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While graffitti was being painted in London “Clapton is God”, Alvin Lee was being hailed as Captain Speedfingers – a nickname that Alvin didn’t like but it was accurate.
Much more than just blazing speed on the fretboard, Alvin could play anything from blues to jazz to rock all very effortlessly. He said first & foremost, he wanted to be known as a great musician instead of a rock star.
Allegedly, Jimmy Page said that Alvin was the only player that he would pay to watch him play. I’ve often said that the USA gave us Jimi and the UK gave us Alvin – who was the better of the two? My vote goes to Alvin
For me, one of his greatest recordings was his album In Tennessee, recorded one weekend at Scotty Moore’s home studio, in which he included Scotty & DJ Fontana that backed Elvis for many years on some of the songs
And I have to include Alvin’s song Jenny Jenny, a Chuck Berry type of rocker that included the great Clarence Clemmons on sax
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As you know, Keith, I love Alvin’s playing and singing for that matter. He is among the greats but you’ve thrown down the gauntlet.
My vote goes to Jimi. I think Jimi was the more innovative and influential guitar player of the two. Furthermore, Jimi achieved that lasting influence in such a tragic abbreviated career. That’s my two cents.
John -
I remember as a 14 year old kid, how impressed I was hearing a Band called “Ten Years After” with a song called “Good Morning Little School Girl” for the first time and since then this Alvin Lee guitar riff is in my head and I remember at the same age, how shocked I was reading on a newspaper stand on my way to school, that Jimi Hendrix has died.
They both made the soundtrack of my youth and I still love to listen to them. I could never decide for one of them!!
Thanks Keith for posting this great videos. They made my day.Take the chance to meet your AM friends on Zoom
The next Meetup will probably take place in the second half of August or beginning of SeptemberThere will be a detailed announcement here in the forum in good time.
I look forward to meet you.
Manfred -
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As you know, Keith, I love Alvin’s playing and singing for that matter. He is among the greats but you’ve thrown down the gauntlet.
My vote goes to Jimi. I think Jimi was the more innovative and influential guitar player of the two. Furthermore, Jimi achieved that lasting influence in such a tragic abbreviated career. That’s my two cents.
JohnGee how did I know that you’d take this position John LOL
As far as innovation, I would give them equal footing on this – their innovation just manifest in different ways
Granted Jimi has been more influential but I think that its largely because exposure – some acts suck all of the oxygen out of the room due to the attention that the media & critics give them. During the British Blues Invasion, you would think that Clapton, Beck, Page and The Stones were solely responsible for it when in fact Alvin with Ten Years After, Kim Simmonds with Savoy Brown, Rory Gallagher, Gary Moore, Peter Green, Pete Haycock with Climax Blues Band and many others were just as much a part of it as the ‘golden boys’.
There were many others that we didn’t hear of; one of which was the great Stefan Grossman. While Stefan is American, he lived in England for a time and lived with Clapton when he first moved there. Everyone rants about EC’s acoustic blues but I question how much of what Eric plays is a direct result of his time with Stefan.Personally, I think that had Alvin been on a level playing field as far as media exposure, I think that people would have viewed him every bit as influential as Jimi, EC, Beck or Page.
Kinda strange that we don’t have any video of the ‘golden boys’ ever venturing on stage with Alvin…..I’ll go a step further and say that Duane Allman was every bit as innovative and influential as Jimi only with slide guitar and his amazing ability to improvise. Duane came along and rewrote the book on slide and most slide players today are trying to emulate him just as players are trying to emulate Jimi
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Yes, Keith, but maybe Jimi got all that media attention because he was so unique, innovative and influential.
I admit my adolescent bias, they are all great and have skills that rival or maybe even surpass Jimi in some areas. I still revere Jimi for his amazing rhythm skills and his breakthrough use of guitar effects and feedback to express more emotive power from a guitar than anyone. I would point to the Fillmore East “Machine Gun” performance where Jimi expressed the agony of war through his guitar.
Jimi’s post humous albums only gave us a flavour of the beautiful directions he was taking his music, especially the beautiful rhythmic layering. If he had the time I often wonder where his new collaborations and production skills would have taken his music.
John
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Hey Keith,
Just listened to the last 2 songs. What a phenomenal player/performer he was. I mean Woodstock was one thing that brought him into the limelight but he just grew from there. I thing it’s nuts that he never won a Grammy or was inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame! Again, a 335 and a stack of Marshalls! SHMOKIN!Mike
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