Sunday, December 09, 2007

I'm Going Home

Bear with me for another couple of days of lazy blogging. I can't believe I forgot this one when I did my last adrenaline rush a few months back. Ten Years After's "I'm Going Home" is one of the high points from Woodstock, and explains how Alvin Lee came to be known as "The Fastest Guitar In The West". Make yourself a good strong pot of coffee and get amped up for work or Christmas shopping.



"Woodstock was an accident," says Alvin. "It was disorganised and that's what was great about it. It was never meant to be that big of a deal. It was declared a National Disaster Area wasn't it?" he laughs. "To me the star of Woodstock was the audience. "I've got a jumble of memories. The most vivid is the journey in, because we could only get within about ten miles of the site and no nearer, the roads were all jammed. So we bundled into an army helicopter with an open side and I had a safety harness on. I was dangling out of the helicopter over half-a-million people.
"Backstage, there was a lot of politics and bartering over who was going on before who. I didn't get involved in it. I went for a walk around the lake and joined in with the audience and saw it from the other side of the stage. It was great. No-one knew who I was, but people were offering me food and drink being really friendly. There wasn't so much camaraderie backstage. There's been a "Maybe it was the age we all were, but there seemed a lot more ego problems in the '60s".


-Alvin Lee on Woodstock