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http://www.alvinlee.com/

He went home by helicopter . . .

RIP Alvin

RIP Alvin one of the greatest ever, I proudly own his entire collection of music with Ten Years After and solo, and bootlegs with Mick Taylor

Really sad!!

BTW. he was active and rocking the blues 'til the end

:Youmakeagrownmancrylikejoey

Oh no. That sucks. He was still playing pretty regularly I think. That really bums me out. Love Alvin and TYA. Rip Mr Lee. :'(

Woody is also in his album "On the Road to Freedom" not just playing but is the author of the song "Let'em say what they will"

I don't know Alvin Lee or TYA...but suffice to say, from posts, and links I have just found,
he was very well regarded
as a musician on these boards and in the music community.

RIP Alvin Lee

He was one of the greats!
RIP Alvin. :keithpunky

wow i'm crushed. just was listening to the live at the fillmore east set last night. amazing guitarist. on the road to freedom one of my all time favorite lps. thank you mr lee for all the great music.

My God. I love Alvin Lee. I still listen to that In Flight CD you made me Voo.

Very sad news indeed.
RIP Alvin Lee

I only had pleasure of seeing him play live one time, but it was
from right on the stage in Jersey City, NJ, in August of 1975.

I did not get meet him or the band, but I did get to meet
and have some heinys with the Lynyrd Skynyrd band.

Also I got invited to join a party by the lead singer of another band on this day,
who was there to watch some other guitarist play.

Listen a whole show of Alvin with Mick Taylor here or click the image below or the header

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/gliedo/i3-alvinleewmicktaylor_zps5608ab88.jpg

TomL wrote on Mar 6^th, 2013 at 12:57pm:

My God. I love Alvin Lee. I still listen to that In Flight CD you made me Voo.

Yes! I do remember sending that one

If you want to listen just one album showing Alvin at his best listen the above mentioned (by mojoman) "Live at the Fillmore East" double set, it is even better than his masterpiece "Recorded Live"

Got to confess, never saw him live on stage! :stinkypost

Can't believe it, in '69 I was playing SH-H-H_h album over & over when it came out, truly a loss of a great guitarist.
http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2013/03/06/alvin-lee-rock-guitarist-for-ten-years-after-dead-at-68

I caught him once in about 1982, still with his trademark ES-335 and white clogs. It was at a tiny place called Painter's Mill Star Theater north of Baltimore. Opened with One of the These Days, through Love Like a Man and all his great tunes, then closed with I'm Going Home. Hadn't lost a lick of his famous flash.

:sad

Im very shocked and saddened by this news. Alvin was a great guitarist, and TYA a great band.
I too wore out his 69 album SH-H-H_h.

Damn........
I have loved All his stuff for a very long time.......
I hate to see this............
"I'm writing you a letter".......one of my personal faves!
When I leave work I, to the "questioning of the younguns", Like to say
"I'm Going Home by Helicopter!"
RIP Alvin Lee one true Rock and Roller!
:sad

Alvin Lee of Ten Years After Dead at 68
Guitarist and singer had complications from surgery

Alvin Lee of Ten Years After.
Simon Ritter/Redferns
March 6, 2013 2:05 PM ET

Alvin Lee of Ten Years After died today from complications after from a recent surgery. He was 68. "With great sadness we have to announced that Alvin unexpectedly passed away early this morning after unforeseen complications following a routine surgical procedure," reads a message on his website.

Lee was born in Nottingham, England and played with the Jaybirds in the early Sixties. He helped form a new band in the mid-Sixties, and in 1966, the group took on the Ten Years After moniker. The band played the Newport Jazz Festival in 1969, which was the first time the event had featured rock artists. They played the inaugural Woodstock festival that year, and left a lasting impression as Lee led the band in "I'm Going Home."

From the Archives: Alvin Lee's Long Road to Freedom

Woodstock brought the band to a wider audience, spurring hits such as 1970's "Love Like a Man" and 1971's "I'd Love to Change the World," but it also set in motion the group's eventual unraveling.

"We'd play the old Fillmore and be able to just play," Lee told Rolling Stone in February 1975. "We had respectful audiences then who would appreciate a jam or a swing. But after Woodstock, the audience got very noisy and only wanted to hear things like 'I'm Going Home.' I've always been much more of a guitar picker but I began to feel forced into a position of being the epitome of a rock & roll guitarist. Originally TYA wanted to make it without having to compromise to pop. It worked for a while but after five or six years the fun went out of it for me, a lot of the music went out of it."

