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.
![Jetta - I'd Love To Change The World (Matstubs Remix) [Official Video]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/y4LZv16V6w8/hqdefault.jpg)
Never let anyone tell you recycling isn’t popular.