Conference napalm::guitar

>    If memory serves, he was severely criticized for his speed
>    during his heyday.  It's pretty obvious that he's not keeping
>    the guns of the 90's up nights,so it's interesting to see how
>    the concept of "fast" has evolved.

    For me the problem I had with Alvin Lee was not that he played with
    speed but that his speed was the only noteworthy aspect to his ability.

    I've always felt that he was like someone with a huge vocabulary but
    nothing to say. Style is infinitely more important than speed. After
    all, speed has nothing to do with music, style has everything.

    Just my random thoughts.

    --rjb

    I suggest you give a listen to "Detroit Diesel" ... sure, he tries to
    blister on here too, but there are also some good straight ahead
    rockers as well !
    
    Scary

    
    Hey Jerry, I'd sure love to hear Detroit Deisel if you have it.
    I've never really thought of Alvin Lee as a speedster.  To me,
    he was just a great blues/rocker.  I love the tone, sustain
    and bluesy feel on the "Change the World" solo.  

I always liked the song "I can't keep from cryin'" off the first and fairly
rare album "Ten Years After". Very nice song with some interesting lead
work on it. I never heard him do anything like it again.

dbii

    I love Alvin Lee.  Bought my first 100wt Marshall stack after seeing
    the Woodstock movie!!  The live version of Good Morning Lil Schoolgirl
    rocks hard!  My band used to do that and Goin Home...whada workout!

    Maybe it's just me.

    Funny this topic should come up right now...only last week my wife was
    given one of Alvin Lee's (monogrammed)picks by a friend of the band as
    she was really into Ten Years After a long time back.The "SSSHHHH!!"
    album has been getting a *LOT* of playtime since!
    						      Big Jim
    	(who isn't allowed to use the pick!!![and when I did,it didn't make
         me play any faster!])
    

    Yo Buckster !
    
    A band I was in during highschool did "I'm Goin' Home" too !  It was
    more like a finger-fit the way I played it, but in those days, LOUD was
    job #1.  Me and my Marshall Major (da 200watter) stack and the Ampeg V4
    stack took care of that end - nobody seemed to notice the rest.
    
    
    Scary

Strange how no one has mentioned this yet..

Alvin Lee never  uses his pinky.
(at least I've never seen him)

MTV has a video the play of one of the more recent Ten Years 
After  I assume) concerts,,, Alvin Lee just takes off for about 5 minutes.

His stamina was something else...  He gets keeps burning,, not
even stopping to breath,,, but again, not once in that tape, did
I see him use his pinky..  everything else though,,,  (thumb, fist,
knees, elbows, foot, mike stand, ,,, ,,,)

To be honest, Alvin Lee never set my soul on fire,,,  I do like some
of the raw, straight ahead stuff, and A Space In Time has always
been one of my fav. nostalgia albums, but no, he's not keeping
anyone up nights anymore...   had he used his pinky,,, ,,,  (ahh, 
never mind,, just a nit I can't let go..)

A tribute that he's still rockin though,, the man has to be close
to 50 years old at this point,, at least that's about how old
he looked in the video.. (No sarcasm, honest observation)  

I just hope I can play with that much fire when I'm close to 50..

    
    
    When I was in the 9th grade, my band got a gig playing a dance
    sponsored by a Catholic school.  Nuns for chaperones, no less.  There
    were some very red faces about when we broke into "Good Morning Little
    School Girl."  8-)
    
    I saw Alvin Lee play in a large club in California (the country club? 
    I don't remember the name) somewhere around '81 or '82.  It was a
    *great* show and he really put a lot into it.  He was still playing the
    same fast licks, too.
    
    Alvin used to take heat for being all speed and no taste.  That's kind
    of funny now because he couldn't hold a candle to today's fast guns.
    But, in its time, "I'm Goin Home" was smokin.  
    
    When I think about it, there is probably a direct line between "I'm
    Goin Home" and, say, the fast riffs at the end of G+R's "Paradise
    City." 
    
    Kevin
    
    
         
    
        

    
    
    		The album, A Space in Time, remains one of my favorites 
    	from the time period that it came out. Lotta great guitar riffs
    	on that record. The last album I picked up with Alvin was, Ten
    	Years Later, doesn't stant up to the earlier stuff in my opinion.
    	I have always like the sound he was able to get out of that 335.
    
