Choo Choo Mama Ten Years After

Choo Choo Mama
Ten Years After

Rock & Roll Music to the World is the seventh studio album by the English band Ten Years After, released in 1972. It includes several Ten Years After standards, including "Standing at the Station", "Choo Choo Mama", and the title track.

Woodstock made Ten Years After into world stars.

It was getting dark by the time Ten Years After took the stage at Woodstock back in 1969. The rain had come bucketing down mid-way through the afternoon, just as they’d been about to go on, drenching the stage and turning the site into a quagmire.

The audience – variously estimated at between 350,000 and 500,000 – was wet, chilled and bedraggled; many of them were the worse for wear after three days in the open. The band weren’t in much better shape, having travelled overnight from St Louis, making the last leg by helicopter and then being cooped up on-site in the back of a trailer, waiting for the rain to stop.

In the movie of Woodstock, the camera picks out the skinny frame of TYA’s Alvin Lee, his boyish face ringed by shoulder-length blond hair. “This is a thing called ‘I’m Going Home’… by helicopter!” he announces, and for a dozen seconds he rattles out notes on his trademark Gibson guitar that sound like a sustained burst of machine-gun fire.

The band then kick into a breakneck boogie and the song takes off; Alvin spits out the vocals, filling in the spaces with more guitar salvos. The camera remains fixed on him; there are just occasional glimpses of keyboard player Chick Churchill, drummer Ric Lee (no relation) and bassist Leo Lyons, who is headbanging furiously. Alvin leads the song high and low, never letting the pace flag, until nine minutes later he builds to a final warp-speed cacophony.

The crowd, their central heating now restored... erupts.

official length 4:02
Track 07

http://www.tenyearsafternow.com/

Alvin Lee – guitar, vocals
Leo Lyons – bass
Ric Lee – drums
Chick Churchill – organ, piano, synthesizer

Chris Kimsey - engineer

Written by: Alvin Lee
Album: Rock & Roll Music to the World
Released: 1972

Choo choo mama, won't you ride the train?
My life without you is just misery and pain, come back to me
I'll treat you best I can
Choo choo mama, you should have a choo choo man

Choo choo mama, won't you ride a rail?
I need your loving, can't you hear me wail, come back to me
You know I love you so
Choo choo mama, won't you get a choo choo home?

Choo choo mama, won't you ride the track?
I need your loving, won't you bring some back on home to me
I need your loving, babe
Choo choo mama, don't you know you drive me mad?

Choo choo mama, you're a cheery thing
I love you, baby, can't you help me sing, come back to me
I want you back again
Choo choo mama, won't you get a choo choo train?