Alvin Lee of 10 Years After has died!

[hjames]

http://www.alvinlee.com/

MARCH 6, 2013


WITH GREAT SADNESS WE HAVE TO ANNOUNCE THAT
ALVIN UNEXPECTEDLY PASSED AWAY EARLY THIS MORNING
AFTER UNFORSEEN COMPLICATIONS FOLLOWING A ROUTINE SURGICAL PROCEDURE.


WE HAVE LOST A WONDERFUL MUCH LOVED FATHER AND COMPANION,
THE WORLD HAS LOST A TRULY GREAT AND GIFTED MUSICIAN.

JASMIN, EVI AND SUZANNE

[mikebake]

Used to enjoy Alvin Lee back in the day.

[SEAWOLF97]

Aww ..sh1t

was just listening to "Cricklewood Green" yesterday. have almost all the TYA LP's .."A Space in Time" is one of my DID's.

[Lee in Montreal]

My friends used to call me Alvin in the mid 70s ;-) In reference to Alvin Lee.

RIP

Lee

[Krunchy]

Aww ..sh1t

was just listening to "Cricklewood Green" yesterday. have almost all the TYA LP's .."A Space in Time" is one of my DID's.

I always liked that title, good album too.
I liked Alvin a lot back in high school, Woodstock was a two edged sword for his carreer from what I've read.

[SEAWOLF97]

Aww ..sh1t

was just listening to "Cricklewood Green" yesterday. have almost all the TYA LP's .."A Space in Time" is one of my DID's.

Aww ..sh1t ...... part deux

I think that along with George, Alvins death is one of the most significant (in my book) since that year we lost Janis, Jim & Jimmi. Instead of being sad, I think the positives are worth reviewing.

He was active when the good ones were dying early. making it to 68 is pretty significant anymore (I turn 64 next month and feel that's an achievement too) ...He left a huge discography, had a very productive life. In his later years , eased up a bit and made the excellent "Alvin Lee in Tennessee" (very -Knophler-like) . He was one of those rare triple threats that wrote, sung and played and was great at each. Lyrics weren't very advanced, but usually contained humor and didn't take himself too seriously. Was accessible, from what I've read.

Last month I picked up his "On the Road to Freedom" with Hari Georgeson and now it's on my "to be played" stack. Prolly the most prized LP that I've grabbed in the last 5 years is a pristine copy of "A Space in Time" in QUAD.

Dunno, I never connected with Lennon or Cobain , etc, but felt some kind of connection with "The Fastest Guitar in the West" ... he will be missed, tho thankfully have a lot of media to remember him by.

He had "always wanted to be a musician, a working musician, not a rock star," Lee said in the 1994 Times interview. "It's really all I know how to do."

Discography

See also: Ten Years After discography

Alvin Lee performing in Breda, Turfschip, The Netherlands, 1978

• On the Road to Freedom (with Mylon LeFevre) (1973)
• In Flight (1974)
• Pump Iron! (1975)
• Let It Rock (1978)
• Rocket Fuel (1978)
• Ride On (1979)
• Free Fall (1980)
• RX5 (1981)
• Detroit Diesel (1986)
• Zoom (1992)
• Nineteen Ninety-Four (1994)
• In Tennessee (2004)
• Saguitar (2007)
• Still on the Road to Freedom (2012)

Studio albums

Ten Years After	Deram, 1967
Stonedhenge	Deram, 1969
Ssssh	Deram, 1969
Cricklewood Green	Deram, 1970
Watt	Deram, 1970
A Space in Time	Columbia, 1971
Rock & Roll Music to the World	Columbia, 1972
Positive Vibrations	Columbia, 1974
About Time	Chrysalis, 1989
Now	2004
Evolution	2008

Live albums

Undead	Deram, 1968
BBC Sessions	1967–1968
Recorded Live	Columbia, 1973
Live at the Fillmore East 1970 (double live album)	2001

One Night Jammed (Live)	2003
Roadworks (double live album)	2005
Live at Fiesta City (live DVD)	2009

