I have loved Alvin Lee since Woodstock, obviously it wasn't the first time he played Im GoinG Home then, but it wasn't the last either... What a guitarist, harmonica player, singer and performer this man is. Rolling Stones Mag. is way outer space when then don't even mention Alvin Lee .... qu'y mange d'la marde !!
Glad I came across this. Alvin Lee was the best performer at Woodstock yet the Hall of Shame ignores him. Johnny Rotten was so on point about the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, all about the money
I was 16 years old and in the Bahamas on vacation in 1970. There was no drinking age back then and me being a large man for my age got in without question. I was sipping a beer and trying to look cool with my mate another young lad from Montreal. There was a solid rock cover band laying it out. In walks a man with shoulder length hair wearing a green t-shirt with a big letter T over the left breast. T as in Tennessee (University of). He produces a big red Gibson ES-335 from out of nowhere and joins the band. Over the next hour and a half they jammed and he wailed on that big red guitar. The crowd was stunned but sat riveted until the band left the stage about 2 AM after several encores. Six months later and I am home in Indiana watching the movie Woodstock when I realize the lad in the green T was none other than Alvin Lee who liked to vacation in the islands. No pretense, no bullshit, just plugin and cook. I saw him many more times over the years and always came away with a glad heart. Godspeed sweet prince, RIP for a job well done. The world is a little grayer without Alvin in it.
for my life the best guitar player in its class. and making the full sound with 3 people how cool is that ..just excellent. picking the bass and drum guys is also a task to fill in the gaps. this is when you show you got it.
The absolute and undisputed king of the 1/16th note! There's a reason that Alvin Lee for years sported the two nicknames "Captain Speedfingers" and "Fastest Guitar In The West."
alvin was totally underestimated as blues guitar man: i was lucky to meet and photograph him in late 60s. a great guy with no pretensions. shame same cannot be said for todays so called rock musicians.
The man is still rocking on. But of course Woodstock will never be equaled. That was a once in a lifetime performance and he mastered it . Rock on Alvin.
I'm STONED as you say and this is so freaking awesome that it really doesn't matter what state of mind Alvin or I may be in . BADASS ALL THE WAY . LISTEN to it stoned and listen to it straight . You tell me which sounds better . GREAT is GREAT no matter what state of mind one is in . PERIOD !!!!!!!!!
Alvin and Johnny could both outplay Hendrix any day of the week. Johnny was at Woodstock and they filmed him too, but didn't include him in the final cut. We had to suffer through Sha Na Na instead. On the Woodstock movie it was clear to me that Alvin Lee was the best guitarist in the movie.
I'm 70 now and saw him in the beginning in Boston. In a dirty cellar would be the best to describe it. No chairs and a few mattress dark and dinghy. It was named the Rath Skeller in Kenmore Square. The people called it the Rats Cellar. Wasn't meany people many 100-200. I was shocked he was there. I don't think it was advertised and don't remember how I found about it. Would love to know the back story of the show.
On the 70´s on Rithmn & Blues and Rolling Stone top 5 was : 1 Jimi - 2º & 3º Alvin L /Ritchie B- 4º Rory G - 5º Eric C (curiously Eric was refered as the fastest) This was the top 5 on mid 70´s .
This version has everything and the kitchen sink too. I noticed that in his latter years he toned this piece down a bit . Slowing it in places and having the backup play softer. Those years of scremin' and screachin' must have taken a toll. Still the penultimate rock n roller and the ultimate rock n roll tune since the genre' began with Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee, and Elvis. It just don't get no better........ still and probably for always and ever. It all came full circle with Alvin Lee and Ten Years After.
