Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Ten Years After: Choo Choo Mama

I don’t know about you, but I am warm and dry inside while it is a winter wonderland of 18 inches of wet, heavy snow outside my door. I’ve been out twice today and I’ll think I’ll stay put. What better way to warm up is with a little guitar music from Alvin Lee and his band Ten Years After.


“Choo Choo Mama” was issued as a single from the “Rock & Roll Music to the World” album.  What a driving song – it is just powerful. Leo Lyons and Ric Lee keep the rhythm going while Chick Churchill pounds away on the piano. All this is a perfect backdrop for Alvin Lee, one of the fastest guitarists of rockdom, to lay down some leads that punctuate the holes where he is not singing.

Both the single and album were issued in 1972. It was their eighth studio album and second for their new labels – Chrysalis in the UK and Columbia in the US.





4 comments:

  1. I have Aunts that live near Beckley and Snowshoe and I know they received a lot of snowfall from Sandy. Staying indoors sounds like a good idea. haha Thanks for the tunes.

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  2. Staying warm Wayne. The snow is a very wet and heavy snow and that makes it very difficult for travel and has affected power throughout the region.

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  3. Hey Jim - A bit of trivia for you - the band that Jim Bird, Dushan Lukic, and I had in high school played this song at the Mu Alpha Theta Christmas party at EAHS in December, 1973. Our set also included "Back Door Blues" from the third Ultimate Spinach album, "Magic Carpet Ride", "Toad" (with marathon drum solo, naturally) and a couple of others.

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  4. Very neat indeed. I was a Mu Alpha Theta member, but I was in Kentucky by December 73. I would have loved to have heard you all

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