Ten Years After- A Space in Time 55th- the late Alvin Lee, Leo Lyons

Alvin Lee never hesitated to credit fate and dumb luck for first putting him and the band Ten Years After on the bill of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, and then to credit documentary film director Michael Wadleigh  for choosing to include their closer, “I’m Going Home”, in the final cut of the Woodstock  movie. “When things get put onto celluloid, they tend to get bigger than life,” the late guitarist/singer Alvin Lee told me in my classic rock interview, explaining how Ten Years After was catapulted from the second tier of English boogie and blues by their prime spot in the Woodstock Festival  movie documentary. The band utilized that momentum to negotiate a new US record deal and deliver their most popular album ever in late Summer 1971,  A Space in Time,  which included “One of These Days”, “Baby Won’t You Let Me Rock’n’Roll You“, and what turned out to be their biggest hit, “I’d Love to Change the World“. A Space in Time peaked at #17 on Billboard‘s Top 200 album sales chart, the highest of any Ten Years After album.

Legendary British blues rock guitarist and singer Alvin Lee died during surgery March 6, 2013. –Redbeard