By 1995 if he played the thing at the pace he did in the late 1960s he might have had the old fans dropping like flies. lol There are very few high energy acts that can sustain them once they hit forty or so. There voices can't be abused the way they were when in their twenties, but they become better musicians as a rule. I'm amazed he had the voice left he had when this was made, because he sounds very good. I haven't seen Brian Johnson of AC/DC live in several years, but I'm willing to be if he sings without enhancement his voice is ragged as hell. David Lee Roth did some similar things with his voice, and he would scare people at church these days. Alvin sounds really good to my ear, but appeared to know his limitations at this time.
Azznbad I agree ; gettin' old is a bitch ! I remember when I turned 40 or shortly thereafter; loud music started to bother me and I'm a loud rocking guitar player (or I was anyway). I picked up the acoustic guitar and have been with it ever since. Not that I started playing mellower music ; I just wasn't interested in knocking a wall out anymore. It became very difficult to enjoy a Ted Nugent concert (this was before his political ranting). I had to sit in the back. Alvin was never the loudest but he was always one of the best. You have to have a certain youthful energy to play that kind of music otherwise you are just going through the motions. While you become more seasoned, polished, technically adept, you loose a lot of the 'natural' energy. It happened to every band I can name ; The Dead, The Stones ; you name it ; they all lost that edginess at some point but there was still the music. As with all cycles or phases of life ; it becomes more nostalgic than pertinent. :You just end up remembering the glory days (and in your mind , it's just as good as it ever was).
Well all of us loose our edge, or perhaps we just become more brain driven than hormone driven. I still crank it up and feel it when I do, but I'm as apt these days to have a talk show on the radio as I am Pink Floyd. There was something in those tunes that we needed at the time and I suspect it is in the music of every generation, and as we age we need it less but still want it. I was a Point Blank show recently and at 56 there were probably an equal number of folks older and younger than me but the age range was pretty narrow mid forties to mid sixties. The basic difference in the crowd there from the ones when I saw the band in the seventies was that after the band rocked out, instead of looking for a place to party, most were going home to go to bed. lol The band on the other hand. who know fairly well. isn't the party animals they were in the past but they still have an edge perhaps because they were right on the heels of the big bands back then and the Skynyrd plane crash cost them the tour that they were counting on to move them up with the monster bands. I think the bands you mentioned have had their acts on auto pilot for a decade and a half and the stones on particular just love the money coming in. One act that amazes me though is Paul McCartney. The man is 73 years old, has more money than most banana republics and schedules a world tour where he plays three hour sets. The roar of the crowd must draw them to the stage like their music drew us there. At least things haven't gone the way the old people said it would when I was a kid. They told me that when I got older I would be listen to Laurence Whelk, and more normal music. I think many would be amazed that the music is still around and probably more amazed that most of us are. lol
Azznbad We are listening to Lawrence Welk ; it's just that Pink Floyd is our version of Lawrence Welk. (Don't take that wrong ; I'm a Floyd fan and in particular a David Gilmour fan). Believe it or not there are people alive today who consider Pink Floyd to be ancient history. Despite the fact that it is some of the most innovative music to ever grace the planet. Those same people would consider a half hour long live jam onstage to be a snooze. Even we look back nostalgically. One's perspective ; I suppose.
HotshotGTar I can't disagree for the most part, but I will submit that the music of the sixties and seventies is being recycled by more young bands by far than was the case in the past, Now that may have been stupidity on the part of our generation but I hear tons of it redone. Some isn't bad, and some sucks. That may be due to the fact that more of it is available for younger people to listen to. In our day you had to go dig up some old 78s and listen through the scratches. Every generation though puts out great music as well as popular junk that is hot for a month and never heard from. We won't live long enough to know how history treats any of the music that was played in our time, but I suspect the rock era will be treated kindly. The 80s maybe not so much, but the 90s again came up with new and very good bands. Ever group of kids thinks their time is somehow special, and everyone of them is right. As long as kids want something that is a little edgy but also remember where it all started there will be good music to listen to.
