Once the 1960s music scene faded, the ’70s music scene became a parade of trends, but the decade was also marked by innovative and enigmatic musical artists whose sound was undefinable.
While groups like Steely Dan parlayed their eccentric subversiveness into huge hits and platinum albums, other groups – like, say, Roxy Music – had a rabid cult following, but mostly did not score hit albums or sell out arenas. Another band with a cult following who started in the late 1960s, but whose sound was a lynchpin of ’70s rock was Traffic. The group was primarily led by Steve Winwood, who left the Spencer Davis Group to form Traffic, and also included Dave Mason early on. But albums made by the core group of Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood defined the group’s brand of improvisational jazz-inspired rock that retained some of the psychedelic and English folk stylings of their early albums with Mason.
Traffic’s first two albums, 1967’s Mr. Fantasy and 1968’s Traffic, mixed rock, pop, folk psychedelia, R&B and a little jazz. The albums, however, were tense affairs, with Winwood and Mason’s ideas, influences and musical direction often at odds. The group broke up briefly, and Winwood forming Blind Faith with fellow English musicians Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker of Cream and Ric Grech of Family for one album in 1969. In the interim, Traffic’s record company released Last Exit, which featured one side recorded live at the Fillmore West and the other consisting of a hodgepodge of singles-related releases, with two featuring Mason.
They reconvened, this time without Dave Mason, and Traffic’s next three LP – 1970’s John Barleycorn Must Die, 1971’s The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys and 1973’s Shootout at the Fantasy Factory – solidified the group’s place in the ’70s rock scene as selected cuts became turntable hits or staples of FM radio. The albums were marked by long, improvisational jams, loose thematic concepts and a sound that was unlike any other act of the time. For many, these records represent the best music Steve Winwood ever committed to vinyl.
Their final album, 1974’s When the Eagle Flies, is a criminally underrated affair infused with moody, near gothic, autumnal folk and jazz-flavored rock. It was Traffic’s last with Chris Wood, whose drug problems were exacerbated by a series of personal problems which became acute during the Shootout at the Fantasy Factory. He died in 1983, before Winwood and Capaldi could reunite for 1994’s Far From Home. It’s also important to point out that Jim Capaldi was more than just a drummer: He wrote or co-wrote most of the songs on the group’s albums, and sang lead on such songs as “Rock & Roll Stew” and “Light Up or Leave Me Alone” from The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys.
Traffic’s catalog, save for Last Exit and Far From Home, has been re-issued twice in the past two years. The Studio Recordings 1967-74 box was released in 2019, and now all six albums in that set have been released individually through Universal. The box did not include any additional tracks, booklets, new liner notes, or memorabilia of any kind, other than facsimile promo posters for each album.
The albums are presented in their original packaging and sport the iconic pink U.K. Island Records label where applicable, and were mastered from the original tapes then pressed on 180-gram vinyl. Unfortunately, the new individual album reissues, while retaining the mastering and pressing process of those in the box, do not retain the original packaging and labels. In the case of The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys and Shootout at the Fantasy Factory, the album jackets are not presented in their unique die-cut packaging.
While none of the albums that originally were gatefolds are presented that way, several do have inserts and John Barleycorn Must Die even boasts a fold-out poster. All the packages include a download code and all of the record sleeves are poly-lined. Beyond Last Exit, the new individual series also omits two other live albums from the group’s first run: 1971’s Welcome to the Canteen (recorded in London, and featuring Mason, Ric Grech, Jim Gordon and Rebop Kwaku Baah) and 1973’s On the Road (a double album recorded in Germany). There was also a live project from the Far From Home tour, released in 2005 as The Last Great Traffic Jam.
These new individual albums provide an opportunity for those interested in checking out the group on vinyl for the first time, without having to track down clean, affordable copies of original pressings. Those who want to replace old albums or fill out their Traffic library will find these reissues a good option. Others who were either too young to know about the group’s early albums with David Mason, or who never heard the group’s obscure When the Eagle Flies, will also appreciate them.
Perhaps there will be a second box set, to include Last Exit, Welcome to the Canteen and On the Road, along with studio extras or rarities and maybe even additional live recordings, with an extensive booklet detailing the group’s rich history and memorabilia of some kind. Traffic is too important a group not to be given a bespoke live/rarities box as a companion to these studio recordings.
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