I heard this song Saturday and knew I had to move it into Sunday’s post. I’ve heard this song many times over the years, but sometimes a song catches you differently on a particular day. I love that acoustic opening, and then Alvin Lee’s electric guitar comes cutting through it. His playing always had a sound of its own.
Ten Years After formed in England in the 1960s with Alvin Lee, Leo Lyons, Ric Lee, and Chick Churchill. They came out of the British blues scene, but they could stretch far beyond straight blues. Alvin Lee became the obvious focal point because of his guitar playing. Their appearance at Woodstock in 1969, particularly their performance of I’m Going Home, introduced the band to a much larger American audience.
I’d Love To Change The World was written by Alvin Lee and released on the 1971 album A Space in Time. It became their best-known song in America and reached the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was also a change for the band. There was more emphasis on songs and acoustic textures instead of the extended blues workouts they had become known for.
What I like about the song is the contrast. It starts quietly with that acoustic guitar while Lee sings about a world filled with division, inequality and confusion. Then the electric guitar enters and changes the entire atmosphere. His guitar doesn’t overwhelm the song. It answers it. Lee was known for playing incredibly fast, but this is a good example of why speed wasn’t the only thing he had going for him.
I hear this song, and I’m transported to the sixties. Guitarist Alvin Lee wrote and sang it. It peaked at #40 on the Billboard 100 and #10 in Canada. It’s been in many movies and TV shows. When I think of Ten Years After, I think of Woodstock and them playing “I’m Going Home” and Alvin Lee playing his guitar like it’s on fire…plus this one.
I’d Love To Change The World is over fifty years old now. Unfortunately, we still haven’t figured out what to do. Maybe that’s why it still sounds so good.
I’d Love To Change The World
Everywhere is freaks and hairies
Dykes and fairies, tell me where is sanity
Tax the rich, feed the poor
Till there are no rich no more?
I’d love to change the world
But I don’t know what to do
So I’ll leave it up to you
Population keeps on breeding
Nation bleeding, still more feeding economy
Life is funny, skies are sunny
Bees make honey, who needs money, Monopoly
I’d love to change the world
But I don’t know what to do
So I’ll leave it up to you
World pollution, there’s no solution
Institution, electrocution
Just black and white, rich or poor
Them and us, stop the war
I’d love to change the world
But I don’t know what to do
So I’ll leave it up to you