While Woodstock was THE performance, frantic and spontaneous..THIS performance shoes Alvin with much better chops and control, and his voice is as good or better than in 69... YES, this is more planned, a bit slower, but what do expect after playing your key stage song for over 40 years..? At least he doesn't sound like a hollow shell of once was. RIP I saw you live at the Filmore a few times...I remember your pre-Woodstock closer HELP ME!!
Whoever thought we'd have to rely on the Brits to keep American Blues alive and well? Disgraceful. Saw 10 Years After (Alvin Lee) with Grand Funk Railroad in the Cumberland County North Carolina Auditorium in 70's. Was there with 1,000 or so other paratroopers from 82nd Airborne Division in nearby Fort Bragg. To say the brought the house down would be an understatement.
I agree ......who plays better then that?!!!!!! I think half the rolling stone list of best guitarists was based on sales or song writing or something OTHER than just guitar playing
Imagine you're trying to eat a meal and every two to three seconds the plate is pulled out from under you. This is what it's like looking at some of these music videos. 50% of enjoying the music is studying the artists technigue. How in blazes can that be if all you're allowed is 3 second snipits of the action? Either most viewers have the attention spans of simpletons or these editors need to go back to video school. A damn good performance is f ' ed up.
Ground cloves makes us old party animals feel much better 1 tablespoon in the morning and 1 at night or spread it out over the day it makes your arthritis pain and bad stomach issues vanish eaven my head feels much better try it
More than Ten Years after ten years after this song is still bad-ass! R.I.P Alvin!
I have loved Alvin Lee since Woodstock, obviously it wasn't the first time he played Im GoinG Home then, but it wasn't the last either... What a guitarist, harmonica player, singer and performer this man is. Rolling Stones Mag. is way outer space when then don't even mention Alvin Lee .... qu'y mange d'la marde !!
Ten years after Alvin lee Woodstock! One of the best guitar performances ever. No gimicks straight kick ass guitar playing!!!!!!!
Alvin Lee... one of the greatest PURE guitar players in rock history. No toys, no filler, just a man, a guitar and an amp. RIP
Love u 💕
Glad I came across this. Alvin Lee was the best performer at Woodstock yet the Hall of Shame ignores him. Johnny Rotten was so on point about the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, all about the money
It's a great jam to drive fast home to.
Life without blues ain’t life at all !
Gonna miss you Alvin !
Thanks for my teenage years and beyond !
Tears in my house tonight, too !
Alvin one of the best guitar player ever and his style not easy to play.
still can not believe he's gone, will be sorely missed..
Brilliant Alvin..
I was 16 years old and in the Bahamas on vacation in 1970. There was no drinking age back then and me being a large man for my age got in without question. I was sipping a beer and trying to look cool with my mate another young lad from Montreal. There was a solid rock cover band laying it out.
In walks a man with shoulder length hair wearing a green t-shirt with a big letter T over the left breast. T as in Tennessee (University of). He produces a big red Gibson ES-335 from out of nowhere and joins the band. Over the next hour and a half they jammed and he wailed on that big red guitar. The crowd was stunned but sat riveted until the band left the stage about 2 AM after several encores.
Six months later and I am home in Indiana watching the movie Woodstock when I realize the lad in the green T was none other than Alvin Lee who liked to vacation in the islands. No pretense, no bullshit, just plugin and cook. I saw him many more times over the years and always came away with a glad heart. Godspeed sweet prince, RIP for a job well done.
The world is a little grayer without Alvin in it.
HA I WAS 13 NOT 14 IN BELGRADE 1983, BUT HELL OF A STORY FOR 14 YEARS OLD BOY !!!i was born 1970, when you was on that concert.
This is one of these songs that will be played and listen to forever ...Thanks for sharing this video
One of the fastest guitarists in the world! Alvin Lee
for my life the best guitar player in its class. and making the full sound with 3 people how cool is that ..just excellent. picking the bass and drum guys is also a task to fill in the gaps. this is when you show you got it.
