-- Ten Years After - Undead | (Audio CD) MSRP $ 11.98 Amazon Price $ 11.98 Savings $ 0.00 | |  Release Date: 25 October, 1990, Polygram Records
TRACK LISTING - I May Be Wrong, But I Won`t Be Wrong Always
- At the Woodchopper`s Ball
- Spider in My Web
- Summertime (Into Shantung Cabbage)
- I`m Going Home
Usually ships in 24 hours | | | The Undead Are Very Much A"Live" | | Back in the late 60`s we started seeing rock music change from the 3 minute a song to see bands start stretching out and experimenting with different formats of music. Ten Years After are the perfect example of this. You could tell on this particular album that our boy Alvin loved his blues and jazz to mix with his scorching rock. Woody Herman would be turning over in his grave if he new his beloved 1939 song `Woodchoppers Ball" was being turned into some of the fastest guitar gymnatics ever made. And speaking of gymnastsics, all of these young sods from England could flat out play. Leo Lyons delivers what I consider STILL the best bass solo I`ve ever heard, on the opener "I May Be Wrong". Chick Churchill plays some of the fastest, funkiest organ passages that anybody on the keys dares do. And Ric Lee tears up the skins with a never boring drum solo on the 1935 George Gershwin song "Summertime". I`m sure Georgy would just love this one. You also get on here, some slow blues with "Spider in my Web. And then what`s became a staple of their live shows "I`m Going Home". The 3 minute song was not on these lads minds when they took the stage. They were too inventive for that. They each had something to say with their instruments. They were young, wild and daring in the beginning. More so than on later live albums. I like this one the best, because you always play better when your hungry. | | | | One of the best Blues albums of all time!! | Most people have only heard "I`d love to change the world" by Ten years after, and when you say "blues" in the same sentence as "ten years after" most people get a quizical look on their face, the simple truth is that they were a blues band that evolved into a blues/Rock band.
This live album Perfectly demonstrates this point.
My personal favorites on this recording are "goin home", "woodchoppers ball", and "I may be wrong, but I wont be wrong always".
Alvin lee`s guitar playing is some of the fastest you will ever hear, especially on "goin home" and woodchopper`s ball".
the rhythm section deserves a medal for keeping up with Lee.
they are all skilled musicians and deliver some great drum and bass solos.
all together this is an album that all blues lovers and guitar players should own, and if you`ve only heard "I`d love to change the world",you owe it to yourself to hear the best of their stuff. | | | | The Greatest Jazz Guitar Album In The World | | After releasing their debut album and earning a reputation as an earth-shattering live band, Ten Years After decided to record their second album, UNDEAD, in a small club in England called Klooks Kleek (it was not recorded at The Marquee Club, as many people seem to think). It amply demonstrates the uncanny stamina of the band in concert. This is primarily a jazz album, except for one song, the slow blues "Spider In My Web". All the other songs are pure jazz, and Lee plays them so damn good that you almost begin to wonder if the guy was born with a guitar in his hands! I`m telling you - no other guitarist in the world has ever played jazz like Lee does on this album. The best example, of course, is "At The Woodchopper`s Ball", in which the boys take Woody Herman`s jazz classic and turn it into a breathless jamming extravaganza. Just listen to those guitar licks, unbelievable or what?! Alvin`s playing is so fast, smooth and fluid that you simply can`t help but marvel at him. And if you listen closely, after Churchill`s organ solo, he even inserts a few guitar lines from "Rock Around The Clock"! But with all due respect to Bill Haley, he could never match this in his wildest dreams. Anyway, Leo Lyons is also given a bass solo, although it`s nothing spectacular (I`m MUCH more fascinated by the way he thumps his instrument on the Woodstock version of "I`m Going Home"). But you hardly even get a chance to contemplate his bass before Alvin comes back and rips into it one more time for the grand finale. AWESOME!
No other song on the album could hope to beat that masterpiece of jamming, but they do come awful close. "I May Be Wrong, But I Won`t Be Wrong Always" also swings pretty good, and once again, Alvin plays some killer licks and Churchill and Lyons are each given a chance to solo (you could never accuse Alvin of hogging the spotlight). The slow blues tune "Spider In My Web" shows Alvin taking a page out of Eric Clapton`s book and delivering some stunning blues work. That is, until it comes time for the solo, when he just freaks out and starts playing a thousand notes per second!
"Summertime" is a trip, with some rather psychedelic guitar licks. And it segues into Ric Lee`s drum tour-de-force "Shantung Cabbage". Ric is definitely a very underrated drummer, and he proves it here. I just love the way he wails on that snare drum.
And last, but certainly not least, is "I`m Going Home". While not nearly as mind-blowing as the Woodstock version, it`s still quite good. VERY good, in fact. The intro alone is fabulous, as Alvin introduces some blazing notes before the rest of the band follows him and starts to get a killer groove going. Perfect way to end a perfect album. Ride on, Mr. Lee! | | |
-- zzzz
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