Alvin Lee at Woodstock

Seems worth posting the most beautiful song Alvin Lee ever wrote, from their least appreciated album. Lyrics are a little dicey, but the tune is gorgeous, and the layered harmonies!

 

I love Alvin & TYA, but absolutely detest that song (Going Home). His pyrotechnics on guitar are jaw dropping but the song to me, being a rehash of mostly 50's bluesuedeshows type Chuck Berryisms, is just awful and grates on my ears. I find it ironic - and sad - that what to me is just about their worst song is the one they are most well known for.

Alvin is one of the hall of fame "guitar Gods" though. One of those guys you can tell who is playing not even knowing the song if you're into that kind of thing (Hendrix, Trower, Blackmore, Schenker, etc etc etc).

 

It's like Chuck Berry being best known for My Ding-A-Ling, although I'm Going Home is like God Only Knows in comparison........

 

Perhaps fodder for an entertaining thread - name an artist you like but who's most popular song, or something they are most well known for, you can't stand.

P.S. By "bluesuedeshows" (typo) above I meant bluesuedeshoes but bluesuedeshows actually sounds kind of cool.

 

I always felt Lee was at his best leading up to Woodstock, more range (Jazz, Blues, Rock).
After Woodstock he seemed to be less eclectic and more straight ahead rock which came off as boogie with TYA near the end, and which he refined in a roots way solo=wise ala Dave Edmunds, who also reduced his chops after leaving Love Sculpture.

 

I saw TYA live 3 times, all great shows. For some reason the thing that sticks out was backstage at the Randall's Island music festival. A bunch if us watched Alvin rolling around in a sleeping bag with a groupie.

 

Wow!

Did you also witness the Angry Hendrix Set?

 

I think TYA began to decline after Stonedhenge. they were a butt kicking blues band, but he couldn't write enough different material to fill an album. I really can't get interested in anything after Shh, and even that lp is weak, IMO. He hated playing I'm Going Home pretty quickly and I remember an interview where he openly regretted playing it at Woodstock. I give him credit for trying to stretch, but I don't think he was a good enough writer. It kind of pains me to say that, since I think they could have eclipsed Fleetwood Mac as a great British Blues standard bearer. The BBC stuff they did from 67-68 is awesome, right up there with Mac performances.

 

If you like the Woodstock performance then you would REALLY like the "Recorded Live" album.
He does some pretty amazing guitar work on it, it is my favorite guitar album of all time.

 

Alvin and TYA started in 1966, "ten years after" Elvis and the start of rock and roll which is how they came
up with their name. One of his biggest influences (along with many other British rockers such as Jeff Beck etc.) was Gene Vincent and The Blue Caps (not Chuck Berry) which is where he got "I'm Goin' Home".
Take a listen......

 

I thought Stonedhenge was weaker but Ssssh, Cricklewood Green and A Space In Time were great.

 

Yeah, Cricklewood Green and Space in Time are my favorites. The rest of the catalog are hit & miss for me.

 

The weakest albums for me are Stonedhenge and Watt. The live albums are fantastic.

 

Definitely agree.

It was hearing Recorded Live at a friends' one day that made me a fan. I had seen the Woodstock movie but other than thinking Alvin's guitar work was special I thought they stunk (again I really hate I'm Going Home). The third side of Recorded Live, with the I Can't Keep From Crying segment & the jamming therein blew my mind at the time - "WHO THE FECK IS THIS AGAIN? TEN YEARS AFTER? THE SAME BAND FROM WOODSTOCK THAT DID THAT AWFUL BOOGIE THING? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" etc.

 

Atrial arrhythmia is also called afib. Sometimes they can correct it with medicine, some times by shocking the heart with what is called a cardioversion to get te heart back in rhythm. Afib can cause stokes.

I had what is called a mini maze surgical procedure to correct my afib. Too bad Alvin's procedure killed him.

 

I doubt it was at the top of his list either, but it helped to bring in the crowds and always made for an entertaining ending piece in concert. If it wasn't played, his audience would invariably go away feeling cheated. That's why signature tunes are a blessing and curse all at once.

That said, I'm not sure I'm Going Home was TYA's signature tune. I'd Love To Change The World certainly rivals it, and if it hadn't been for the Woodstock performance, where I'm Going Home was forever more etched into TYA consciousness like stone, one has to wonder if it would have remained a "must-play" in concert for as long as it did. Ironic also is the fact that I'd Love To Change The World never became a part of TYA's live setlist.

Not so sure that's true even in regards to his TYA tenure, simply due to A Space In Time which was produced a few years after Woodstock. That album was pretty eclectic as well as psychedelic. It could be argued that TYA got stuck in its own self-limiting groove as time went along, but of course that was largely why Lee shut it down in the end. The only way you can appreciate the different explorations he took later is to dig deeper into his non-TYA catalog. Not all that many have done so.

Your British Blues standards are awfully high then. As for compositional ability, the man carried TYA on his shoulders solely. He then carried Alvin Lee & Co singularly, and Ten Years Later but again. His solo career is full of largely undiscovered gems, some great blues pieces, mostly self-penned.

So what about the songsmiths of the other British Blues giants? The Stones had Jagger and Richards contributing equally; Fleetwood Mac had Green, Kirwan, Welch and McVie sharing scribe duties; Eric Clapton had Bruce, Winwood and Whitlock co-penning; Zep had Page, Plant, Bonham and Jones all chipping away, and Jeff Beck had too many to list. So how much can you expect one man to do?

It's enough to see what he composed for the In Flight retro tour he put together right after departing TYA. Other than a handful of covers, he wrote all of those songs too!

Photo or it never happened.

 

I did not know that. Thanks.

 

Oh sure. It might be out of print. My copy has it, but I have an old CD. I'm sure it is available for purchase somewhere.

 

What I find odd in this thread is little if any mention of their second album "Undead" from 1968. It was the
first album I bought by them in the late sixties, and to this day I feel it is still the best recording by them.
Back in the mid sixties I was a major fan/collector of Woody Herman's frantic big band recordings on
Phillips and later Columbia. When I stumbled on "Undead" in a record store when it was released, I noticed
one of the tracks was "Woodchopper's Ball" and said to myself "what rock and roll band would ever have
heard of Woody Herman?". Bought it, took it home and when I played it I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I had NEVER heard a guitarist play that fast and cleanly before.
Ten Years After was my favorite band from the late sixties to the mid seventies. But "Undead" is the
release by them I go to more than any other.
Here's "Woodchopper's Ball" from "Undead". Listen to Alvin's guitar work and you'll know what I'm
talking about......

 

Love Undead! But since I jump off ship after Shhhh, I'm in the minority I guess

 

one of my favorite parts of the Woodstock movie...the energy level is literally off the charts.

 

Sorry to be negative, but Lee & Ten Years After are a band that I really liked back in the day but can hardly listen to now.
I used to think their Woodstock performance was one of the movie's highlights, but now find it a big turn-off.

 

His performance at Isle Of Wight 1970 is even better

 

"Goin home" or whatever its called plays at woodstock is simply astounding.I dont think I have heard anythjng that grooves and rocks as much at once.It strikes me as kind of futuristic. A peak at the rock/hard rock/metal that was about to come.