Alvin Lee goes home

For 11 minutes back in the summer of 1969, Alvin Lee was the most electrifying man in rock and roll. He set his Gibson 335 on fire, figuratively if not literally, in front of 600,000 hippies on Max Yasgur's farm in upstate New York.

I remember listening to the Woodstock album along with Pete Madison in his bedroom the following summer, shaking my head at Lee's speed and dexterity. And we both knew that we would never hear anyone play the guitar that fast ever again.

Lee may not have changed the world (his wish in my favorite Ten Years After song), but he sure created a sense of wonder in a couple of teenagers in a small Pennsylvania town a long time ago.

RIP Alvin.