Fantastic. Alvin Lee brings the John Lee Hooker, that is awesome, bro'. Thanks for posting that.

I am not necessarily a huge fan of the Yardbirds (their bluesy stuff doesn't swing enough for me, and their pop stuff is too uneven), but I really dig this one. It kind of straddles the early 60s jangly-clean sound with the late 60s sleazy tones. It's definitely a timepiece statement.

...I could (and probably shouldn't) do this all day.

He does indeed bring the Hooker, but instead of boogieing listlessly he takes it to a new place with those speedy runs. What we are witnessing here is the birth of 'shred' guitar. For years, Alvin Lee was the ultimate speed-demon on guitar which influenced a generation of players.

Enh. Those speedy runs are annoying me. It could be an artifact of the way it's mic'd or something, but to my ear the guitarist is completely off rhythm - not only is he out of rhythm with the band, but his fingers aren't keeping up with what he's trying to do. The rhythm section isn't particularly tight either, and I don't mean loose, I mean sloppy. It sounds bad.

The "Heartbreaker" solo came along just a couple months later, though. You can definitely hear the influence. Rock legato playing and the high-gain "sleazy" sound of the period developed hand in glove, because for the one you need the other.

It's a funny thing about Page. As sloppy as we could be (and he could be incredibly sloppy), his time was always impeccable. Here's a great live version of Heartbreaker.