Alvin Lee featuring George Harrison – The Bluest Blues

I found this song after posting about Ten Years After. One of my readers, M.Y. (Thank you, M.Y.!) brought this one up. She told me about it, and I could not believe I missed it all these years. Put Alvin Lee and George Harrison together on one song, and you already have my attention. Then make it a slow blues with both of them playing guitar, and I’m not going anywhere. George remade himself when he learned slide. He was a good guitar player before, but he became a great one on slide. That is a compliment because I do like his regular playing as well, but the slide became his identity.

This is why I still love looking for new/old music. I’ve been listening to George Harrison for most of my life. I knew Alvin Lee through Ten Years After. Yet somehow The Bluest Blues slipped right past me. They complement each other so well in this song.

The song itself is simple and melodic. But the guitars are what make this one special for me. George Harrison comes in with that unmistakable slide sound and plays a solo that says more than a hundred notes could. Then Alvin Lee answers him in his own way.

Two completely different guitar players. Two completely recognizable sounds. And somehow they fit together perfectly. I can’t believe it took me this long to find it, but that’s the great thing about music. Another song is always hiding somewhere.

The Bluest Blues appeared on Alvin Lee’s Nineteen Ninety Four, originally released in 1993 and later issued in the United States under the title I Hear You Rockin’. Lee was joined by Steve Gould on bass, Alan Young on drums, Steve Grant on keyboards, and Tim Hinkley on Hammond organ. The special guest was George Harrison playing slide guitar. Harrison also appeared on Lee’s version of the Beatles’ I Want You (She’s So Heavy) on the same album.

Lee and Harrison weren’t strangers. They had known each other for years and had worked together before. Lee appeared on Harrison’s Ding Dong, Ding Dong, while Harrison had played with Lee on earlier recordings. By this time they were also neighbors in the Thames Valley area of England. It was one of those musical friendships that quietly produced some great music without getting a lot of attention.

What really gets me about this recording is the difference between the two guitar players. Alvin Lee became famous as the lightning-fast guitarist from Ten Years After, especially after Woodstock. George Harrison was almost the opposite. He wasn’t interested in playing the most notes. George had a way of making a guitar line sound like another voice in the song. He would play for the song completely.

George takes the first major slide solo, and if you’ve listened to him for years, you know it’s him almost immediately. Lee loved the solo himself. He said it was one of George’s best and praised its tenderness and melody. He also said hearing George changed his approach. Instead of playing the more aggressive solos he had been playing, Harrison inspired him to become more melodic.

That’s when the song really takes off. Lee stretches out during the second half and reminds you that there was much more to his playing than speed. His solo has plenty of technique, but there is also restraint and emotion. George doesn’t try to sound like Alvin, and Alvin doesn’t try to sound like George. That’s what makes the combination work.

The Bluest Blue

I couldn’t wait to see you, waiting by the door
There’s no one there to meet me, and your clothes are on the floor
Sorry if I hurt you, and I made you cry
Couldn’t stand to see you, with another guy
It’s the bluest blues, and it cuts me like a knife
It’s the bluest blues, since you walked out of my life

Couldn’t really tell you, how you hurt my pride
Something broke within me, down inside
I never knew I loved you, til you went away
Now the loneliness surrounds me, everyday
It’s the bluest blues, since you walked out of the door
It’s the bluest blues, ’cause I won’t see you no more

I’m sorry if I failed you, if somehow I’m to blame
It’s the bluest blues I’m feeling, it’s a cryin’ shame
I just can’t live without you, face another day
It’s the bluest blues I’m feeling, and it’s here to stay
It’s the bluest blues, and it cuts me to the bone
It’s the bluest blues, when you can’t find your way home