 1970 US-Canadian tour lists Eric Anderson, The Band, Buddy Guy Blues Band, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Grateful Dead, Ian & Sylvia & the Great Speckled Bird, Janis Joplin, Leslie West and Mountain, Traffic, Seatrain, Tom Rush & more... And a review of a two day fest in Atlanta that included Joplin, Hendrix, Ten Years After, and many of the above was deemed a rip-off because tickets for the 2-day even were $7.00.
Thanks for the music, Alvin. And nickyskye, thanks for a nice tribute post.
posted by madamjujujive at 7:47 PM on March 6, 2013 [2 favorites]
Since hearing the news, I've been surfing around a bit and reliving my rock salad days at this fantastic Alvin Lee/Ten Years After fan site - there's a great collection of articles, interviews, ticket stubs, posters, trivia - much of it discussing other greats of the era, too. And there were greats: One 1970 US-Canadian tour lists Eric Anderson, The Band, Buddy Guy Blues Band, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Grateful Dead, Ian & Sylvia & the Great Speckled Bird, Janis Joplin, Leslie West and Mountain, Traffic, Seatrain, Tom Rush & more... And a review of a two day fest in Atlanta that included Joplin, Hendrix, Ten Years After, and many of the above was deemed a rip-off because tickets for the 2-day even were $7.00.
Thanks for the music, Alvin. And nickyskye, thanks for a nice tribute post.
posted by madamjujujive at 7:47 PM on March 6, 2013 [2 favorites]
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posted by lupus_yonderboy at 9:15 PM on March 6, 2013
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 9:15 PM on March 6, 2013
The acoustic opening to "I'd Love to Change the World" was the first thing I ever tried to pick out on a guitar.
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posted by wallabear at 9:35 PM on March 6, 2013
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posted by wallabear at 9:35 PM on March 6, 2013
I've long considered Alvin Lee one of the two grand masters of precision slop. Jimmy Page is the other.
Gonna miss Alvin.
posted by flabdablet at 12:36 AM on March 7, 2013
Gonna miss Alvin.
posted by flabdablet at 12:36 AM on March 7, 2013
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posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 1:44 AM on March 7, 2013
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 1:44 AM on March 7, 2013
Just so there's not confusion re: my post, I just realized I read the title as Albert Lee, not Alvin Lee. No snark was intended.
posted by ssmug at 5:58 AM on March 7, 2013
posted by ssmug at 5:58 AM on March 7, 2013
Wonderful comment and addition to the thread madamjujujive. Loved your reminiscences and thoughts. Have been clicking around that website you linked with smiles, savoring the nostalgia and ground breaking live band shows of the day. I still get a tremendous kick out of Alvin Lee's and Ten Years After's music. Such an electric charge of vitality. It's still there, even after all this time. I guess really good music is like that.
As you said, Alvin Lee's music blew me away too when I first heard it. I also had never heard anything like it before and it gave me, and I would imagine it did to pretty much all the males and females listening, a tremendous libidinous rush. It has this fierce gut energy, fiery and chakra opening, LOL
I think it was a wonderful gift to the world, that life force Alvin Lee cooked up with his shredtastic riffs. Love those sour focus he made while playing too, which added a likable dark spice. It feels good to honor him and put his songs in my Spotify folders as rocket fuel.
posted by nickyskye at 7:57 PM on March 7, 2013 [1 favorite]
As you said, Alvin Lee's music blew me away too when I first heard it. I also had never heard anything like it before and it gave me, and I would imagine it did to pretty much all the males and females listening, a tremendous libidinous rush. It has this fierce gut energy, fiery and chakra opening, LOL
I think it was a wonderful gift to the world, that life force Alvin Lee cooked up with his shredtastic riffs. Love those sour focus he made while playing too, which added a likable dark spice. It feels good to honor him and put his songs in my Spotify folders as rocket fuel.
posted by nickyskye at 7:57 PM on March 7, 2013 [1 favorite]
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