Never got the same recognition as the other blues guitarists of the 60's
The absolute and undisputed king of the 1/16th note! There's a reason that Alvin Lee for years sported the two nicknames "Captain Speedfingers" and "Fastest Guitar In The West."
alvin was totally underestimated as blues guitar man: i was lucky to meet and photograph him in late 60s. a great guy with no pretensions. shame same cannot be said for todays so called rock musicians.
The man is still rocking on. But of course Woodstock will never be equaled. That was a once in a lifetime performance and he mastered it . Rock on Alvin.
У меня просто нет слов... Не могу поверить... Надеялся побывать на концерте... Уходит, уходит Эпоха.
RIP
Que guitarrista tan extraordinario fue este señor y fue ya que se nos adelanto saludos desde Padierna Tlalpan Cdmx
I agree.He was(died this year) one of the best!!
Rest in Peace YOU Woodstock Legend....
RIP Alvin. Im sure his rocking with his red es335 up in heaven.
Alvin Lee!! colocando toda energia com o seu estilo rápido de tocar a sua guitarra...
If there is a more incendiary guitar riff in history PLEASE POST IT HERE! The world will love you for it cuz this one rocks like none other.
Great!!! Super Legend!!!! Love!!!!
На это можно смотреть бесконечно!
I'm STONED as you say and this is so freaking awesome that it really doesn't matter what state of mind Alvin or I may be in . BADASS ALL THE WAY . LISTEN to it stoned and listen to it straight . You tell me which sounds better . GREAT is GREAT no matter what state of mind one is in . PERIOD !!!!!!!!!
Got me into it.. love it ! I'm goin home, see my baby.....
Alvin Lee has soooo much more to offer, but this does rock!!
Alvin Lee - Nuff said.
The only differents between this and the real one in Woodstock is that he is not stoned : D
and he has truly gone home, at 68 we hardly knew ye...God bless
מנוחתו עדן! הלך לעולמו וירטואוז גיטרה ענק!
NO ONE CAN BEAT ALVIN LEE EXCEPT FOR JIMI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I disagree.. Johnny Winter :)
Alvin and Johnny could both outplay Hendrix any day of the week. Johnny was at Woodstock and they filmed him too, but didn't include him in the final cut. We had to suffer through Sha Na Na instead. On the Woodstock movie it was clear to me that Alvin Lee was the best guitarist in the movie.
oh yeah great memories
i did a show with alvin 1986 boston mass great time
So under-rated.
lived at the rat, you brought up some beautiful memories...Thanks
I'm 70 now and saw him in the beginning in Boston. In a dirty cellar would be the best to describe it. No chairs and a few mattress dark and dinghy. It was named the Rath Skeller in Kenmore Square. The people called it the Rats Cellar. Wasn't meany people many 100-200. I was shocked he was there. I don't think it was advertised and don't remember how I found about it. Would love to know the back story of the show.
My left ear is jealous of my right ear.
indeed...
Beat me to it...by 5 years.
can't beat that woodstock performance, but every performance is different but very good
It's wonderfull!!! Thanks for uploading this historical Video! (Y)
On the 70´s on Rithmn & Blues and Rolling Stone top 5 was : 1 Jimi - 2º & 3º Alvin L /Ritchie B- 4º Rory G - 5º Eric C (curiously Eric was refered as the fastest) This was the top 5 on mid 70´s .
i did a show with alvin lee boston mass 1986
hats off to you my Friend. you were blessed.
This version has everything and the kitchen sink too. I noticed that in his latter years he toned this piece down a bit . Slowing it in places and having the backup play softer. Those years of scremin' and screachin' must have taken a toll. Still the penultimate rock n roller and the ultimate rock n roll tune since the genre' began with Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee, and Elvis. It just don't get no better........ still and probably for always and ever. It all came full circle with Alvin Lee and Ten Years After.
