Ten Years After

Ah, Ten Years After...a band after my own heart. Despite the occasional foray into folk-influenced message songs, it was always foot stompin' no frills, missionary position blues 'n' boogie that lay at the core of these lads.
They began as The Jaybirds in 1962 with guitarist Alvin Lee, the magnificently-named bassist Leo Lyons, vocalist Ivan Jay and drummer Dave Quickmire. After several years of local success in the Nottingham-Mansfield area of England, Quickmire was replaced on drums by Ric Lee in August of 1965. The band moved to London in 1966 where they were joined by keyboardist Chick Churchill. Ivan Jay subsequently left the band leaving Alvin Lee as default lead singer. The band changed their name to Blues Trip, then Blues Yard before finally settling on Ten Years After. The group became the first act to be handled by the fledgling Chrysalis Agency, which secured them a residency at  The Marquee Club. They were later invited to play at The Windsor Jazz Festival in 1967, and their perfomance there led to them being signed to  the Deram Label, a subsidiary of Decca,the first band the company ever signed without a hit single to it's credit . In October of 1967 the band's self-titled debut album was released. In 1968, following a tour of the  U.S. and Scandinavia, the band's second album, Undead was released. The album was recorded live, and featured what was to become Ten Years After's signature song and  one of the most if not THE most lasting impression of the subsequent Woodstock feature film and soundtrack, "I'm Going Home".


The Woodstock performance raised the band's profile profoundly, making them true superstars. During 1970, the band's fifth album Cricklewood Green was released. The album's name came from a friend living in Cricklewood, London who grew plants at his home that caused hallucinogenic effects. The plant was nicknamed Cricklewood Green. It was also the first record to contain two different playing speeds, 33 and 1/3 on one side and 45 rpm on the other. It also featured the group's only U.K. singles chart hit , "Love Like A Man".


1970 also saw the band appearing at The Strawberry Fields and Isle of Wight Festivals. They switched labels in 1971 to Columbia Records upon which their most commercially successful album A Space In Time was released, featuring the group's biggest hit, "I'd Love To Change The World". This album was followed on Columbia by the releases of
1972's  Rock And Roll Music To The World, 1973's double live collection Ten Years After Recorded Live, and their final album for the label 1974's Positive Vibrations. The band broke up soon after.


The band reunited in 1983 to play The Reading Festival and again in 1988 for a few shows and to record the album About Time. In 1994, they performed at The Eurowoodstock Festival in Budapest.
Alvin Lee recorded as a solo artist for many years while the band still continues as Ten Years After with Joe Gooch doing a repectable job in Lee's place on guitar and vocals.

Sadly, on March 6, 2013 Alvin Lee died as a result of complications during a surgical procedure. He was 68.

Don Cornelius...R.I.P.

"...and you can bet your last money, it's all gonna be a stone gas, honey! I'm Don Cornelius, and as always in parting, we wish you love...peace...and soul !"

Don Cornelius...  .September 26,1936 - February 1, 2012

Santana

In San Francisco, 1967 a band was formed that would be truly one of a kind. The Carlos Santana Blues Band was and is a group that combines a very strong Latin influence and style with blues-based rock. What makes this band, and by extension its leader and namesake Carlos Santana so unique is that that without sacrificing one iota of their Afro-Cuban based sound, they have become, of all things, classic rock icons. Your average classic rock playlist may include several heavy rock bands, a good number of classically influenced bands, quite a few country-rock bands and even a handful of horn-driven bands, But in all of the classic rock canon, no one sounds even remotely like the band that would eventually shorten its name to simply Santana.  At the group's first audition at San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom weeks after their formation, they were told by promoter Chet Helms that they would never get anywhere playing such heavily Latin-based rock and that Carlos should keep his day job as a dishwasher at Tick Tock's Drive-In on 3rd Street. Then came Woodstock.

The band was announced as one of the performers at The Woodstock Music And Art Fair as they were recording their self-titled debut album in May of 1969 which they finished in a month. After a career- making Woodstock performance the album was released. It peaked at #4 on the Billboard charts and a song from that collection,"Evil Ways", became a top ten single. Chet? Anything? I suppose not.

The band went on tour to promote the album with a line-up of Santana on guitar, keyboardist Gregg Rollie, Jose "Chepito" Areas on timbales and trumpet, bassist Dave Brown, drummer Michael Shrieve and Dave Carabello on congas. At this time they also started work on their sophomore album. The album, titled Abraxas was released in May of 1970 and went to #1. The single release from that album was a remake of Fleetwood Mac legend Peter Green's "Black Magic Woman" which peaked at #4 U.S.


The third album, brilliantly titled Santana III, was released in July of 1971. It followed it's predecessor to the #1 spot on the charts and would feature the addition of guitarist Neal Schon.



In the time between the third album and their fourth, Caravanserai, The band would see the beginning of  a long line of personnel changes, so many that in the course of the band's existence, the name Santana would come to identify the man, Carlos Santana as opposed to the band, ultimately leaving for all intents and purposes, Carlos Santana as a solo act. Among the first to go were Dave Brown, Michael Carrabello , Gregg  Rollie and Neal Schon, Rollie and Schon would later form another classic rock giant, the band Journey. Caravaserai was released in October of 1972, peaking at #8 with no single release.  The next hit single would come from the 1981 album Zebop , the Russ Ballard composition,"Winning" with lead vocals from British journeyman Alex Ligertwood.


