Ten Years After - Original Album Series [Box] (2014) mp3@320 {1337x}-kawli

Ten Years After was a British blues-rock quartet consisting of Alvin Lee (born December 19, 1944, died March 6, 2013), 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 re-release when he discovered 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 its 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. Alvin Lee died on March 6, 2013 at the age of 68 due to complications from a routine surgery.

1969 – Ssssh.

Ssssh was Ten Years After’s new release at the time of their incendiary performance at the Woodstock Festival in August, 1969. As a result, it was their first hit album in the U.S., peaking at number 20 in September of that year. This recording is a primer of British blues-rock of the era, showcasing Alvin Lee’s guitar pyrotechnics and the band’s propulsive rhythm section. As with most of TYA’s work, the lyrics were throwaways, but the music was hot. Featured is a lengthy cover of Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl,” with reworked lyrics leaving little doubt as to what the singer had in mind for the title character. Also included was a 12-bar blues song with the ultimate generic blues title “I Woke Up This Morning.” Ssssh marked the beginning of the band’s two-year run of popularity on the U.S. album charts and in the underground FM-radio scene.

01. Bad Scene 03:30
02. Two Time Mama 02:02
03. Stoned Woman 03:20
04. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl 07:10
05. If You Should Love Me 05:24
06. I Don’t Know That You Don’t Know My Name 02:06
07. The Stomp 04:30
08. I Woke Up This Morning 05:32

1970 – Cricklewood Green

Cricklewood Green provides the best example of Ten Years After’s recorded sound. On this album, the band and engineer Andy Johns mix studio tricks and sound effects, blues-based song structures, a driving rhythm section, and Alvin Lee’s signature lightning-fast guitar licks into a unified album that flows nicely from start to finish. Cricklewood Green opens with a pair of bluesy rockers, with “Working on the Road” propelled by a guitar and organ riff that holds the listener’s attention through the use of tape manipulation as the song develops. “50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain” and “Love Like a Man” are classics of TYA’s jam genre, with lyrically meaningless verses setting up extended guitar workouts that build in intensity, rhythmically and sonically. The latter was an FM-radio staple in the early ’70s. “Year 3000 Blues” is a country romp sprinkled with Lee’s silly sci-fi lyrics, while “Me and My Baby” concisely showcases the band’s jazz licks better than any other TYA studio track, and features a tasty piano solo by Chick Churchill. It has a feel similar to the extended pieces on side one of the live album Undead. “Circles” is a hippie-ish acoustic guitar piece, while “As the Sun Still Burns Away” closes the album by building on another classic guitar-organ riff and more sci-fi sound effects.

01. Sugar The Road 04:07
02. Working On The Road 04:17
03. 50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain 07:37
04. Year 3,000 Blues 02:25
05. Me And My Baby 04:18
06. Love Like A Man 07:30
07. Circles 03:58
08. As The Sun Still Burns Away 04:46

1970 – Watt

Watt had many of the same ingredients as its predecessor, Cricklewood Green, but wasn’t nearly as well thought out. The band had obviously spent much time on the road, leaving little time for developing new material. Consequently, a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen,” recorded live at the Isle of Wight Festival, is included here, as is a short instrumental with the uninspired title “The Band with No Name.” Other song titles like “I Say Yeah” and “My Baby Left Me” betray the lack of spark in Alvin Lee’s songwriting. Nonetheless, his guitar work is fast and clean (though the licks are beginning to sound repetitive from album to album), and the band continues to cook in the manner exemplified best on Cricklewood Green.

01. I’m Coming On 03:74
02. My Baby Left Me 05:23
03. Think About The Times 04:43
04. I Say Yeah 05:17
05. The Band With No Name 01:37
06. Gonna Run 06:02
07. She Lies In The Morning 07:24
08. Sweet Little Sixteen 04:11

1971 – A Space In Time

A Space in Time was Ten Years After’s best-selling album. This was due primarily to the strength of “I’d Love to Change the World,” the band’s only hit single, and one of the most ubiquitous AM and FM radio cuts of the summer of 1971. TYA’s first album for Columbia, A Space in Time has more of a pop-oriented feel than any of their previous releases had. The individual cuts are shorter, and Alvin Lee displays a broader instrumental palette than before. In fact, six of the disc’s ten songs are built around acoustic guitar riffs. However, there are still a couple of barn-burning jams. The leadoff track, “One of These Days,” is a particularly scorching workout, featuring extended harmonica and guitar solos. After the opener, however, the album settles back into a more relaxed mood than one would have expected from Ten Years After. Many of the cuts make effective use of dynamic shifts, and the guitar solos are generally more understated than on previous outings. The production on A Space in Time is crisp and clean, a sound quite different from the denseness of its predecessors. Though not as consistent as Cricklewood Green, A Space in Time has its share of sparkling moments.

01. One Of These Days 05:57
02. Here They Come 04:35
03. I’d Love To Change The World 03:44
04. Over The Hill 02:28
05. Baby Won’t You Let Me Rock ‘N’ Roll You 02:14
06. Once There Was A Time 03:22
07. Let The Sky Fall 04:20
08. Hard Monkeys 03:11
09. I’ve Been There Too 05:45
10. Uncle Jam 01:57

1972 – Rock & Roll Music To The World

Here, Ten Years After expanded on their boogie base and continued the hits. The title cut was the hit, and while they continued to groove along in the boogie atmosphere, things on Rock & Roll Music to the World sounded a bit too tame for the thundering hordes to chant along to at the time. “Turned Off T.V. Blues” showed just how tiring touring was getting for the band, and there wasn’t much else here to bring out the beast to party with. A little too much of the same thing was starting to stunt this band’s growth, except in their wallets.

01. You Give Me Loving 06:31
02. Convention Prevention 04:22
03. Turned Off TV Blues 05:12
04. Standing At The Station 07:08
05. You Can’t Win Them All 04:05
06. Religion 05:50
07. Choo Choo Mama 04:01
08. Tomorrow I’ll Be Out Of Town 04:28
09. Rock ‘N’ Roll Music To The World 03:47

Media Info:
Bitrate: 320 kbps
Channels: joint stereo
Samplerate: 44100
Encoder: LAME 3.99
MPEG-1 layer 3



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