By 1995 if he played the thing at the pace he did in the late 1960s he might have had the old fans dropping like flies. lol There are very few high energy acts that can sustain them once they hit forty or so. There voices can't be abused the way they were when in their twenties, but they become better musicians as a rule. I'm amazed he had the voice left he had when this was made, because he sounds very good. I haven't seen Brian Johnson of AC/DC live in several years, but I'm willing to be if he sings without enhancement his voice is ragged as hell. David Lee Roth did some similar things with his voice, and he would scare people at church these days. Alvin sounds really good to my ear, but appeared to know his limitations at this time.
Azznbad I agree ; gettin' old is a bitch ! I remember when I turned 40 or shortly thereafter; loud music started to bother me and I'm a loud rocking guitar player (or I was anyway). I picked up the acoustic guitar and have been with it ever since. Not that I started playing mellower music ; I just wasn't interested in knocking a wall out anymore. It became very difficult to enjoy a Ted Nugent concert (this was before his political ranting). I had to sit in the back.
Alvin was never the loudest but he was always one of the best. You have to have a certain youthful energy to play that kind of music otherwise you are just going through the motions. While you become more seasoned, polished, technically adept, you loose a lot of the 'natural' energy. It happened to every band I can name ; The Dead, The Stones ; you name it ; they all lost that edginess at some point but there was still the music. As with all cycles or phases of life ; it becomes more nostalgic than pertinent. :You just end up remembering the glory days (and in your mind , it's just as good as it ever was).
Well all of us loose our edge, or perhaps we just become more brain driven than hormone driven. I still crank it up and feel it when I do, but I'm as apt these days to have a talk show on the radio as I am Pink Floyd. There was something in those tunes that we needed at the time and I suspect it is in the music of every generation, and as we age we need it less but still want it. I was a Point Blank show recently and at 56 there were probably an equal number of folks older and younger than me but the age range was pretty narrow mid forties to mid sixties. The basic difference in the crowd there from the ones when I saw the band in the seventies was that after the band rocked out, instead of looking for a place to party, most were going home to go to bed. lol The band on the other hand. who know fairly well. isn't the party animals they were in the past but they still have an edge perhaps because they were right on the heels of the big bands back then and the Skynyrd plane crash cost them the tour that they were counting on to move them up with the monster bands. I think the bands you mentioned have had their acts on auto pilot for a decade and a half and the stones on particular just love the money coming in. One act that amazes me though is Paul McCartney. The man is 73 years old, has more money than most banana republics and schedules a world tour where he plays three hour sets. The roar of the crowd must draw them to the stage like their music drew us there. At least things haven't gone the way the old people said it would when I was a kid. They told me that when I got older I would be listen to Laurence Whelk, and more normal music. I think many would be amazed that the music is still around and probably more amazed that most of us are. lol
Azznbad We are listening to Lawrence Welk ; it's just that Pink Floyd is our version of Lawrence Welk. (Don't take that wrong ; I'm a Floyd fan and in particular a David Gilmour fan). Believe it or not there are people alive today who consider Pink Floyd to be ancient history. Despite the fact that it is some of the most innovative music to ever grace the planet. Those same people would consider a half hour long live jam onstage to be a snooze. Even we look back nostalgically. One's perspective ; I suppose.
HotshotGTar I can't disagree for the most part, but I will submit that the music of the sixties and seventies is being recycled by more young bands by far than was the case in the past, Now that may have been stupidity on the part of our generation but I hear tons of it redone. Some isn't bad, and some sucks. That may be due to the fact that more of it is available for younger people to listen to. In our day you had to go dig up some old 78s and listen through the scratches. Every generation though puts out great music as well as popular junk that is hot for a month and never heard from. We won't live long enough to know how history treats any of the music that was played in our time, but I suspect the rock era will be treated kindly. The 80s maybe not so much, but the 90s again came up with new and very good bands. Ever group of kids thinks their time is somehow special, and everyone of them is right. As long as kids want something that is a little edgy but also remember where it all started there will be good music to listen to.
