john barleycorn must die

Traffic gladly gathered up the bits and came back together centered 'round the same old fire, their fortunes for to try.   The group had disbanded after two albums ( 'Mr. Fantasy' and 'Traffic' ) when Steve Winwood left to record  'Blind Faith' with Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Rick Grech.  That group only lasted a year, after which Winwood and Chris Wood both played with Ginger Baker's Air Force.  In the meantime, Wood and Jim Capaldi had played with Mason, Capaldi, Wood and Frog (Wooden Frog) for a brief period.   Winwood began working on a solo album 'Mad Shadows' with producer Guy Stevens; but, after recording a couple of tracks, decided to invite his former bandmates to join him, effectively reuniting Traffic.   

'John Barleycorn Must Die' was recorded in London at Island Studios and Olympic Studios with Winwood, Stevens, and Chris Blackwell producing.  The sessions featured  Steve Winwood on vocals, Hammond organ, piano, electric piano, bass,  acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and percussion;     Chris Wood on saxophone, flute, Hammond organ, and percussion;    and  Jim Capaldi on vocals, drums, and percussion.     

Winwood looks back:  "There are no oaths of allegiance. If you feel your life will be better served by splitting up the group, you've got to do it - but of course it does cause problems. It caused problems when I left the Spencer Davis Group and joined Traffic. It caused problems with Traffic when I joined Blind Faith. But at the end of the day, I believe it was all in the cause of better music ...  I think I did prefer the freedom of the trios sound. It was very fluid and loose- its a very wonderful thing to work within a trio... It was Chris Wood who came up with the idea of doing John Barleycorn. He found the song, which is an Oxfordshire version from the 16th century. Chris came up with the idea; he was always introducing us to very different styles of music  ...  Most of the Traffic stuff stands the test of time pretty well. All of those albums are like my children, so I really can’t pick a favourite, but in many ways, John Barleycorn is the core of what Traffic is, and it could be the most definitive album we did."





http://www.stevewinwood.com/

http://chriswood-lunarmusic.com/

http://www.jimcapaldi.com/







'John Barleycorn Must Die'
full album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li-3B6ofyTc


Side one
"Glad" (Winwood) 6:59
"Freedom Rider" (Winwood/Capaldi) 6:20
"Empty Pages" (Winwood/Capaldi) 4:47
Side two
"Stranger to Himself" (Winwood/Capaldi) 4:02
"John Barleycorn" (traditional-arr. Winwood) 6:20
"Every Mother's Son" (Winwood/Capaldi)  7:05

traffic

Worlds collided when Traffic brought back their original lineup for the dichotomous recording of their eponymous second album.   Dave Mason had left the group after the success of their debut album 'Mr. Fantasy' to pursue a solo career, producing 'Music in a Doll's House' for Family before being invited to join Winwood, Capaldi, and Wood for the recording of 'Traffic'.  Mason recalls:  "Our sound started to come together, and started to gel, on that second Traffic album. I think it was great. My writing was really naive and trite. But sound-wise, and in terms being experimental, musically, there's a lot of shit in there. The second was more straightforward and more song-driven, really cool material. That one song, "Feelin' Alright," just never stopped."

Mason wrote and sang on half of the songs on 'Traffic' and contributed very little to the rest of the album.  His songs are more pop oriented, while the compositions brought by the rest of the group have a more experimental jazz feel.  By the time it was released he had left the band for good.  Winwood expressed at the time:  "We're not too bothered about singles because in the future we'd like to concentrate more on LPs. In the past, a lot of things have relied on our singles being in the charts and we want to get over that. In some ways popularity can rely on the charts, and I don't think it is a good thing. It is for some people maybe, but it isn't for us...I don't think any group has really been so far from rock 'n' roll. It's never been that far away...This rock thing is progression itself in its own way. There is still room to go ahead. There are lots of ways to go ahead and some of the ways can involve rock 'n' roll. We might do some rock, but I think we are on our own road...When we started and were living in the cottage we began by talking together and getting to know each other's ideas on music before we actually did anything. What we really wanted to do was to take things that were going on around us and just express them in musical terms. Not necessarily political things, just things that were happening around us. We have reached some of these achievements but there is still a lot we have to do...We work on basic structures. Practically every number is improvised from there. And we've found that since there's only 3 of us, since Dave left, it has been easier for us to do it that way. We can get a lot more spontaneity on stage. But because so much of it is improvisation, you must have bad nights as well as good nights. At the Speakeasy we thought we weren't much good, but afterwards, friends were coming up and saying we'd been the best they'd seen us for ages. You can easily get all screwed up thinking about it and probably the best thing to do is just go out and play. You can think too deeply about it at times. Unfortunately we have got this thing in America where everybody has heard of us and everybody is going to be there watching. And if we thought about that too much it could screw us up. I suppose really it is a matter of nerves and you should just go out there and do it."

