Song of the Day 2/15: Ten Years After, “I’d Love to Change the World”
This song, the highlight of the band’s 1971 album “A Space in Time,” was by critical consensus the pinnacle of British blues guitarist Alvin Lee’s career, though I have to agree with Robert Christgau about the empty philosophy Lee espouses — “Fellow seems to believe that if you ‘tax the rich to feed the poor’ you soon run out of rich, with dire consequences,” he wrote, back before that become a popular position. Never mind. The guitar work more than makes up for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyaFeDlJJAk
I don’t hear this song on classic rock stations much anymore. But despite its line about “dykes and fairies,” it hasn’t disappeared. Anything but. In 2014 a British singer named Jetta reimagined the song in a menacing “In the Air Tonight” vein.
Her interpretation was used on several movie and TV soundtracks, but it really exploded when it got a Matstubs remix soon after. His version has almost 200 million views.
Never let anyone tell you recycling isn’t popular.
This is a song that when I close my eyes, It grabs me and takes me right back to the early 70s and college days. And I love the guitar work. The new version might appeal to some, but I am an old person now, and will stick with the original.
A timeless classic for sure, I prefer the original but I think the recycling tries to give it credence.