Lee left the band in 1973 to focus on his solo career. That year, he and Mylon Le Fevre released On the Road to Freedom, which featured collaborations with the Beatles' George Harrison, Steve Winwood, the Rolling Stones' Ronnie Wood and Fleetwood Mac's Mick Fleetwood.

Lee continued to release albums throughout his life. His latest, Still on the Road to Freedom, came out last year. No funeral plans have been announced.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/alvin-lee-of-ten-years-after-dead-at-68-20130306#ixzz2Mnoe4SWQ
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

I remember buying this album when it came out, I was on acid, & I thought it was seagulls when this song starts, only it's actually cats.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdDX2hr_b38&playnext=1&list=PLB0BE4D00EBED0F23&feature=results_video

RIP Alvin Lee. I will have to check out his music.

To do that just click the header; two of the best axemen rocking together, Alvin Lee and Mick Taylor

During that tour they were the opening act for Black Sabbath :stinkypost :forfucksake

Voodoo Chile in Wonderland wrote on Mar 6^th, 2013 at 1:33pm:

If you want to listen just one album showing Alvin at his best listen the above mentioned (by mojoman) "Live at the Fillmore East" double set, it is even better than his masterpiece "Recorded Live"

Yep Voo, these are among my all time fav albums too.
And yes, what the late great George Harrison said: "Alvin plays Chuck Berry guitar better than Chuck does."

RIP Alvin.

Yes philgood, and George Harrison is also on Alvin's "On the Road to Freedom" and same as Woody, playing and composing on one track, in this case "So sad (no love of his own)"

Alvin Lee was the first artist I see with my brother about 1970. I was teen.
He was so amazing and yes, he was one of the greatest ever, still playing till the end of his career.
I dont got no albums of him. I would one live .. but right now cant afford anything.

Voo why dont made me one of his best in a simple cd? I'd love.

Rip Alvin. :(

Cricklewood Green.
Alvin Lee & Company
In Flight

A Space in Time

Alvin Lee is R'n'R hero
here's my tribute.
I saw in 1981 in Rome, the same tour Gerardo have just link it... to me, at 17, was shocked to to see a show of Alvin Lee and MICK TAYLOR together...
my best album was A SPACE IN TIME, i'm listening it in loop since that concert!
RIP my hero!

Listening to A Space In Time. One of my favs off it. I'v Been There Too. In Flight is next.

Fabio!!! YOu really rock my friend! Lucky bastard, you saw Mick and Alvin together! FYF :willya Did you see them opening for Black Sabbath or just The Alvin Lee band featuring Mick Taylor????

Listening Cricklewood Green while resizing your tribute art and changing the header!!

Thanks everyone for your words, Rocks Off is making a humble but very nice deserved tribute to one of the greatest axemen!

Hope those who don't know or don't like Alvin are ok with another day of Alvin header, if you don't know Alvin do yourself a favour and "lick" the header to listen Alvin with Mick Taylor

BTW... this was the first header in his honor, don't know the author, I took them from bootlegs cover art

Muchas gracias Gerardo!
anyway I saw The Alvin Lee band featuring Mick Taylor in 1981
thanks again my friend and may the good lord shine a light in honour of a great musician

Fabio - your drawings always amaze me -- you have a great talent.

I have trouble with stick figures.

nankerphelge wrote on Mar 8^th, 2013 at 8:11am:

Fabio - your drawings always amaze me -- you have a great talent.

I have trouble with stick figures.

? what exactly is a sticky figures ?

RIP

I'm going to listen some Ten Years After stuff, soon. I'm a neophyite, because I know them only through the Woodstock movie. But what I saw was great.

RIP Alvin! I have heard several guitar players say they try to copy his good style. People respected his abilities.

Going Home: A Tribute To Alvin Lee
Michael Leonard

03.08.2013
Alvin Lee

English blues-rock guitarist Alvin Lee, who unexpectedly died on March 6, was an underappreciated artist in many ways. He became worldwide famous for his band’s Ten Years After’s performance at Woodstock in 1969 and subsequent hits followed… but Lee always lived in the shadow of what Ten Years After played at Woodstock, "I'm Going Home.” Before, they were unknowns. After, Ten Years After were stars.

Lee was also unfortunate, perhaps, in having to follow in the footsteps of fellow Brit-blues legends Eric Clapton and Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green. Clapton, Green and Lee were all exceptional lead guitarists, all born 1944-’46, but Lee was the latest of the three to the British blues party.

Not that Lee was any less-dedicated. He started on clarinet, inspired by Benny Goodman. By his early teens, he had a guitar and made a career choice. “I decided at 13 or 14 I was going to be a musician and so school was just something to get out of the way, a waste of time and not to bother with it.”