Mason reveals:   "I was trying to figure out what it was I was doing. I had never really written until that band formed. It basically formed with four guys, and we just hung out for a year. Partied, and fucking late-night shit, playing records. And that's really how Traffic came about, that and Stevie's desire to stop being tagged as the young Ray Charles. He was bored with doing the Spencer Davis thing, and wanted to try something new. It started out that way, a group of people, and for me it was, 'Well, shit, this is a great opportunity to be as original as we can.' So my focus was on writing.  When we started, they were looking at doing covers of stuff, too. I mean, Stevie's written enough catchy melodies on his own. My sensibility is a pop sensibility. I look for the melody that will stick, and the lyric, and the hook. "Hole in My Shoe" is the first thing I ever wrote. Looking back at all that early stuff, I think a lot of it is really trite and banal. It's very naive, let me put it that way. Which, in a sense, was where I was at anyway. I was just a kid from the country, basically. I grew up well, but I grew up in a very rural setting. Steve formed an alliance with Jim [Capaldi] because of Jim's lyrics — Jim was great with lyrics, and that's not Steve's forte. But music and playing and melodies, yeah, and singing. That just happened. To me, it was more of a strength to have those differences in there. And then my stuff started getting picked for all the singles. To me it was like, so fuckin' what? Who cares who writes a hit single? That means that more people are gonna listen to the album, and get drawn more into the other music you're doing. It's like having a Lennon and McCartney together — together, they're great. Separately, Paul's a little sappy and John can get a little too over the edge. I always looked at Traffic that way. The problem was that what I was doing became, for them, a monumental fucking problem, to the point where they didn't want me in the band any more. That's why I basically just up and went, "You know what, fuck it, I'm gonna go where this music started. I'm going to America."

Capaldi says:    “This is why Traffic has such an eclectic shape, because there wasn’t much we couldn’t get into. Steve could basically go in any direction, really, that you needed to go...[It] gave us the freedom to be able to be so musical, we could go anywhere. There aren’t many bands I can think of that could really go to the places we went to musically.”

'Traffic' traveled to number seventeen in the US, fifteen in Canada, and nine in the UK.  









'Traffic'
full album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8-EFlkVTok




1."You Can All Join In" (Mason) -- 3:34 Dave Mason -- lead vocal, guitar; Steve Winwood -- electric guitar, bass, backing vocal; Chris Wood -- tenor saxophone; Jim Capaldi -- drums, backing vocal
2."Pearly Queen" (Capaldi/Winwood) -- 4:20 Winwood -- vocal, Hammond organ, electric guitar, bass; Wood -- flute; Mason -- harmonica; Capaldi -- drums
3."Don't Be Sad" (Mason) -- 3:24 Mason -- vocal, harmonica, electric guitar; Winwood -- vocal, Hammond organ, electric rhythm guitar, bass; Wood -- soprano saxophone; Capaldi -- drums, backing vocal
4."Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring" (Capaldi/Winwood/Wood)-- 3:11 Winwood -- vocals, Hammond organ, guitars, bass; Capaldi -- drums, percussion, backing vocal
5."Feelin' Alright?" (Mason) -- 4:16 Mason -- lead vocal, guitar; Winwood -- piano, bass, backing vocal; Wood -- tenor saxophone, backing vocal; Capaldi -- drums, percussion
6."Vagabond Virgin" (Capaldi/Mason) -- 5:21 Mason -- vocal, guitar; Capaldi -- vocal, drums, percussion; Winwood -- piano, bass, backing vocal; Wood -- flute
7."(Roamin' Thru the Gloamin' with) 40,000 Headmen" (Capaldi/Winwood) -- 3:15 Winwood -- vocal, guitar, organ, bass; Wood -- flute, Coke tin, sleigh bells; Capaldi -- drums
8."Cryin' to Be Heard" (Mason) -- 5:14 Mason -- lead vocal, bass; Winwood -- Hammond organ, harpsichord, backing vocal; Wood -- soprano saxophone; Capaldi -- drums, backing vocal
9."No Time to Live" (Capaldi/Winwood) -- 5:10 Winwood -- lead vocal, piano, bass; Wood -- soprano saxophone; Mason -- Hammond organ; Capaldi -- drums
10."Means to an End" (Capaldi/Winwood) -- 2:39 Winwood -- vocals, piano, electric guitar, bass; Wood -- drums, percussion

mr. fantasy

Traffic took a daring on ramp into the progressive music scene with the eclectic jams of this whimsical intersection of  psychedelic rock and jazz fusion.  The members of the band first played together at Elbow Room in Aston, Birmingham.  Steve Winwood says:  "It was at the end of my Spencer Davis Group days, and we all used to go to this drinking-gambling club where Jim used to play, and like we used to get up and play with him and jam.  And we just got together."

