Ten Years After was one of the first great live bands back in the day, when large outdoor shows were first becoming a viable option. In Alvin Lee, the group had one of the great guitar heroes of the time. Besides, the group was present at the original Woodstock Festival and scored one of the biggest hits of the era. Why isn’t Ten Years After seen as one of the greatest rock bands of all time?

Let’s just see if they warrant the aforementioned title. While not trying to overindulge the band’s live renditions, which typically showcased the group at its best, here are Ten Years After’s 10 best songs.

The Greatest 10 Songs by Ten Years After

10. “I Can’t Keep from Crying Sometimes”

Ten Years After did it the old-fashioned way. The group worked until the wheels fell off. In fact, Alvin Lee was on 27 American tours before he called it quits with the band.

But they started out humbly, as just another blues-rock band from Britain. “I Can’t Keep from Crying Sometimes” was the psychedelic-blues showpiece of the group’s debut. It’s frankly one of the smoothest-sounding tracks of that era, and something of a hidden gem. Do yourself a favour and check it out!

9. “Hear Me Calling”

“Hear Me Calling” is a sweet blues-rocker. Yes, it already displays a great deal of fine taste in matters of playing. It helped make the Spinal Tap-like titled album “Stonehenged” a minor British hit.

And while fans of late 60s pop-rock will surely appreciate it, this also serves to prove just why Alvin Lee, for the most part, opted to stick to playing his electrified blues-rock live.

8. “Hard Monkeys”

With songs like “Hard Monkeys,” Alvin Lee proved that he was not just one of the greatest masters of the electric guitar, as had been firmly established, but also a stunning acoustic guitar player and arranger.

It is, in fact, Lee’s playing and clever use of dynamics that turned “”A Space in Time” into a bonafide hit and the group’s most enjoyable studio release.

7. “Rock & Roll Music to the World”

Ten Years After did it and overdid. The group stayed true to its promise to play everywhere and at any time.

Naturally, Lee and the group were burned out by 1972. But there was still plenty of demand for their music. This time, even the radio programmers were calling.

“Rock & Roll Music to the World”, with its Chuck Berry-like riff, was a minor hit. And while it’s what you’d expect, and the best track off of a generally poor release, there’s a great charm to hearing Alvin Lee play 50s-styled rockers.

6. “50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain”

The hippie-beloved psychedelic-rock songs had just about hit the end of the road in 1970. But Ten Years After provides just one more, and, as it happens, one of the best in this niche.

“50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain” feels like a rewrite of a song by The Byrds. But, as always, it’s Alvin Lee’s stylish guitar work that gives the tune its character.

5. “I’m Going Home”

Nearly all of the bands on the Woodstock Festival’s 1969 bill achieved some measure of success. That’s due to the event’s significance and the sales of the soundtrack to the movie about it.

And while not nearly as famous as the likes of The Who, Santana, Creedence Clearwater Revival or Crosby, Stills and Nash, there weren’t many groups in the world who could outdo Ten Years After.

Alvin Lee knew it, too. “It was just another day on the date sheet,” he recalls the day when his dynamic guitar playing blew the crowds away.

The performance of “I’m Going Home” is one for the ages. And, even if boogie-rock is not your cup of tea, it’s hard to argue with that fluent, lightning-fast guitar playing or Lee’s growling vocals.

4. “Love Like a Man”

For a long time, Ten Years After’s problem was bringing the group’s famous live show energy onto records. That’s why Lee and the band’s strategy for “Love Like a Man” was practically to produce a jam-rock tune recorded in a fancy studio. It worked, and the +7 minutes running time doesn’t feel like an overindulgence.

3. “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”

Don’t wanna spoil it for you. But if you properly want to appreciate Ten Years After, you can’t do better than listen to their most famous single, and, then, only to live recordings.

At its peak, the group was sensational in a live setting. Mesmerising and never playing for keeps, the group’s interpretations of blues standards, like Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”, are sensational live music.

2. “Let the Sky Fall”

Without “A Space in Time,” the band’s hit album, Ten Years After would just be a legendary live band on par with Grateful Dead.

Alvin Lee may have taken it as a personal challenge, but on the record, he wrote and recorded genuine pop-rock songs. “Let the Sky Fall” was still built around a perfectly timed blues riff, but it was the dynamics and Lee’s vocal delivery that helped the album be successful.

1. “I’d Love to Change the World”

They did, and it just took years of back-breaking work on the tour circuit to achieve it. By the time Ten Years After was ready to become a radio band, however, the group had sharpened its songwriting along the way.

There are many songs that tried to soundtrack the betrayal of ’60s hippie ideals and transition to the cynicism of the 1970s. Arguably, there isn’t one better than “I’d Love to Change the World.”

The song features one of the greatest picked acoustic guitar parts of any rock song, along with Alvin Lee’s genuinely paranoid view of a world that he can’t get to grips with anymore.

“I’d Love to Change the World” is one of the greatest rock songs ever recorded and the shining moment for Ten Years After.