Ten years after – The albums 1967 – 1974

To mark the 50th anniversary of the release of the first Ten Years After album in 1967, Chrysalis records are releasing a very special box set – “The albums 1967 – 1974”. As the name suggests it includes the nine albums released in that time period, and it also contains a CD of previously unreleased material.

The album is being released through PledgeMusic – https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/ten-years-after-box-set

It may not seem that cheap at £80 but for that you get ten CDs, all remastered from the original quarter inch production master tapes and it’s limited to 1500 copies worldwide. To judge the value it’s also worth looking at the availability and price of the albums. You can get many of them but it’s likely to set you back far more to buy them individually than it is to buy this box set, and when you consider they’ve been remastered for this release then it starts to look like a very attractive release.
What helps make this even more attractive is the fact it comes with a hardback format plus slipcase and includes a book that features extensive sleeve notes (10,000 words) telling the band’s story and there are interviews with the remainign band memebers and the family of Alvin Lee.

So what you have is an extremely well presented box set featuring newly remastered versions of the albums – that in my mind makes this well worth purchasing even before the bonus material is considered.

So what is the bonus disc? Well it’s entitled “The Cap Ferrat sessions”. The recordings came from the “Rock n roll music to the world” album sessions which were recorded at a villa in Cap Ferrat. The tapes were found by Alvin Lee’s wife in the studio at their home in Spain. The recordings weren’t demos or rehearsal recordings, they were finished tracks that simply didnt make it onto the album. The time limits of vinyl meant that it wasn’t possible to include these on the album (without making it a double album), but happily the tapes survived and they were mixed and mastered earlier this year specially for this release.

This is a great release for fans of Ten Years After.

“The albums 1967 – 1974” will be released in November 2017

Track listing:

CD1: Ten Years After [Mono, 1967]

1. I Want To Know
2. I Can’t Keep From Crying, Sometimes
3. Adventures Of A Young Organ
4. Spoonful
5. Losing The Dogs
6. Feel It For Me
7. Love Until I Die
8. Don’t Want You, Woman
9. Help Me

CD2: Undead [Stereo, 1968]

1. I May Be Wrong, But I Won’t Be Wrong Always
2. (At The) Woodchopper’s Ball
3. Spider In My Web
4. Summertime/Shantung Cabbage
5. I’m Going Home

CD3: Stonedhenge [Stereo, 1969]

1. Going To Try
2. I Can’t Live Without Lydia
3. Woman Trouble
4. Skoobly-Oobly-Doobob
5. Hear Me Calling
6. A Sad Song
7. Three Blind Mice
8. No Title
9. Faro
10. Speed Kills

CD4: Ssssh [Stereo, 1969]

1. Bad Scene
2. Two Time Mama
3. Stoned Woman
4. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
5. If You Should Love Me
6. I Don’t Know That You Don’t Know My Name
7. The Stomp
8. I Woke Up This Morning

CD5: Cricklewood Green [Stereo, 1970]

1. Sugar The Road
2. Working On The Road
3. 50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain
4. Year 3,000 Blues
5. Me And My Baby
6. Love Like A Man
7. Circles
8. As The Sun Still Burns Away

CD6: Watt [Stereo, 1970]

1. I’m Coming On
2. My Baby Left Me
3. Think About The Times
4. I Say Yeah
5. The Band With No Name
6. Gonna Run
7. She Lies In The Morning
8. Sweet Little Sixteen

CD7: A Space In Time [Stereo, 1971]

1. One Of These Days
2. Here They Come
3. I’d Love To Change The World
4. Over The Hill
5. Baby Won’t You Let Me Rock ‘N Roll You
6. Once There Was A Time
7. Let The Sky Fall
8. Hard Monkeys
9. I’ve Been There Too
10. Uncle Jam

CD8: Rock & Music To The World [Stereo, 1972]

1. You Give Me Loving
2. Convention Prevention
3. Turned Off T.V. Blues
4. Standing At The Station
5. You Can’t Win Them All
6. Religion
7. Choo Choo Mama
8. Tomorrow I’ll Be Out Of Town
9. Rock & Roll Music To The World

CD9: Positive Vibrations [Stereo, 1974]

1. Nowhere To Run
2. Positive Vibrations
3. Stone Me
4. Without You
5. Going Back To Birmingham
6. It’s Getting Harder
7. You’re Driving Me Crazy
8. Look Into My Life
9. Look Me Straight Into The Eyes
10. I Wanted To Boogie

CD10: The Cap Ferrat Sessions [Recorded in 1972, mixed in 2017]

1. Look At Yourself
2. Running Around
3. There’s Somebody Calling Me
4. There’s A Feeling
5. Holy Shit