morganflag: March 1970 (55 YEARS AGO) Ten Years After: Cricklewood Green is released. # ALL THINGS MUSIC PLUS+ 5/5 # allmusic 4.5/5 Ten Years After - Band Cricklewood Green is the fifth album by Ten Years After, released in the US during March 1970 (April 1970 in the UK). It reached #14 on the Billboard 200 Top LP's chart. One of the most noted of the progressive blues bands to emerge from the U.K.'s Summer Of Love in 1967, Ten Years After arguably reached its peak with its appearance at the Woodstock festival in 1969. First released a year later in 1970, Cricklewood Green contains the band's hit single, "Love Like a Man," as well as some of the bluesy guitar workouts, courtesy of the virtuoso Alvin Lee, that made it famous. Cricklewood Green provides the best example of Ten Years After's recorded sound. On this album, the band and engineer Andy Johns mix studio tricks and sound effects, blues-based song structures, a driving rhythm section, and Alvin Lee's signature lightning-fast guitar licks into a unified album that flows nicely from start to finish. Cricklewood Green opens with a pair of bluesy rockers, with “Working on the Road” propelled by a guitar and organ riff that holds the listener's attention through the use of tape manipulation as the song develops. “50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain” and “Love Like a Man” are classics of TYA's jam genre, with lyrically meaningless verses setting up extended guitar workouts that build in intensity, rhythmically and sonically. The latter was an FM-radio staple in the early '70s. “Year 3000 Blues” is a country romp sprinkled with Lee's silly sci-fi lyrics, while “Me and My Baby” concisely showcases the band's jazz licks better than any other TYA studio track, and features a tasty piano solo by Chick Churchill. It has a feel similar to the extended pieces on side one of the live album Undead. “Circles” is a hippie-ish acoustic guitar piece, while “As the Sun Still Burns Away” closes the album by building on another classic guitar-organ riff and more sci-fi sound effects. __________ __________ RECORD WORLD, APRIL 4, 1970 Ten Years After, who are breaking up audiences everywhere they go, will break up buyers with their new package, "Cricklewood Green" (Deram DES 18038). __________ REVIEW by Jim Newsom, allmusic Cricklewood Green provides the best example of Ten Years After's recorded sound. On this album, the band and engineer Andy Johns mix studio tricks and sound effects, blues-based song structures, a driving rhythm section, and Alvin Lee's signature lightning-fast guitar licks into a unified album that flows nicely from start to finish. Cricklewood Green opens with a pair of bluesy rockers, with "Working on the Road" propelled by a guitar and organ riff that holds the listener's attention through the use of tape manipulation as the song develops. "50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain" and "Love Like a Man" are classics of TYA's jam genre, with lyrically meaningless verses setting up extended guitar workouts that build in intensity, rhythmically and sonically. The latter was an FM-radio staple in the early '70s. "Year 3000 Blues" is a country romp sprinkled with Lee's silly sci-fi lyrics, while "Me and My Baby" concisely showcases the band's jazz licks better than any other TYA studio track, and features a tasty piano solo by Chick Churchill. It has a feel similar to the extended pieces on side one of the live album Undead. "Circles" is a hippie-ish acoustic guitar piece, while "As the Sun Still Burns Away" closes the album by building on another classic guitar-organ riff and more sci-fi sound effects. TRACKS: Side one "Sugar the Road" (Alvin Lee) – 4:06 "Working on the Road" (Alvin Lee) – 4:18 "50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain" (Alvin Lee) – 7:39 "Year 3,000 Blues" (Alvin Lee) – 2:27 Side two "Me and My Baby" (Alvin Lee) – 4:18 "Love Like a Man" (Alvin Lee) – 7:32 "Circles" (Alvin Lee) – 3:59 "As the Sun Still Burns Away" (Alvin Lee)