Stonedhenge is the second studio album, and third album overall, by English blues rock band Ten Years After, released in February 1969 by Deram Records. It was recorded with producer Mike Vernon at London's Decca Studios in September 1968.
Believing that the group's live album Undead (1968) had already perfectly captured their talents, frontman and guitarist Alvin Lee conceived Stonedhenge as a change in direction. A psychedelic blues album, it expands the group's boogie rock sound into more experimental territory, incorporating jazz, progressive pop and musique concrète styles, with deployment of studio effects, stereo panning and tape manipulation. Influences on the recording included Tod Dockstader and Canned Heat. Although largely written by Lee, the record also feature solo pieces from all four band members. The title alludes to marijuana and the ancient monument Stonehenge, the latter of which is illsutrated on the psychedelic album cover.
On release, Stonedhenge was the band's biggest album yet, reaching number six on the British charts and number 61 in the United States. Music critics have discussed the album's variety and the band's performances. The album set the group up for a heavy year of touring and performances at numerous American festivals, including a famous appearance at Woodstock. Stonedhenge has been re-released several times, including with bonus tracks in 2002.
Background and recording
After forming in 1965, Ten Years After were distinguished from hardcore blues groups in Britain by mixing the genre with rock and roll and jazz, and were part of the burgeoning progressive music scene. The group's debut album Ten Years After (1967) was largely ignored, although it essayed the group's "raw, jazzy approach to the blues", and their popularity only began to blossom via months of fatiguing club work. Having believed the record did not capture their live sound, the group followed it with the live album Undead (1968), recorded at a small club in London. According to Colin Larkin, the album "spread the word" that frontman Alvin Lee was "not only an outstanding guitarist, but the fastest by a mile." It was their first record to chart in the United Kigndom and United States.
Lee was so pleased with Undead, considering it to have captured the group's sound perfectly, that he conceived Stonedhenge as a radical change in direction. He recalled: "I was so happy with [Undead]. When I first heard it I thought, what are we going to do next? After that my attitude was, 'Let's go into the studio and experiment, because we've already made the ultimate album'." Ten Years After recorded Stonedhenge at Decca Studios in West Hampstead between 3–15 September 1968, working with producer Mike Vernon and engineers Roy Baker and Martin Smith. Vernon had acquired British blues pedigree, having worked with Eric Clapton and Fleetwood Mac. Baker is also credited for the "special sound effect" on "No Title", while Smith is credited for providing the "train effect" on "Speed Kills". Alvin Lee's credits include "Chinese fans" ("Skooby-Oobly-Doobob"), clog stamping ("Hear Me Calling"), and a "steel on steel effect" ("No Title"). The musician recalled that there were "[p]ipes and stuff like that all over the place" during the recording, and described the process as being defined by "not particularly what we wanted to do, but the way we did what we happened to do".
Composition
Stonedhenge features seven songs written by Alvin Lee, along with a song each from bass guitarist Leo Lyons, keyboardist Chick Churchill and drummer Ric Lee. According to Beat Instrumental, it is a more of an experimental album than the group's earlier work, deploying "a lot of trickery and studio effects combined with fairly untypical Ten Years After material". According to critic Hal Horowitz, the group experimented to expand their basic boogie rock sound, working with Vernon to steer into "a more jazz- and blues-oriented direction" without losing their "basic concept", while Melody Maker said that although there are still traces of blues, the record also heavily incorporates jazz and progressive pop material, resulting in an album that is hard to classify. Author Eric vd Luft wrote that although it is as "mostly bluesy" as the group's earlier albums, it "rocked a bit harder". The album has been described as 'progressive blues' and the group's sole example of a psychedelic blues album, while author Robert Santelli wrote that, as with the band's other 1960s records, it is a jazz-rock album with "a blues core."