Customer Reviews

Cricklewood Green

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When Ten Years After released Cricklewood Green, most British albums and nearly all American albums suffered from thin production values that made the albums sound as if they were playing back from far away or through a five cent speaker. But not this one! Ten Years After finally found a room (Olympic Studios) and a producer (Glyn Johns, as I recall) who together worked to make the fattest, punchiest and most intense album ever to issue from Alvin Lee & Company. Alvin is at his best here -- even better than the more commercially successful 'Space In Time' that came a few years later. But this one's the band at their peak. Chick Churchill's organ work is the perfect bed to hold together the rythym section section of Leo Lyons (bass) and Ric Lee (drums and no relation to Alvin). This album is the way that Ten Years After sounded live. Some of the songs from their subsequent album 'Ssshh!' sounded as they did live -- as did a few from 'A Space in Time' and 'Rock n Roll Music to the World.' But for pure TYA fans who loved the way they came out on stage and tore down the house, this is the one to get! Not only is it the best reflection of a great band at its performance peak, they were also at their best in their choice of material also. These are songs that are just as vicious and brutal today as they were when they first ripped the radiowaves back in early 1970. 'Sugar the Road' and 'Working on the Road' are still some of the quintessential TYA tracks -- as are the more mystic '50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain' and 'As the Sun Still Burns Away.' Even the mellower 'Circles' is a beautiful counterpoint to the rest of the album -- as is the swinging blues of 'Me and My Baby.' This album is a testament to the power of the Marshall Amplifer! Given enough of these things stacked floor to ceiling, and a great studio like Olympic; add a great engineer and producer; make sure you have a great band in front of those Marshalls and include their best material -- and what you end up with is 'Cricklewood Green.' A true rock masterpiece and a legendary album that blistered the airwaves and concert halls from a great band that cranked alongside groups like Led Zeppelin, Spirit, Deep Purple and Jeff Beck Group. But ah! When Ten Years After took the stage, they played like they were out to strip the paint from the walls -- and it's here, recorded just the way it happened on 'Cricklewood Green.'

You have to give Alvin and the boys credit for this much - they didn't exactly succumb to post-Woodstock stasis without one piece of fight in them. And what a piece of fight it was...clean playing, smart (on their terms; we're not exactly talking the Band here) writing, and sympathetic production equaled the band's no-questions-asked best studio album. What their previous set, "Ssssh," merely promised, "Cricklewood" delivered in spades, including both the most spryly swinging blues Alvin Lee ever composed ("Me And My Baby") to his loveliest ballad ("Circles"). The two extended numbers both work without strain, but my nickel goes to "Love Like A Man," for both its bluesy theme riff and the surprising restraint in the jam section, Lee aiming more for expression than impression and keyboardsman Chick Churchill feeding him with precise flair. The overall effect is that of a band trying to stop their frenetic world so they could get off and regroup.

It wasn't destined to last, since the next album, "Watt," was a sad enough union of running out of ideas and recycling past inspirations (and no few past hot licks, either) as if they'd been playing them all their lives - and couldn't admit they'd about had it with them. If you must have one Ten Years After studio album (for a live album the choice is "Undead"), "Cricklewood Green" is the one to have; it's evidence that there certainly could be a little more to this band than their reputation allows.

Hendrix,Santana,Page,Clapton,Allman,Zappa is where Alvin Lee was when this record was released.One of the defining moments of Guitar Rock.

Every track is a gem (even now that I'm older)! --Why don't "they" ever play great classics like this on the radio?

Contains three classic TYA tunes- Love Like a Man, Working on the Road and my favorite- 50000 Miles Beneath My Brain. Buy this CD, along with Live at the Fillmore East and hear even better versions of these songs live.

Great studio album. And Alvin Lee...well, what can you say? He's still one of the best to this day. Speed, finesse, and soul, a rare combination. You can feel the emotion of every note he plays, his emotions come right out through his fingers. An incredible depth of feeling. Alvin Lee is one of the best, next to Peter Green (when he was with Fleetwood Mac) and Clapton.

As a collector of vintage rock albums, and cd's, I would dare to rate this in the top ten. Definately one of my personal favorites. I own the album, but want it in cd quality now. Definately solid rock and roll

A solid album by Alvin and the boys. I never understood why the single "Love Like A Man" didn't catch on more-it would sound fine on the radio.If you like TYA, get this one.

if you take all of the best songs from the the albums before and after cricklewood they would not come close to being as good as this album.

Ten Years After were a pretty unique band back in the day. Sometimes they'd let it rip and just play lengthy blues jams. Other times they focused on shorter rock songs where the songwriting was the most important thing.

Cricklewood Green is mostly a songwriting-dominated album. If you like early 70's rock, this is definitely the album for you. While I'm slightly disappointed that the lightning fast guitar work made famous by Alvin Lee is absent for the most part, the album has some really nice vocal melodies and guitar tricks to make up for that.

The first track called "Sugar the Road" has a vocal style that reminds me of Boz Scaggs, but the music is good classic rock. It's one of those hard rock party song, no doubt about that. The guitar solo is nice, but not as good as other examples from the band. Actually, I can imagine the J. Geils Band doing this song live.

"Working on the Road' starts off with a nice groove and features a typically-fantastic early 70's vibe to the vocal melody. Hey, I like 70's music, and that's why I say "typically-fantastic" because just about EVERY thing music-related back then sounds good to me (and holds up quite well too). "50,000 Miles Beneath my Brain" really reminds me of the Rolling Stones classic "Sympathy for the Devil". Must be the way the music starts off quietly and eventually builds into a loud jam (though entirely listenable). I'm sure back in the day this would be a song considered as heavy as rock music can possibly be.

"Year 3,000 Blues" is a short 2-minute country song. It doesn't bother me, but doesn't excite me either. It's just there. "Me and My Baby" is a pure blues song with tasty guitar licks and other exciting things. I love it, especially the piano solo appearing around the halfway point. "Love Like a Man" is the one song on the record where the guitar is really showcased, and played with lots of excitement. I love this song as well. "Circles" is a vocal melody-dominated track (smooth, quiet and very pleasant) and "As the Sun Still Burns Away" is a very Spooky Tooth-sounding track. Pretty good stuff.

While the band had better albums, this is definitely worth owning.