Back in the Sixties, the British musical world became a new haven for the blues. While most people \u2013 at least anyone younger than myself, and I\u2019m closing in on 40 faster than I like to admit \u2013 may not be aware of it, Fleetwood Mac started off as a blues band. So did the Rolling Stones. And Led Zeppelin surely had blues roots clearly planted among the guitar bombastics of Jimmy Page.<\/p>\n
Ten Years After was a different animal in that regard. Alvin Lee and crew definitely were a blues-rock band, but they had two major differences. First, they weren\u2019t afraid to embrace a jazz influence in their music as well. Second, whereas the guitarists in bands like Fleetwood Mac and the Stones could solo, Alvin Lee absolutely could shred in that regard. And while their debut effort might not be the most recognizable to casual music fans \u2013 Ten Years After is criminally labeled a \u201cone hit wonder\u201d because of \u201cI\u2019d Love To Change The World\u201d \u2013 it proves that these guys charged out of the gate on top of their game.<\/p>\n
The original nine-song release is a surprisingly quick listen, despite having three tracks clocking in at over five minutes. The band \u2013 guitarist Alvin Lee, bassist Leo Lyons, organist Chick Churchill and drummer Ric Lee \u2013 obviously came from the school of \u201cless is more,\u201d and make their musical points quickly, stepping out from the spotlight just as their message is delivered. And, honestly, this turns out to be the best move they could make \u2013 leaving the listener wanting more without overstaying their welcome.<\/p>\n
From the opening two-minute blast of \u201cI Want To Know,\u201d the listener knows they\u2019re in for an interesting time with this disc. Alvin Lee proves his chops on the guitar without overdoing things \u2013 to this day, I don\u2019t know how he was able to play so fast, and this album is controlled in comparison to later work. Other tracks like \u201cLosing The Dogs,\u201d \u201cLove Until I Die\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Want You Woman\u201d all are great fun to listen to, and keep the power of the blues going.<\/p>\n
Yet there is more than a little jazz thrown in for good measure. The instrumental \u201cAdventures Of A Young Organ\u201d is definite proof of that, as is a track like \u201cFeel It For Me,\u201d which sounds like it could easily dissolve into a free-form jazz track (and that, to me, is not a bad thing).<\/p>\n
The only two weaknesses \u2013 and I use that term loosely here \u2013 on Ten Years After<\/i> belong to, ironically, two of the longer tracks. I understand that everyone and their cousin was covering \u201cSpoonful\u201d at this time, but I don\u2019t necessarily know that Ten Years After\u2019s version adds anything to its legacy. Likewise, the album\u2019s closer, \u201cHelp Me,\u201d does feel like it stays around a little too long, and could have benefitted from being shortened.<\/p>\n
Of course, this being the age of compact disc and the MP3 player, Ten Years After<\/i> has been re-released with six bonus tracks. And, as usual, I question what adding things on to the legacy of the original album accomplishes \u2013 kind of like someone painting a pair of glasses onto the \u201cMona Lisa,\u201d if you will. Of these tracks, \u201cRock Your Mama,\u201d \u201cSpider In My Web\u201d and \u201cHold Me Tight\u201d do seem like they would have been natural fits with the original release, while \u201cPortable People\u201d sounds like it came from a completely different group style-wise, and \u201cThe Sounds\u201d \u2013 I don\u2019t know quite how<\/i> to classify that train wreck. (Also, despite the way I found it listed, the version of \u201cWoodchopper\u2019s Ball\u201d here is not<\/i> the same one that is on Undead<\/i> \u2013 thank God for that. This one is actually more subdued and not as fast \u2013 different, I\u2019ll admit, but not terrible.)<\/p>\n
Ten Years After<\/i>, in its original form, is a very strong first effort that, sadly, has been pushed back in people\u2019s memories, simply because it didn\u2019t have any singles that classic rock radio could latch onto. Maybe it\u2019s time for some of these stations to dust off a copy of this album and give it another shot \u2013 chances are everyone involved will be pleasantly surprised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8448],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-41656","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ten-years-after","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41656"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}