With Ten Years After, Lee upped the ante for Brit-blues guitar. He was not only a scholar of American blues pioneers, but also jazz. “Through my dad's record collection,” Lee recalled. “I was brought up listening to chain gang songs, Muddy Waters and Big Bill Broonzy. That was always kind of just playing around the house. [But] my dad had a collection of the jazz stuff too, and the blusiest stuff I liked—Meade Lux Lewis, the boogie woogie piano and the stuff out of New Orleans.”

With Ten Years After, Lee was soon dubbed “the fastest guitarist alive”, but the tag sat uncomfortably with him. “I never really tried to play fast. It kind of developed from the adrenaline rush of the hundreds of gigs I did long before Woodstock. They called me ‘Captain Speedfingers’ and such, but I didn't take it seriously. There were many guitarists faster than me -- Django Reinhardt, Barney Kessel, John McLaughlin and Joe Pass to name a few.”

With fame and money, Ten Years After sped into the ‘70s. Lee bought himself a mansion and installed a recording studio. But he started partying too hard. "We would be in the studio for three days at a time non-stop," he told the Nottingham Post, "and I don't think we recorded anything worth keeping that whole two years." By 1974, Ten Years After were worn out, and Lee - emerging from rehab – was ready to start again.

Although famous for his blues-rock licks, Lee was versatile. "I have tended to play a lot of styles through the years," he told Brutrarian Quarterly. "I did a solo album with Mylon LeFevre [1973] which was really quite country.” Lee was not short of admirers. His On the Road to Freedom album with Levre included contributions from George Harrison, Ronnie Wood, Steve Winwood and Mick Fleetwood.

Lee played with the Earl Scruggs Revue in 1976. “They were kind," Lee recalled, "but you have to go in and fill your space carefully." Lee also played with Jerry Lee Lewis.

By the 1980s, Lee was searching for a place to fit his exceptional talent. He went to Spain, where he studied Flamenco guitar. He made solo albums beloved by his fans - one of his best later albums, Alvin Lee in Tennessee, featured two of his rock'n'roll heroes from the 1950s, Elvis Presley's original sidemen Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana. boogie pianist Willie Rainsford, also on the sessions, had to reign-in some of Lee’s hard rock instincts. "He told me to take the funny, distorted sound off of my guitar, and not play so fast," Lee remembered. "He said, 'Alvin, you always play faster than I can listen.'"

In later years, Lee heeded Rainsford’s words. "The passion is there but it takes different forms," he explained in the 2000s. "I used to kind of give 150% adrenaline and possibly lacked a bit of taste in my younger days. So, the difference now is that I'm probably more controlled, a little more in the groove."

Alvin Lee’s “Big Red”

The guitar most-associated with Lee was his modified red Gibson ES-335. He had a single-coil pickup installed for extra tonal options, and it became his trademark. Gibson honoured his work on a 335 with a signature model, complete with “peace” stickers

Lee told Guitar World in 2012, “That all came about because of Pat Foley at Gibson. He asked me if I'd be interested, and I said of course, it’s a great compliment. So he came over to England to photograph and measure Big Red, and Gibson pretty much took it from there. I had no involvement until I got the first prototype. Then I made a few changes, which resulted in my getting several more prototypes. Now I’ve got a whole bunch of them -- a gaggle of Gibsons.”

Lee’s Legacy

Lee played guitar to his premature end. He picked up a guitar “every day,” he said in 2012, and was looking forward to new projects. He was due to play with Johnny Winter in March 2013.

For many, Lee always be defined by “I’m Going Home” at Woodstock in 1969, a bravura performance of boundary-pushing guitar. But Lee knew the cost of early fame, too.

“It wasn't until the Woodstock movie came out that it all changed for us. Some people say it was the start of Ten Years After, but in another way, it was the beginning of the end.”

Alvin Lee remained a very talented player. Before Woodstock, here’s Lee blazing on Ten Years After’s version of “Spoonful.”
http://www2.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/Going-Home-A-Tribute-To-Alvin-Lee.aspx?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Gibson%20Guitar%20Corp.&utm_content=Editorial+eBlast+-+March+12%2C+2013

RIP a true showman "Ten Years After"

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http://rocksoff.org/cgi-bin/messageboard/YaBB.pl GENERAL >> MAIN BOARD >> Alvin Lee RIP http://rocksoff.org/cgi-bin/messageboard/YaBB.pl?num=1362587772 Message started by Zack on Mar 6^th, 2013 at 10:36am