Ten Years After: Ten Years After - 1967

I always assumed Ten Years After were an American band - they had that sort of Woodstock-ish late sixties/early seventies Allman Brothers thing about them - but they were actually British and released this, their debut album, in October 1967, at the point where the Rolling Stones-Them-Yardbirds-Kinks British blues-r'n'b boom was beginning to merge into what became known as blues rock. 

In that respect they led the way, along with Cream, of course. The album is made up of a mixture of blues covers and original material. This is a really good album, featuring superb instrumentation, a solid blues sound and really good stereo, for 1967. I'm a sucker for this sort of thing. It has a typically freaky sixties cover too, which is always a good thing. The album, though, is much less far out, (man) than the cover suggests, being totally steeped in the blues. I have to reiterate again that the stereo sound is fantastic throughout.

I Want To Know is a stonking, guitar-driven serving of frantic blues rock to open proceedings with, which although it has a bit of a 1964-65 fee about it just rocks big time. I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes slows things down on a quiet, insistent slow blues. Get a load of the guitar/drums/organ instrumental bit in the middle, man. Freaky or what. Adventures Of A Young Organ is an instrumental that shows the group's jazzy side. Mick Talbot of The Style Council must have been influenced by this, surely. 

Spoonful is a mysterious, dark blues chugger with a fine bassline and  guitar interjections as well as some top notch drumming. Losing The Dogs is a jaunty, early Stones-ish number with a vocal that sounds just like the young Jagger. It was probably a little dated for 1967. Feel It For Me is an impressive piece of blues rock, Love Until I Die features some great drums while Don't Want You Woman is a really catchy acoustic blues. All excellent stuff. 

The album's big cornerstone was the slow, creeping bluesy menace of Help Me, which surely inspired Led Zeppelin. It saw the group transitioning from mid-sixties blues explosion exponents to serving up late sixties big brooding blues rockers. It is full of stabbing guitar interjections, killer soloing, a great bluesy vocal and a rumbling, deep bass. It was a fine end to a really impressive debut album, and one which doesn't get mentioned much, which is a shame. A quick shout out too for the non-album single, Portable People, which had to have inspired Canned Heat's Going Up The Country, both vocally and musically.