While Woodstock was THE performance, frantic and spontaneous..THIS performance shoes Alvin with much better chops and control, and his voice is as good or better than in 69...
YES, this is more planned, a bit slower, but what do expect after playing your key stage song for over 40 years..?
At least he doesn't sound like a hollow shell of once was.
RIP I saw you live at the Filmore a few times...I remember your pre-Woodstock closer HELP ME!!
Whoever thought we'd have to rely on the Brits to keep American Blues alive and well?
Disgraceful.
Saw 10 Years After (Alvin Lee) with Grand Funk Railroad in the Cumberland County North Carolina Auditorium in 70's.
Was there with 1,000 or so other paratroopers from 82nd Airborne Division in nearby Fort Bragg.
To say the brought the house down would be an understatement.
R.I.P, man! You're going home....
super is this one very good he was .
ajánlom mindenkinek :Live At The Filmore East,dupla CD-ről : Help Me.
Brutálisan jó !!
R:I:P:
Que buen rock de eso años 70s y 80s.
i did a show with alvin 1986 boston mass keithlinscotts
Guitar, bass and drums. more instruments are redundant for good rock-music!!!
The guitar us a Heritage made in the old Kalamazo factory....Is that drummer on valium?
R.I.P ALVIN¡¡
Sorry, this is a long-ago, not too successful my own digitizing VHS that was recorded from TV(mono tv).
I like this version the best. A bit slower and more accurate.
I wonder what guitar he plays. Looks like an Aria Pro!
Alven at his best!!
RIP Alvin.
Good stuff with missing sound!
Alvin Lee + Nikola Tesla = Quasar
Pas mal. Alvin Lee a quand même moins la pêche que quand il était avec les Ten Years After!
I agree ......who plays better then that?!!!!!! I think half the rolling stone list of best guitarists was based on sales or song writing or something OTHER than just guitar playing
Nice Heritage 535!
I believe you.
well, re-do it why doncha?
i meant maybe he is
Clean, Speed
nice, but my left speaker only has a hiss coming out of it....
I think the band was quite good, actually. No, they're not TYA, but they're damned good.
Did Putin make it out to the show?
That time Putin was vice-major of St.-Petersburg and was busy with foreign trade, not with rock'n'roll
What? No watermelons in Russia? Alvin got ripped off.
friggin awesome, better than Woodstock
Secret Dolph Lundgren’s brother
E, qui .. Cia’ manca un simbolo sulla SG …
Who's the bass player?
Steve Gould
vááááááááááááááááááá :)
maybe he who knows? :D
le seul a faire cracher une 335 !!!
Why alvin is dressed like a harley motorcyclist, thats fucking wird
Not a speck of serial!
Imagine you're trying to eat a meal and every two to three seconds the plate is pulled out from under you. This is what it's like looking at some of these music videos. 50% of enjoying the music is studying the artists technigue. How in blazes can that be if all you're allowed is 3 second snipits of the action? Either most viewers have the attention spans of simpletons or these editors need to go back to video school. A damn good performance is f ' ed up.
charles smith we were all on drugs back then, so who cares?
His vocals are lacking. I miss the young Alvin Lee, but this old dude will do! haha
È vero ! Rock Trump ! 😅
So this is what happens when you quit doin coke. Gettin old sucks.
Ground cloves makes us old party animals feel much better 1 tablespoon in the morning and 1 at night or spread it out over the day it makes your arthritis pain and bad stomach issues vanish eaven my head feels much better try it
My right ear thinks this is cool. My left ear, not so much.
Sorry, this is a long-ago, not too successful my own digitizing VHS that was recorded from TV(mono tv).
Still a great song.
April 7 Tribute to Alvin Lee London New York etc. Look on the Alvin Lee Network site or Ten Years After site. R.I.P. Alvin Lee
FASTEST.GUN