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Legendary Rock Guitar Player Dead at 68

Mar 6, 2013  •  Post A Comment

One of the legends of British blues-rock, considered one of the greatest guitarists of the rock era, has died. BBC News reports that Ten Years After frontman Alvin Lee, whose blazing performance of “I’m Going Home” was one of the highlights of the 1969 Woodstock festival and the subsequent movie about that landmark event, died early today at 68.

Lee died unexpectedly following complications from routine surgery, according to an announcement from his family.

“The Nottingham-born musician rose to fame after appearing at the Woodstock festival in 1969,” the story reports. “The band, who had eight Top 40 albums in the UK, had their biggest hit in 1971 with ‘I’d Love To Change the World.’”

A statement on his website from Lee’s wife and daughters says: "We have lost a wonderful and much loved father and companion, the world has lost a truly great and gifted musician."

Lee was scheduled to perform April 7 at Olympia Hall in Paris with guitarist Johnny Winter, the piece notes.

Among the defining songs from Ten Year’s After’s heyday in the late 1960s and early 1970s are classics such as “Love Like a Man,” “As the Sun Still Burns Away” and “50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain,” all from the 1970 masterpiece “Cricklewood Green,” along with 1969’s “I Woke Up This Morning” and “Stoned Woman,” both from the album “Ssssh.”

Thumbnail image for Alvin-Lee.jpgAlvin Lee

Here’s a clip of Lee and Ten Years After performing their epic “I’m Going Home” at Woodstock in 1969: 

2 Comments

  1. I saw Lee in concert around 1980. Phenomenal.

  2. As an AOR DJ, I played the great Mr. Lee many times on-the-air.
    May he forever wail in the great band-in-the sky.
    Peter Bright

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