Ten Years After - Cricklewood Green

Ten Years After is one of those bands a lot of people know about, but don't really know much about. At least that was the case for me. Alvin Lee, is a name I knew of, but much like the band I couldn't really name more than a song ... which I'll name later, likely a couple of times. They were kind of like Status Quo in that regard. Yeah I know I'm a Luddite, but cut me some slack, this stuff was just a tad before my time. I may be getting old but I'm not that old ... yet.

Sill I do like a lot of the late '60s and early to mid-70s jam bands. As it happened I was out and about looking around a record store I'd not been to very often. They had a back wall lined with dollar records (I'm cheap). This wall didn't have that much going for it as it was chock full of showtunes and a lot of questionable stuff (maybe one day I'll by an Al Jolson album, but I'm kind of on the fence), but in the midst of all this nonsense I managed to score a couple of albums I was pretty stoked to take home and clean up. The first was Ian Thomas' debut - the one with "Painted Ladies" and the other one, was this one, the one I'm playing at the moment, a well loved copy of Cricklewood Green that had seen better days, but there's not as much snap and crackle as I'd feared, but more than I had hoped.

I've gone through it a couple of times now, and it's a decent listen but nothing has really gotten under my skin that just screams classic. I suppose I was expecting songs like "I'd Love To Change The World" instead Cricklewood Green is steeped in blues rock. Although "Year 3,000 Blues" is a country song that features a strangely out of place guitar part that was sped up ... if it wasn't I'll apologize to Mr. Lee - but that's not a natural sound. Other than that it reminded me of "Act Naturally" all that was missing was Ringo.

There's also what appears to be a strange glitch about a minute in on the second track "Working on the Road" where there's either a bum note, or a weird tape issue on the master, but it quickly passed, but man it was goofy. I went to YouTube and listened to a couple of versions, including the remaster, and it's there on all of them. Maybe it was Andy John's taking the piss to see who'd notice. For all that a really decent song, but not a classic.

I am partial to "50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain" from side one, that pushes eight minutes. As the song went on the band seemed to morph into The Rolling Stones, then it started to sound a bit like "Sympathy for the Devil" which isn't entirely accurate, but I can't shake the vibe. The song fades out, and then fades in again, only to fade out. Nice little fake out. Again, really decent, but just not mind blowing.

The second side, is more of the same, and features another seven minute jam in "Love Like a Man" that's good fun, and then there's the song "Circles" that was probably the closest to sounding like the band who a couple years later would drop "I'd Love To Change Your World." Decent and all, but the song isn't in the same league. The album closes out with a psychedelic blues trip "As the Sun Still Burns Away" that put a little cherry on top of the album.

The band was Alvin Lee on guitar and vocals, and Ric Lee (not related) on drums, with Leo Lyons on bass and Chick Churchill on keyboards. For Cricklewood Green, the band recorded the album at Olympic Studios and Andy Johns engineered the album, except for the first track on side two "Me and My Baby" which was handled by George Chkiantz.

There's a reason Alvin Lee is held in high esteem as a player. He's a monster, and he along with the rest of the band were right in the pocket throughout the album. I am partial to the first side, but really at under forty minutes it's not a chore to get up and turn the album over.

While this may not get a lot of heavy play, it was definitely a good score. Even if the songs don't seem to level up, this is a better than average blues jam. 

Next time I have a hankering for early '70s blues rock, this will certainly scratch that itch.