Compilations

• Double Deluxe (1970)
• Ten Years After (1971)
• Alvin Lee and Company (Deram, 1972)
• Goin' Home (Deram, 1975)
• Classic Performances of (Columbia, 1976)
• London Collector – Greatest Hits (London, 1977)
• Profile (1979)
• Ten Years After (1980)
• Timewarps (1983)
• The Collection (1985)
• At Their Peak (1987)
• Universal (1987) (Chrysalis Records)
• Portfolio: A History (1988)
• The Collection (1991)
• Essential (1991)
• Pure Blues (1995)
• I'm Going Home (1996)
• Premium Gold Collection (1998)
• The Best of (2000)
• Very Best Ten Years After Album Ever (2001)
• Ten Years After Anthology (2002)

[Mark's JBLs]

I'll never forget the final Ten Years After tour in 1975, I caught it here at the old Kiel Auditorium. I always enjoyed the blues orientated with a bit of the 1950s rock & roll thrown in of his generation.


.
We will miss your talent Alvin...

[SEAWOLF97]

Alvin wrote:

But I'd never sell my guitar
And my strings were always sharp
'Cause if I don't have a guitar
I'll be strumming on some angels harp

And if I don't get to heaven
And I go down there below
Better be a guitar when I get there
Or, I will refuse to go

[Dave_72]

I didn't realize he was so influential and inspiring until now! I wonder what the routine procedure was?

[Oldmics]

I"d Love To Change the World

I think in his own way-he did !

Certainly influenced my life after seeing him as my first concert event.

R.I.P.

Oldmics

[bigyank]

RIP Alvin

My first concert I went to was Ten Years After at the old Spectrum in Philadelphia, PA:

5/17/1974 Philadelphia, PA, Spectrum

Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Climax Blues Band were the opening acts. I was 15 and had no clue other then I really liked Alvin's playing style and it was something I never get tired of listening to. When I heard the news I put the 2-disc Live at Fillmore East on!

I am friends with Leo Lyons, the bass player of TYA on FB and he has been posting pics of himself and Alvin going back to 1962 as they Jaybirds, pretty neat thing for him to do.

[SEAWOLF97]

I'm Going Home (Germany,1994) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYwfZKl1BzY

Mr. Lee was not as well known as other emerging British guitar stars of the era, including Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and perhaps even Albert Lee, with whom he was occasionally confused (and with whom he once recorded alongside Jerry Lee Lewis). But he was among the nimblest when it came to musicianship.
On his Gibson ES-335 Mr. Lee could shift instantly from speedy single-string leads to rhythmic riffs while doing his best to sing like his American blues heroes. He grew up listening to his father’s Big Bill Broonzy and Lonnie Johnson records in Nottingham, England.
Ten Years After attracted a following during its first tour of the United States, in 1968, and the band would tour the country many more times through the early ’70s, known less for hit songs than for extended jams.
“The strange thing was we had gone to what I considered to be the home of the blues, but they’d never heard of most of them, and I couldn’t believe it — ‘Big Bill who?’ ” Mr. Lee recalled in a 2003 interview with Classic Rock magazine. “We were recycling American music and they were calling it the English sound.”

More successful tours and albums followed, including “Cricklewood Green” and “Watt.” Then, during a break in 1971 intended to provide time for musical exploration, Mr. Lee wrote the band’s only Top 40 hit, “I’d Love to Change the World.” The song’s more commercial sound was a departure, and Mr. Lee later said he was not sure it had been a wise one.
“I hated it because it was a hit,” he said in 2003. “By then I was rebelling, and I never played it live. To me it was a pop song.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/07/ar...t-68.html?_r=0

a ranking of TYA albums
http://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?b=3532

a good bio
http://www.alvinlee.de/tya_bio.htm

[sebrof]

Me and my buds wore out Classic Performances back in the day, it's one of a very few records that made it this far with me. I was playing it when I stumbled onto this thread. It's actually in very good shape considering, and it's impressive what a record cleaning machine can do, too.

[Triumph Don]

Will always remember the Woodstock gig. Enjoying it right now! RIP Alvin, you are home now.

[SEAWOLF97]

'Tween the nano, Pandora , PC & vinyl ......I still have TYA/AL going 3-4X / week

something about the music just connects wif me.

better times