Though I listened to the radio countless hours during this week's featured tune's heyday, somehow I managed to have never heard it until I was working at the thrift shop in the mid-2010's. Thanks to Pandora, one in a continuous series of tedious closing shifts was made much better by playing one of their sixties playlists through which I first heard the song, though it did involve a mad dash to our back office computer to see the band's name before Pandora moved on to the next magical sixties song. I have to admit to being a little disappointed--I once had a boss who a complete asshole who was a big fan of the band and their guitarist, so I'd written them off years before (though I did realize somewhat later that they were one of the performers at Woodstock, playing a nice blues rock number called "I'm Going Home"). Amazingly enough, it turns out that even assholes on occasion like a good tune....
Ten Years After were formed in 1966 from the remnants of Ivan Jay and the Jaycats (catchy...) and several incarnations that existed between 1960 and 1966. Propelled by guitarist extraordinaire and lead vocalist Alvin Lee, the band was propelled into stardom by their appearance at the aforementioned Woodstock Festival in 1969. As sometimes happens, the band had creative difference and broke up in 1975. They had a one-time reunion in 1983, but reformed for good in 1988, and they are still recording and touring to this day. Ten Years After had eight albums make the U.K. charts and twelve make the U.S. charts which seems to me a hefty dose of success. For their career, they released 12 studio albums, with four hitting the top ten in Great Britain, and three making the top twenty here in America. They also released 27 singles, with one top ten in their native country, and one top forty in the States. Sadly, Alvin Lee passed away in 2013 from complications from heart surgery.
Fun Fact: Though there's more than one backstory on how the band got its name, the most popular is that the band formed (1966) ten years after (1956) Elvis began his career. This version gains some credence because Alvin Lee was a huge Presley fan.
"I'd Love to Change the World" was the first single released from their 1971 album A Space in Time. It was not released as a single in the U.K., but was the band's only hit single in America, reaching #40 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100. It also hit #10 in Canada (so many cool kids in the Great White North!). The album peaked at #36 in the British Isles and #17 in the U.S.
While there seems to be some difference of opinion on what the song means (a shot at people writing change the world songs? sarcastic slap at do gooders? genuinely not knowing how to change a crazy world?), one thing for certain is that it is a potpourri of the best the sixties (and maybe musical in general) has to offer. From the staccato calling out of the ills of the world to the falsetto chorus to Alvin Lee's badass guitar solo, the song is an exemplar of a time when music was all about pushing the boundaries of the musical arts. Funny how the ills of the world still continue unabated...but a fine song can still call out the injustices, and even more importantly, still give us hope.
Lyric Sheet: "I'd love to change the world--but I don't know what to do/So I'll leave it up to you..."
Enjoy:
Republican = Traitor
Peace,
emaycee
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