I would feel negligent not to include a mention of Carlos Santana's brother, guitarist Jorge Santana. Jorge worked with salsa band The Fania All Stars, as well as recording two solo albums. His best known work, however was with the band Malo, which he led along with fellow Mexican Arcello Garcia. Malo had a top 20 hit entitled "Suavecito".
The two brothers have appeared together onstage numerous times.


Firmly established as one of pop music's most respected artists, highly regarded by critics and fans alike, Carlos Santana's career continued to flourish. In the realms of rock, pop, and jazz he came to be held in high regard due to his singular talent, unique style, genre flexability and pleasant, self-effacing personality.            
After his 1981 hit "Winning", it wasn't until 1991 that he scored a comparable success with the album Supernatural, which featured Santana performing with an impressive array of the period's top vocalists from different musical genres. This collecton reached #1 in several countries and went 15X platinum, selling nearly 27 million units worldwide.It included the hit single "Smooth" , featuring lead vocals from Rob Thomas of the group Matchbox Twenty. The song became a winner of three Grammy Awards.

The band Santana was inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1988. The inductees were Dave Brown, Michael Shrieve, Jose Areas, David Carabello, Gregg Rollie and Santana himself. As a band,Santana won eight Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards all in 2000, while Carlos Santana won two Grammy Awards as a solo artist in 1989 and 2003. All told, Santana has sold over 100 million units worldwide as of 2010. Carlos Santana is still active in the industry to this day.

For Jason

At this time I am enjoying an all-too-infrequent visit from my youngest child,my son Jayson for the holidays Not long ago he relocated to the state of Indiana,basically going where the work was. It was hard to see him go, but the way he's established himself there,full-time job,attending a university for computer sciences,and maintaining a really nice apartment, makes me beyond proud. This post and the accompanying selection, is dedicated to him and the way he's holding it down. It gets better from here, baby boy and I hope you enjoy The Average White Band's excellent rendition of the Isley Brothers' classic "Work To Do". When you're here, things just feel a little more complete.

Madness

Formed in Camden Town, London in 1976, these gentlemen were and are one of the most prominent (and arguably best) bands of the late 70s two-tone ska -punk revival. While their line-up has varied slightly over the years, the seven -man core group is Mike Barson on keyboards, guitarist Chris Foreman, Mark Bedford on bass guitar, saxophonist Lee Thompson, drummer Daniel Woodgate, Cathal Smith on trumpet and backing vocals and lead vocalist Graham "Suggs" McPherson.
Their first hit came in 1979 with "The Prince", a song which like the band's name, was a tribute to their idol, ska legend Prince Buster. Released on the 2 Tone label, it went to #16 on the U.K. charts. After touring with fellow 2 Tone acts The Specials and The Selecter They recorded their debut album One Step Beyond. Released on Stiff Records, the title track spent 32 weeks on the U.K. charts peaking at #2

The band's second studio release, Absolutely, featured more of the heavily ska-influenced material most notably "Baggy Trousers" which peaked at #3 in the U.K. and "Embarrassment" which went to #4. Reviews were mostly positive, with the notable exception of Rolling Stone Magazine, which scathingly criticized Madness as "the Blues Brothers with English accents". Not the first or last time that venerable publication got it wrong in my humble opinion.


Unlike the previous albums, the band's third release, ingeniously titled 7, was a departure from the straight ska material in favor of a more pop-oriented musical  direction. "Grey Day" (#4), "Shut Up" (#7) and "Cardiac Arrest" (#14) revealed this change including a different vocal style by Suggs. One of the most striking excamples of this new direction was the 1981 release of acover of Labi Siffri's 1971 hit  "It Must Be Love", a masterfully crafted rendition that became one of the band's signature tunes.

1982 Madness released their first and only #1 hit, "House Of Fun".The song was performed live on the British tv series The Young Ones, and was included on their first compilation disc, Complete Madness. The fourth studio album, The Rise And Fall , was a huge hit in Britain but was not released in the U.S. It contained the band's biggest internationally known song "Our House", which appeared in the U.S on the aforementioned Complete Madness collection.


In 1982, their single "Wings Of A Dove" went to #2 in the U.K. and the following album, Keep Moving peaked at #6. By this time the band had their own label, Zarjazz Records, and their own recording studio, Liquidator Studios. The studio is still used by many musicians including Madness themselves.
The band broke up in 1986 and later re-united in 1991, which brought about the re-release of "It Must Be Love" and a live show, called Madstock. Madstock was held on August  8 and 9 at Finsbury Park in London and was attended by over 75,000 fans. The song's second coming got it to #6 U.K. while a singles compilation album Divine Madness peaked at #1. Subsequent to the Madstock reunion a live album was released featuring a Madness performance of Jimmy Cliff's venerable song "The Harder They Come". This was released as a single that went to #44  U.K. with the album reaching #22.


Madness was awarded "The Idol Award"at The Q Awards  in London. The band's final show was at  London's Earls Court in December 2010. Truly one of the finest bands to walk the stage. This final clip is a collaboration, written with Elvis Costello called "Tomorrow's Just Another Day."