Ten Years After – Love Like A Man

Boogie thunder, modal smoke: a riff that slips from club grind to cosmic glide

On 1970’s Cricklewood Green, Ten Years After drop “Love Like a Man,” a tight studio cut built to open up onstage. Written by frontman Alvin Lee and issued on Deram, it became the band’s sole hit on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at No. 10 in August 1970.

Historically, the band sit inside the late-’60s/early-’70s British blues-rock revival—neighbors to outfits like Cream, early Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack, the Climax Blues Band, and Savoy Brown—bridging club-circuit grit with longer, jam-friendly forms that carried easily to big rooms and festivals.

Video (Winterland, August 4, 1975): Captured at Bill Graham’s Winterland Ballroom, the quartet—Alvin Lee (guitar/vocal), Leo Lyons (bass), Ric Lee (drums), Chick Churchill (keys)—hits “Love Like a Man” early in the set. This take runs about 5:41 in the Bill Graham Archives audio, leaner than the marathon jams but still stretching the mid-section before slamming back into the riff.

Album detail worth noting: all songs on Cricklewood Green were written by Alvin Lee; “Love Like a Man” appears on side two (track 2) at 7:29 on the LP, paired on single with a longer live B-side from Fillmore East—unusually cut at 33⅓ rpm while the A-side played at 45 rpm.

Personnel and Credits
Alvin Lee — lead vocal, lead & rhythm guitars; songwriter
Leo Lyons — bass guitar
Ric Lee — drums, percussion
Chick Churchill — Hammond organ, keys
From the album Cricklewood Green (1970)