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Ten Years After

zenith2134

zenith2134

Lunatic Member
Just let me say that I never, ever knew these guys. I know, very strange. Well, now they are my new favorite band. Woah, and the SQ is amazing. Must have been recorded on tubes. Can anyone suggest some other classic-rock acts that sound similar to Ten Years After? Thanks a million guys .
 
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They were part of the 60s/70s British Blues scene. Check out Savoy Brown, Keef Hartley, John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac (early w/ Peter Greene), Jeff Beck, Yardbirds, for a start.
 
Slightly different, but "Yes" comes to mind, for some reason. I'd also second the John Mayall suggestion, particularly: very good blues(y) music.
 
The Yardbirds and Fleetwood were already some faves of mine. Will check out the others though. Thanks alot. I want to buy up all these releases on CD from Amazon.com, but fear that they may be 'remastered' with squashed dynamics. Any actual releases stand-out as high-quality?
 
Arkay said:
I'd also second the John Mayall suggestion, particularly: very good blues(y) music.
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He's called "The Father of British Blues" for good reason. Just check out who's been in his bands; it's a Who's Who of British blues/rock
 
IMO best TYA release is "Cricklewood Green". Re-release on EMI 2002 - remastered plus two bonus tracks. Bonus tracks are usually not good IMO, but these are and fit well within the contect of the CD. Only $6.99 at www.yourmusic.com - it doesn't get any easier, better, or cheaper than this. Awesome stuff.
 
zenith2134 said:
Just let me say that I never, ever knew these guys. I know, very strange. Well, now they are my new favorite band. Woah, and the SQ is amazing. Ten Years After? Thanks a million guys .
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Thank God somebody else has discovered what seems to be some kind of well kept secret. Not in a bad way but more like a fine wine. I don't think it is "strange" to say that you never heard of these guys. I am always amazed at the fact that virtually nobody knows about them or the frontman virtuoso Alvin Lee. SOME of the older music heads of course know about them but even a lot of those guys cant name a song or an album. The radio only recognizes "I'd love to change the world" and most music stores will only stock possibly an "Essential" or "Greatest Hits" bullshit compilation.

Yet here is a band that made albums that for the most part are GREAT from beginning to end. That is if you like electric blues with a dash of psychedelia. They kind of fizzled out like a lot of bands around 1974 falling victim to a more polished, over produced, radio rock, type style that was being pushed by the record companies in hope of remaining trendy and competative with Glitter Rock, and Disco a bit later. So in my opinion everything they did is great up until "Positive Vibrations"

Now all through the decades Alvin Lee has kept various projects going including Ten Years Later which is no relation to the band other than himself. Still some of this stuff is worth a spin. The original band has also reformed several times. I saw them in a 1988 reunion. I know they did at least one of the Woodstock reunions in the late 90's or so. Last I saw the present form about a month ago as they kicked off a small world tour with a new album and unfortunatly a new frontman. Alvin Lee is gone and a young fellow named Joe Gooch does the best he can at having the impossible energy of Alvin Lee. I still had a great time! Bassist Leo Lyons is kind of the main attraction now that Alvin is gone. He all but handed me his pick just before breaking into "I'm Going Home" in which he does little more than BEAT the bass the whole time. I have already posted all of the concert talk so I will leave it here.

Once again welcome to a world of Britich Blues you will have a SUPER time exploring!!
 
The Groundhogs - superb blues/rock from the UK. Seek out their late 60s & early 70s albums:

Scratching The Surface
Blues Obituary
Thank Christ For The Bomb *
Split *
Live At Leeds (live) *
Who Will Save The World

* = most highly recommended
 
A Space In Time is a great LP. Ten years after songs cover quite a variety of music styles, a little jazzy, rock and blues. I also like Climax Blues Band, Jack Back and The Heart Attack, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
 
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Starrider1 hit the nail on the head in saying that TYA covered a lot of musical styles. That is one of the things I love about them. It's like Rock, and Blues with some twists of Jazz and Psycedelia. THE perfect recipee!!

Now Mystic mentioned the Groundhogs. I laughed when a member told me about this band just because of the name. I thought he was BSng me. Not at all. He sent me a couple of CD's and the stuff was VERY interesting to say the least. A little less Bluesy than TYA. More on the HEAVY psychedelia side. Loads of fuzzed out, FAR out guitar rock.
 
TYA put out an album around 1987 called "About Time" that is pretty good also. They were one of my first real concerts at The old Baltomore CC in the early 70's. Those were the days.....:smoke::smoke::smoke:
 
Ten Years After Recorded Live is an excellent choice for any TYA collection.

Unfortunately, they removed The Hobbit from the first issue of the CD... it's
found on a later import version tho...

Scott
 
I too have discovered the pleasures of TYA via vinyl over the past few months. I often find I have the riff to Good Morning Little School Girl spinning through my head.
 
jkmcc said:
I too have discovered the pleasures of TYA via vinyl over the past few months. I often find I have the riff to Good Morning Little School Girl spinning through my head.
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Leo Lyons played a mean bass. :thmbsp:
 
gearhead said:
Leo Lyons played a mean bass. :thmbsp:
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Correction, Leo Lyons PLAYS a mean bass! It was wild watching Leo do a kind of riff duel between himself and the new frontman. You see Leo is now gray headed and around 60, and still giving this kid a real run for his money. By the kid I mean Alvin Lee's replacement Joe Gooch. To give credit where credit is due Joe can play Alvins licks real slick. The band also does some post Alvin songs that are good as well. Playing Alvin and being Alvin are of course impossible and I guess it would be a bit like being in a cover band for Joe to imitate Alvin.

It is so great to still be able to see acts like this do the magic that just seems to be missing from MOST bands/music today. To me its like the older guys were REAL musicians. Maybe its because many of the greats from the 50's-60's were trained or influenced by Jazz (especially drummers),Blues, and later early Rock and Roll like Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry ect...These are the sounds they built their sound on. Pretty good base! Now younger musicians dont have quite as clear of a path to follow. The magic I get is the way many bands did their live jams. The extended hypnotic backbeat with a monolithic guitar part that wasnt just boring and redundant but instead kept building and building. For TYA "I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes" (live) would be a good example.

Another good example of musicians that have that magic about them is three guys named Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, and Eric Clapton-Cream

The only modern bands I find even remotely interesting usually seem to be heavily influenced by the old school. Monster Magnet is a good hard rock/psyche example. They are influenced by Blue Cheer, and The MC5.
 
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