NOVEMBER 1971 (49 YEARS AGO)
Traffic: The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys is released.
# ALL THINGS MUSIC PLUS+ 5/5
# Allmusic 4.5/5
# Rolling Stone (see original review below)... View MoreNOVEMBER 1971 (49 YEARS AGO)
Traffic: The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys is released.
# ALL THINGS MUSIC PLUS+ 5/5
# Allmusic 4.5/5
# Rolling Stone (see original review below)
The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys is the sixth album by Traffic, released in the US in November 1971 (December 1971 in the UK). It reached #7 on the Billboard 200 Top LP's chart.
As with other Traffic albums, The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys featured different forms and offshoots of rock including jazz-rock, progressive rock, as well as classic rock and roll. The title of the album was suggested by the actor Michael J. Pollard. The album features the hit "Rock & Roll Stew (part 1)" and the FM hit, "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys."
The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys was a big change from the quiet, largely acoustic flavor of Traffic's reunion album John Barleycorn Must Die. Although the gentle opening track, "Hidden Treasure," and the meandering, mellow closer, "Rainmaker," were in keeping with the pastoral vibe of the previous record, sandwiched in between those are several increasingly aggressive and lyrically sour songs about that evergreen topic--life in a rock & roll band.
The venality of the business gets a workout in the 12-minute title track, a slow-building jazz-rock groove that starts with a sense of quiet menace and ends with a pealing, distorted guitar solo, with one of Steve Winwood's most impassioned and lengthy organ solos at the song's heart. "Rock & Roll Stew" and Jim Capaldi's sneering putdown "Light Up or Leave Me Alone" are even more forceful, with only the groovy ecological message of "Many a Mile to Freedom" lightening the mood. Even that song rocks harder than anything on John Barleycorn Must Die, though, and that extra hint of power is likely what helped make The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys Traffic's most commercially successful album in the United States.
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LINER NOTES (30th Anniversary Reissue)
Thirty years after its release in November 1971, The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys stands as Traffic’s biggest US commercial success and a cornerstone of their impressive legacy.
Traffic had only begun to make their mark when the original edition disbanded in January 1969. Steve Winwood’s next creative pursuit, a high profile role within the supergroup, Blind Faith, exposed his versatile skills to a much broader audience.
By 1970, Winwood reunited with Chris Wood and Jim Capaldi to craft the superb ‘comeback’ disc, John Barleycorn Must Die. That album, issued within the shadow of Winwood’s short tenure in Blind Faith, provided Traffic with their US commercial breakthrough and helped cultivate a wider audience for their music.
John Barleycorn Must Die skillfully revealed the group’s creative transformation. The whimsical flourishes of psychedelic pop had been cast aside and in their place came dynamic, expanded arrangements and an increased focus on Winwood’s unmistakable vocals.
Rather than simply replicate the successful formula that had produced John Barleycorn Must Die, Traffic continued to evolve, recruiting former Blind Faith bassist Rick Grech in mid 1970. In May1971, Winwood, Wood, and Capaldi recast the group once more, adding drummer Jim Gordon, recently departed from Derek & The Dominos, and percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah. The group was also joined by Dave Mason, an original Traffic member who had since departed to begin a solo career. This edition produced a handful of memorable performances that summer. The raucous Welcome To The Canteen, a live souvenir of two July 1971 performances in Croydon and London was issued in September 1971.
Despite the additional personnel, Traffic’s nucleus of Winwood, Wood, and Capaldi remained its strength. “We were the people who gave the band its character and made that peculiar blend of rock, folk, jazz, and R&B,” explained Winwood. “That is what we set out to do in that band, to create a kind of music that is eclectic. It was a conscious effort. Jim and I could play and sing, but Chris gave the band its character.”
Dave Mason would depart soon after the conclusion of the brief UK tour, but Traffic was determined to capture the extraordinary rhythmic interplay of which their recent live performances had only hinted. With a host of superb original compositions in tow, the group entered London’s Island Studios in September 1971 to begin recording.
The premium quality of the new material, largely composed by the fertile partnership of Winwood and Capaldi, served notice that this album would represent a work of special significance. “The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys”, the album’s majestic title track, set the mood entirely. Driven by Winwood’s wistful lead vocal, Traffic blended elements of rock, jazz, and African percussion with assurance. The interplay between Winwood and Wood during the song’s verses immediately recalled past triumphs, but this was a new work, more mature in tone and founded upon Winwood’s haunting piano melody.
As evidenced by the title track, the album’s mood seemed enclosed by a brooding sense of melancholy. The exuberance which had served as the foundation for so many Traffic recordings of the past was not on display, replaced instead by an older, seasoned Steve Winwood somewhat disillusioned by the process, yet still searching for fulfillment. The compelling “Many A Mile to Freedom” was one such example, yet nothing would articulate this sentiment more clearly than the poignant “Rainmaker”, another standout Winwood/Capaldi composition. Winwood’s impassioned lead vocal was tinged with sadness and served as the anchor for a magnificent group performance.