Dave Mason recalls:  “He was in The Spencer Group and The Hellions use to play up in Birmingham, which is twenty-five miles from Worcester, and through that we met Steve and Chris Wood. Basically, we just hung out for a year or so, just run into each other, and then at one point Steve had decided he was going to leave The Spencer Davis Group. During that time, during that break, I’d sung on a couple of their recordings, 'Somebody Help Me' and most of Traffic was on, 'Gimme Some Lovin' and it’s pretty much all of us singing in the background of, 'I’m A Man'. I kind of played Roadie for a couple of months with them and then we formed Traffic.”

They rented a cottage near Aston Tirrold, Berkshire to go rehearse and compose.  Jim Capaldi considers:  "The four of us ... went back to the country to abandon the urban distractions and get into the music set a definite trend."

Chris Wood explains:  "Our point in going into hiding, as people said, was to get the best conditions to create our own sort of music.  There’s this social scene in London and you have to be very strong as individuals not to get caught up in it. We prefer to get outside London.  In the city you can’t just make noise whenever you want to.  It’s important, to us anyway, to be able to do what we want just when we all feel like it."

Capaldi adds:  "I sometimes look back and feel that we were an experimental group that went out into the natural wilds just to hammer it all out.  Back then, all the rock music was anchored to the city life."

The band secured deal with Island Records and they had immediate success with their first three singles: 'Paper Sun', 'Hole in My Shoe',  and 'Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush'.  Mason says:   “Well, Steve already had three, four, top ten records so he had kind of an entree in that way. Then I started writing and Jim and Steve started writing. And my writing I pretty much did on my own. Then the problems started to happen when the stuff that I was writing was the stuff picked for singles. And their biggest hit at the time was the first song I’d ever written, kind of a fantasy tune called, 'Hole in My Shoe' and that got to number two in England and was really their biggest single hit. After the first album I left, and the reason I left was because I couldn’t really deal with the fame so quickly, it was just a little overwhelming for me. So, I actually left and did a couple of things, worked with starting to produce an album for a group called Family, Music in a Dollhouse and then I got to know Hendrix and spent a little time recording with him ...and some of it was on Electric Ladyland."

'Mr. Fantasy' was recorded over seven months at 
Olympic Studios in London with producer Jimmy Miller and engineer Eddie Kramer.  The sessions included Jim Capaldi on drums, percussion, and vocals; Dave Mason on guitar, mellotron, sitar, tambura, shakkai, bass guitar, and vocals; Steve Winwood on organ, guitar, bass guitar, piano, harpsichord, percussion, vocals, and arrangements; and Chris Wood on flute, saxophone, organ, percussion and vocals, and sleeve design.

Winwood would explain:  "It started actually with a big hang-up with Dave over a year ago, it was before Traffic had started, but it really had started.  Dave got this paranoia that he couldn't play his instrument, you see, because we went through this scent of knowing each other before we got into playing, because all the time I was playing with Spencer we used to go around together but we never got a chance to play together and Dave got this hang-up about not being able to play, and this is really how the 'Fantasy' them came about.  Like to us music was a fantasy because we used to think in terms of it but we never got to play together so playing was a fantasy." 

Mason revealed:  "Steve played most of the guitar on the early Traffic stuff. And then the second one came out. I didn't really start playing anything worthwhile on guitar until I did Alone Together, actually."

'Mr. Fantasy' was initially released under the title 'Heaven Is In Your Mind' in the US with a completely different track listing, adding two of the singles.  The album went to number eighty-eight in the US and eight in the UK.  






http://www.stevewinwood.com/


http://chriswood-lunarmusic.com/


http://www.jimcapaldi.com/







"Dear Mr. Fantasy"  

