Customer Reviews

Pure Blues

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Pure Blues is a good sampler of Alvin Lee's music, both with Ten Years After and solo. It looks like a standard compilation, yet it concentrates solely on blues-based material. Ten Years After, though, was not just a blues-rock group. They were deeply rooted in '50s rock and roll and jazz in addition to blues, so this compilation really only shows one part of the Alvin Lee picture. But if you're a major blues lover like me, that's okay.

It starts with the acoustic "Don't Want You Woman" from Ten Years After's self-titled debut (currently out of print). Other highlights are the heavy riff-driven "I Woke Up This Morning", and "The Stomp" (both from the SSSSH album) and two killer live tracks, "Slow Blues in C" and "Help Me" from the Recorded Live album.

This is a nice sampler, but don't make the mistake of letting this be the only Alvin Lee/Ten Years After CD you check out. If you like this, further listening should be: Undead (1968), Recorded Live (1973), and last year's release of Ten Years After Live at the Fillmore East.

If you're looking for a good Ten Years After compilation, the ideal choice would be the new Ten Years After Anthology 1967 - 1971. It covers all the sides of TYA's music, from rock to blues to jazz.

IF YOU ARE READING THIS YOU MUST HAVE BEEN GUIDED HERE BY A BLUES DEITY AND YOU SHOULD THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS--5 OF THEM. THIS CD IS A COMPILATION OF ALVIN LEE'S BEST BLUES/ROCK NUMBERS OVER THE PAST 28 YEARS AND DEMONSTARTES ALVIN LEE'S MUSICAL TALENTS AND VERSATILITY. ON VARIOUS TRACKS MR. LEE SINGS AND PLAYS BASS, PIANO, DRUMS, GUITAR AND VOX NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THAT ALL BUT ONE SONG, "HELP ME" ARE ALVIN LEE ORIGINALS. AS AN ADDED BONUS, THREE TRACKS ALSO FEATURE GEORGE HARRISON ON THE SLIDE GUITAR. SINCE THIS BAND ORDINARILY PLAYS ROCK MUSIC, BLUES FANS WOULD HAVE TO LOCATE AND BUY 8 OF THEIR CD'S/ALBUMS TO OTHERWISE HEAR THESE GEMS AND YOU WOULD STILL BE MISSING :OUTSIDE MY WINDOW" WHICH WAS PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED. A HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BUY!

An absolute must-have CD. Guitar legend Alvin Lee selected these tracks from his favorite recordings done with his seminal blues/rock band Ten Years After and others throughout his long career. Excellent tracks, excellent guitar playing, excellent blues.

This is an AMAZING album with absolutely no soft spots. These are songs all written by the amazing and underated Alvin Lee. Most of the songs are played with Alvin as a solo artist with his band.
This CD totally smashes the totally inaccurate view that Alvin Lee is is just someone who plays very fast and the star of Woodstock 69, although that is true. The man has soul.
Alvin's assortment of Blues is amazing and you can hear his creativity explode with the songs he plays FREE of the limitations of his old, original backup band from Ten Years After.
Best song on this, in my opinion and about my favorite song of all time is "The Bluest Blues", where Alvin is trading lead with George Harrison's piecing slide guitar and Jon Lord on the keyboard.
I really hope that this opens the door for people to look at Alvin's solo efforts with the Alvin Lee Band which are wonderful in they're musicianship, style and variety.

I bought this recording on am impulse after surfing in and reading the reviews. I was not disappointed. This is a great collection expertly pulled together by each musician's obvious reverence for the Blues. Alvin Lee is brilliant. Crank up the volume and get out your air guitar because you can't help but get the blues by
listening to this album.

Not taking anything away from the talents of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, even B.B. King, and many other great blues guitarist of both tbe present and the past, but somewhere along the way the critics overlooked the exceptional talent and power of Alvin Lee. His soulful blues guitar playing on "Bluest Blues" is without a doubt one of the all-time greatest tracks that I have ever had the pleasure to listen to in my lifetime, and all by itself is worthy of the price of this album.

Alvin, if you should happen to read this, be assured that by my standards they gave the title "God" to the wrong guitarslinger; and, Eric you might even agree when listening to Bluest Blues! It just doesn't get any better for a blues afecionado that this!!!!

I actually wore out this CD the first time I bought it. Blues with a passion. Such a clean album. Blues in Slow C just stops me in my tracks whenever I hear it. I couldn't decide between this or the Saturday Night Sleazer soundtrack, but I think I finally made the right move (God knows I've made enough bad ones).

It honestly is unfortunate Alvin Lee was'nt known for more than the preformance at Woodstock that labled him famous for "I'm going home". He was and still is a jazz and blues force that will more than likely never get the recognition he deserves for, not only his super fast guitar licks, but the clean precision in which he plays them. I recently attended a small club preformance by Mr. Lee and most of the younger audience could'nt grasp the more technical scales and leads he shoved at them until he plain rock & rolled them. After that some of the songs from the pre woodstock era, i.e "I can't keep from cryin" and "help me" sank in a bit deeper. Like many of the great preformers of his era Alvin Lee will more than likely NEVER get the credit he deserves.

Why OH Why did it take me so long to find this great CD, THE MAN IS great and every song played with feeling, The guitar work is brillant and the choice of songs insipiring. This is one CD all blues fans should own and all rock fans listen to then buy. I have most of Alvin Leee's albums but never could get hold of a copy of this now i have it is never of the system. And the GUITAR work on the track the BLUEST BLUE, just makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Where have all the people gone who use to play like this. This is a must buy for anyone how calls themselves a Blues Or Rock fan it would get 6 stars if that was possible. A CLASSIC

Alvin Lee is a genius with a guitar. Nowhere is this more evident than in his mastery of the Blues. He was and is a great rocker, but his true calling is as a bluesman. This is a great album!