Capaldi’s sly “Light Up Or Leave Me Alone” would in time become a concert staple for the group. The brawny “Rock & Roll Stew”, written by Grech and Gordon, and voiced by Capaldi, was indicative of the group’s open, organic creative approach. Capaldi was quite a capable drummer in his own right, yet he welcomed Gordon into the band to take advantage of the creative possibilities. As a bonus, this special, remastered edition features the extended, full-length single version in addition to the original album track.
Warmly embraced by US audiences, The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys earned the group its second consecutive US Top Ten album. A successful, large scale US tour in support of the album further confirmed the group’s spiraling popularity. True to form, however, this edition of Traffic was also short lived. Shortly thereafter, Grech and Gordon were dismissed and Traffic soon reinvented themselves once more.
Three decades later, The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys has aged remarkably well. It remains one of Traffic’s finest achievements. “I think we progressed great,” Capaldi explained to journalist Chris Welch. “The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys was a high point. You hear it now and you can’t work out if it’s rock, jazz, or what. Traffic formed its own style. We used to call it Headless Horseman music. We really laid the groundwork for lots of other bands who became very technical and scientific. But we kept a very simple approach.”
JOHN McDERMOTT
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ORIGINAL ROLLING STONE REVIEW
Just as Traffic has provided some of the best onstage music performances of any group on the rock circuit, their albums have been among the best recorded in the business. Jimmy Miller produced the first three Traffic albums; Steve Winwood received one third of the credit for the fourth one, and takes all of it for this, the fifth. And it's a lot of credit that he deserves for the meticulous job he's accomplished. His work with the tracks in every case produced an integration of sounds which left nothing either crowded or isolated. He achieved additive results, improving upon at his mixing desk both the weak and the strong compositions of the album. Although he is not up to his highest form as a composer, as musicians he and Traffic have never played better.
The album opens with "Hidden Treasure," a number which could at first be easily mistaken for the work of Pentangle minus Jacqui McShee. As with John Barleycorn, the harmonies are English traditional sounding and the beat calypsoish. Grech's bass is sturdy, Capaldi gets a hollow sound from his drums, Winwood sings in his high and sibilant balladeering voice, and Wood ties everything together with a subdued flute accompaniment. In this song, as in all on this album, overdubs on vocals and instrumentals are used moderately and economically for maximum effect. Toward the end of the piece, the flute becomes dominant, tabla drumming starts in, and the music seems to somehow have relocated itself from old England to that Eastern-sounding world often conjured up by Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane.
"Light Up or Leave Me Alone," by Jim Capaldi, and Rick Grech's "Rock and Roll Stew" are, compared to Winwood's material, uninspired compositions, but both in the hands of the Traffic musicians are very pleasing and well worth listening to. "Light Up," with its chippy guitar lead and piquant vocal, is buoyantly humorous. Whatever impulse it is that causes a person in a good mood to wink his eye and grin at you is the same impulse that drives this music.
Winwood sings "Many a Mile to Freedom" with the high and gentle voice he used so well on songs like "Can't Find My Way Home." The song is based on two themes, one latin and flowing, and the other a more percussive variant of it. Capaldi is marvelously good with his drumming, and Wood with his warbling, soaring flute. Additional percussion, an electric piano, and a couple of splendidly direct guitar breaks round out the performance beautifully.
"Rainmaker" opens with Chris Wood's mysterious fluting, which is soon followed by a primitive sounding invocation to "Rainmaker, Rainmaker." The song for the first half pretty much belongs to Wood, whose flute solo abruptly shifts for a moment to a sax sounding like it's an electric violin, then back to the flute. After the final refrain is sung, the percussions and the sax tracks line up in your right and left channels to form a sonic gantlet through which the guitar runs like a prisoner of war captured by an Iroquois tribe. The effect is exciting, but short-lived by the time the song fades out.
The longest and best cut on the album is the title track. A good part of the song seems to be already underway when we fade in on it; the emotional effect on the listener is the equivalent in cinema terminology of a dolly-in, which serves to rid the audience of their detachment distance. By the time Winwood's vocal begins, you're locked into it. "You can't escape from the sound," he sings. "The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" has such creative ensemble playing in it that, like any fine jam, it would be dishonored with a play by play description. It's a sensuous black jazz piece except for the rock counter-theme (characteristically Traffic-sounding) which comes in with the refrain of every chorus. Each member of the group lays down a track or tracks which could in parts stand alone. Most impressive of all is the blowing which Wood does on his electric and acoustic saxes. Both he individually and Traffic as a group show on this cut that they have been working hard and well to fulfill the jazz promises they mad with "Glad" and "Freedom Rider."
In the past, when you heard a Traffic recording, whether you're a musician or just a listener, you were bound to gain new perceptions about how well music can be played and put together. The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys is no exception.
~ David Lubin (January 20, 1972)
TRACKS:
All songs written by Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi unless otherwise noted.
SIde one
"Hidden Treasure" – 4:16
"The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" – 11:35
"Light Up or Leave Me Alone" (Jim Capaldi) – 4:55
Side two
"Rock & Roll Stew" (Ric Grech, Jim Gordon) – 4:29
"Many a Mile to Freedom" (Steve Winwood, Anna Capaldi) – 7:26
"Rainmaker" – 7:39
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