 "It was done on impulse with practically nothing worked out, because it was almost jammed. The initial spirit of the whole thing was captured on record - which is very rare. That was one of the things, because it is not specifically an outstanding melody or an outstanding chord sequence or anything. It's basically quite simple. They're very simple lyrics and they're repeated three times...Actually how it started was that Jim did a drawing during the time when we were thinking about cover ideas for the first LP. And Jim drew a picture of this guy who was Mr.Fantasy with hair like the Statue of Liberty, he had on a long robe and he was playing a guitar with strings coming from his fingers, and by the side of it Jim had written: "Dear Mr. Fantasy, sing us a tune / Something to make us all happy / Do anything, take us out of this gloom / Sing a song, play guitar make it snappy". Just these four lines scribbled out at the side, just a single poem for the front cover. And then Jim flaked out and Chris and I stayed up all night and then got the thing together. And we set a live mike on a stage in the studio. We tried sitting in the little boxes and cans, but it just didn't work for this number. It wasn't half so strong after we'd done it. It was time that gave it a lot of meaning."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxVlN-LzIks

Dear Mister Fantasy play us a tune

Something to make us all happy

Do anything take us out of this gloom

Sing a song, play guitar

Make it snappy

You are the one who can make us all laugh

But doing that you break out in tears

Please don't be sad if it was a straight mind you had

We wouldn't have known you all these years

live:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSQ1akE2CcM

"Heaven Is in Your Mind"  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR3qTWZ9zik

"Paper Sun" was the band's first single and charted at number ninety-four in the US, twelve in the Netherlands, and number five in the UK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cp_3NEWTzU






"Hole in My Shoe"  twenty-one in Germany, nine in the Netherlands, and number two in the UK. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a77yHpjdUtU









"Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush"  went to number thirty-four in the Netherlands and eight in the UK.  It also became the soundtrack and title of a British film.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYvEHlXRZlc











'Mr. Fantasy' 

full album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNdr3mgf5HE



1. "Heaven Is in Your Mind" Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood, Chris Wood Winwood and Capaldi 4:16
2. "Berkshire Poppies" Capaldi, Winwood, Wood Winwood 2:55
3. "House for Everyone" Dave Mason Mason 2:05
4. "No Face, No Name, No Number" Capaldi, Winwood Winwood 3:35
5. "Dear Mr. Fantasy" Capaldi, Winwood, Wood Winwood 5:44
6. "Dealer" Capaldi, Winwood Capaldi and Winwood 3:34
7. "Utterly Simple" Mason Mason 3:16
8. "Coloured Rain" Capaldi, Winwood, Wood Winwood 2:43
9. "Hope I Never Find Me There" Mason Mason 2:12
10. "Giving to You" (album version) Capaldi, Mason, Winwood, Wood None 4:20

the low spark of high heeled boys

Traffic's newly expanded lineup focused their live energies into the studio without Dave Mason but with more than a little blind faith. The trio of remaining original members Steve Winwood, Chris Wood, and Jim Capaldi were joined by Ric Grech on bass and violin, Jim Gordon on drums, Rebop Kwaku Baah on percussion. 'The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys' was produced by Winwood at Island Studios in London. It went gold, hitting number seven on the US album chart and went on to sell over a million copies.






http://www.stevewinwood.com/

http://chriswood-lunarmusic.com/

http://www.jimcapaldi.com/








Jim Capaldi and Steve Winwood co-wrote the disillusioned title track. According to Capaldi: "Pollard and I would sit around writing lyrics all day, talking about Bob Dylan and the Band, thinking up ridiculous plots for the movie. Before I left Morocco, Pollard wrote in my book 'The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys.' For me, it summed him up. He had this tremendous rebel attitude. He walked around in his cowboy boots, his leather jacket. At the time he was a heavy little dude. It seemed to sum up all the people of that generation who were just rebels. The 'Low Spark,' for me, was the spirit, high-spirited. You know, standing on a street corner. The low rider. The 'Low Spark' meaning that strong undercurrent at the street level."

"The percentage you're paying is too high-priced,

While you're living beyond all your means.

And the man in the suit has just bought a new car

From the profit he's made on your dreams

But today you just read that the man was shot dead

By a gun that didn't make any noise.

But it wasn't the bullet that laid him to rest,

Was the low spark of high-heeled boys."

'Light Up or Leave Me Alone'

"Sometimes I feel like I'm fading away

You're looking at me, I've got nothing to say

Don't make me angry with the games that you play

Either light up or leave me alone"

'Rainmaker'









'The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys' 
full album:

Side 1

"Hidden Treasure" (Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi) – 4:16

"The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" (Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi) – 11:35

"Light Up or Leave Me Alone" (Jim Capaldi) – 4:55

Side 2

"Rock & Roll Stew" (Ric Grech, Jim Gordon) – 4:29

"Many a Mile to Freedom" (Steve Winwood, Anna Capaldi) – 7:26

"Rainmaker" (Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi) – 7:39

bonus track

"Rock & Roll Stew Parts 1 & 2" (Grech, Gordon) – 6:07