Ten Years After: The Anthology (1967-1971)

This partial album contains 11 tracks that appeared on the band’s first three albums and the 1968 single “Portable People” / “The Sounds” that appeared on Alvin Lee & Company. The band, initially, were much more inspired by traditional jazz and blues than rock and were heavier into improvisation as the somber cover of Al Kooper’s “I Can’t Keep from Crying, Sometimes” and the live “I May Be Wrong, but I Won’t Be Wrong Always” indicate. These tracks from Ten Years After, Undead and Stonedhenge form an interesting nucleus that’s pure English jazz-blues club fare done astonishingly well. The band’s legendary track “I’m Going Home” can be found in exemplary form on Undead and a number of solid mid-period TYA albums, such as The Best of Ten Years After. Those searching for the more rock-oriented blues period are best steered towards Think About the Times: The Chrysalis Years (1969-72), which contains all the material from that era.