    	DonH
    
    

    Anyone remember "In Flight"?  This was Alvin's first post-TYA LP, a
    two-record set recorded live in London, 1974  I think.
    
    The backup band was Kokomo, a UK soul band in the AWB vein that never
    caught on in the US.  The overall sound of the album was pretty laid
    back for Alvin, he even shared guitar duties with Neil Hubbard (an
    underrated player himself), lots of horns, etc.
    
    The final TYA album. "Positive Vibrations", which came out only a few
    months earlier sounded like the band was pretty tired, while "In
    Flight" seemed pretty energetic.
    
    						Brian

When I saw TYA in '70 the warm up act made them sound pretty tired...twas that 
lil' ole blues band from Tejas, ZZtop...


dbii

    RE ZZ Top: No contest.
    
    I saw TYA twice back in '69 & '70. They were the headliner at a show
    and they cleared the joint in 20 minutes. I stayed through most of it
    The bass play was hanging ten at the edge of the stage screaming
    "F#%@ YOU" at people streaming across the front of the stage toward
    the exits. It was not a pretty sight.
    
    

    some infos
    
    Ten Years After played in a little bavarian club, 200 miles from
    munich, 2 weeks ago and will perform on a little open air festival
    close to munich in some weeks - hope i have the time to go! 
    
    btw: can somebody put the basic chord of Goin' Home in here?
    
    the best of tya i have seen so far is the goin home version in the
    woodstock movie, which i recently rented. i think it's much better than
    the version on "recorded live" (live in frankfurt).
    
    
    sascha

    
    Funny that Alvin Lee doesn't use his pinky. I'm pretty sure it was
    copying his riffs that got me started using my pinky.  Me with 
    smallish hands and all.
    
    One of the problems with Lee is the repetiveness of his stuff.
    I saw him in the early seventies for two sets on one night.
    'Twas annoying to see him play and detune his low E string one note
    at a time twice in one night.  The songs, solos & jokes  were the 
    same etc. I know other bands do that too, which is understandable
    if you're talking complex song arrangements, harmonies, choreography
    etc. With Ten Years After it was Alvin Lee doing 12 bar 3 chord stuff
    with a backup. The other guitar oriented bands of the day would mix it
    up much more.
    
    Opening act was James Taylor  ;-)   Those college bookings...
    Dave                                                         
    
    

    
>    Opening act was James Taylor  ;-)   Those college bookings...

    HA! One of the times I saw TYA was at U-Mass and the opening act
    was...

    THREE DOG NIGHT

    
    	re: opening acts - sorry about digressing but two of the 
    	strangest combinations I've seen where the opening act
    	blew the main act away...
    
    	John Mayall with Bruce Springsteen opening at the Curry
    	Hicks Cage at ZooMass.
    
    	Jackson "I'm depressed" Brown getting creamed by Orleans -
    	two great guitarists running around doing harmony leads with
    	great vocals.  Then he comes out on a stool with an acoustic!!
    
    	Whew...
    
    

    Here's one. Around 1972 I saw Van Morrison and the opening act was
    J. Geils. After a rousing high-energy "boogie" set Van came out and
    did "Into the Mystic".
    

    
    Here is a nice and supposedly true story, Ian Anderson (alias Jethro
    Tull) once received a letter from an unknown guy called Fish asking
    if his unknown band called Marillion could be the support act for 
    Tull's upcoming tour. Ian wrote back and said 'Sorry no'
    
    Then of course Marillion made the big time and Ian Anderson recieved
    a letter from a well known guy called Fish asking if Jethro Tull 
    would come and be the support band for Marillion, and I heard that they
    did.........but it was a while back.
    
    J

That's pretty cool.

I've seen Tull twice, and can guarentee that no opening act will steal that 
show.

Will

    
    Alvin Lee is interviewed in the latest issue of the [New England/Boston]
    area newspaper METRONOME.
    
    He notes, wryly, that one aspect of his comeback over the last couple
    of years is that the fans go out and buy his old albums...not the
    ones he has been recording recently.
    
    He mentions, and I agree, that "I'd Love to Change the World" still
    sounds good, despite the fact that its twenty years old.
    
    I still think Ten Years After music is good for summer driving...
    good, blunt blues rock to get lost in the roar of the wind rushing
    by the open windows!
    
    Brian