Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Lee, Alvin
Label: Repertoire Records
Release: 2002
Rating: 3/5
Here we have the definitive retrospective of a man who sold his soul to the blues. Another chosen one who can, no beating around the bush, stand shoulder to shoulder with the biggest names in the game like Jimmy Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Leslie West, Peter Green or Rory Gallagher. And what’s the common denominator? They’re all one-of-a-kind songwriters, guitarists and singers. All three at once, of course, given that they all played in the same sandbox, at least as far as space and time go.
The 24-track run of career highlights kicks off with a straight-up “rock ‘n’ roller” called Keep on Rockin’. I wasn’t even born yet (empirically speaking) or, if you want the spiritual side of the coin, my soul hadn’t yet moved into a physical body, when this blues giant was already proclaimed the fastest guitar kneader in the West, after a shocking stage performance at Woodstock in 1969 with the Ten Years After of the day. This compilation includes indispensable TYA classics like I’m Going Home and Love like a Man, in different live versions by Lee from the mid-eighties, long after he’d left his home band TYA (originally called Jaybirds at the start). Both of them, of course, capture all the magic power of an Alvin Lee stage show, with that probably hard-to-beat trademark that has some music critics calling him the best musician in the genre, period, when it comes to live performances. The trademark in question: insanely fast and utterly unique solos. Whenever the guy unplugged from the room on stage and set off on a trip into his own world, he perfectly, in his own most distinctive way, wove the classic elements of blues and jazz into a flawless and hard-to-top fantastic fusion. Alvin Lee is the best embodiment of perfection for a guitarist/singer/songwriter, “on his own turf,” of course.
This double disc is stylistically diverse. Pure “rock ‘n’ roll” assaults await you in Jenny Jenny, Play It like It Used to Be and Hear Me Calling, which captures yet another of Alvin’s emotional eruptions on stage. Next comes a trip through some unsurpassed blues gems that instantly send shivers down your spine, with The Bluest Blues standing out in particular, then Real Life Blues (the late Beatle George Harrison plays slide guitar on both tracks), Wake Up Mama, Ain’t Nobody’s Business and yet another fully lived-in stage performance of the erotic Help Me Baby. You’ll get your hard rock fix in Shot in the Dark. The selection naturally includes the acoustic My Road to Freedom, strikingly adorned with unique flourishes in the transitions from Alvin’s inseparable red guitar, the famous Gibson ES-335, while Back In My Arms can be called a typical Rhythm And Blues number. The hit single Love the Way You Rock Me is here too. Beyond the exceptional virtuosity, there’s one more quality of this artist that truly puts him among the greatest in his genre: his constant, deeply felt adaptation of his vocals to the structure of his compositions, which means total conviction in expressing his own ego through musical art!
The songs are tastefully mixed up, and the selection doesn’t follow the chronological order in which they were written. The stylistic variety illustrates Alvin Lee’s musical development as an artist in the best possible way, so you honestly can’t miss the tracks from later records like “RX5” or “Freefall” and his work with Ten Years Later, even though they didn’t make it onto this historical document.
Lineup
Alvin Lee – vocals, guitar, harmonica
GUEST MUSICIANS:
George Harrison – guitar
Joe Brown – guitar
Mick Ralphs – guitar
Clarence Clemons – tenor saxophone
Mel Collins – tenor saxophone
Zoot Money – piano
Jon Lord – Hammond B-3 organ
Steve Winwood – keyboards
Steve Grant – keyboards
Tim Hinkley – keyboards
Steve Gould – bass guitar
Alan Spenner -bass guitar
Boz Burrell – bass guitar
Alan Young – drums
Ian Wallace – drums
John Susswell – drums
Richard Newman – drums
Bryson Graham – drums
David Hubbard – electronic drums
Production
Alvin Lee
Track List
CD 1.:
1. Keep On Rockin’
2. Wake Up Mama
3. On The Road To Freedom
4. Play It Like It Used To Be
5. Real Life Blues
6. Back In My Arms
7. Ain’t Nobody Business
8. Long Legs
9. Put It In A Box
10. Boogie All Day
11. Love Like A Man
12. Jenny Jenny
13. Love The Way You Rock Me
14. Bluest Blues, The
CD 2.:
1. Shot In The Dark
2. My Baby’s Come Back To Me
3. You Told Me
4. Madness
5. Hear Me Calling
6. Let It Rock
7. I Don’t Give A Damn
8. Midnight Special
9. Help Me Baby
10. I’m Going Home – (live)
