Traffic - The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys

[Adinfinitum]

Steve Winwood could sing a Wikipedia article and it would be heavenly to me. An amazing talent and incredible voice. And damn Glad/Freedom Rider/Empty Pages and Low Spark are just amazing songs that I never get tired of.

FYI - I always thought it was a distorted Chris Wood sax in Low Spark. It didn't even occur to me that Steve pulled a Jon Lord and played the Hammond sans Leslie through a overdriven amp. Wow.

Today we have all this incredible technology and those 70's bands still blow us away making due with Hammonds, Marshall's, Moogs/Arps, Strats, Les Pauls, some crappy stomp boxes, stellar engineers, 16 tracks and creativity.

[bRETT]

FYI - I always thought it was a distorted Chris Wood sax in Low Spark. It didn't even occur to me that Steve pulled a Jon Lord and played the Hammond sans Leslie through a overdriven amp. Wow.

If you mean the distorted solo toward the end (and the long note at the very end of the song), I am pretty sure that is Wood, and that Winwood only plays piano on the track. Have no proof, but I think it was discussed here some time ago. And Wood was definitely fond of using wah-wahs and other devices.

[trurl]

It's an organ. Though there is some sax going on on the track...

[Dave (in MA)]

Listen at around the 5 and a half minute mark and you hear that sound alongside Wood's sax. Any Canterbury fan ought to be able to identify it as a keyboard.
In the live video from Santa Monica, Winwood stuck with the piano, and there's a lengthy solo by Wood on electrified sax using the wah-wah, so maybe that's where the controversy started.

[Dave (in MA)]

Today we have all this incredible technology and those 70's bands still blow us away making due with Hammonds, Marshall's, Moogs/Arps, Strats, Les Pauls, some crappy stomp boxes, stellar engineers, 16 tracks and creativity.

Not to mention the vibraslap.

[JJ88]

If you mean the distorted solo toward the end (and the long note at the very end of the song), I am pretty sure that is Wood, and that Winwood only plays piano on the track. Have no proof, but I think it was discussed here some time ago. And Wood was definitely fond of using wah-wahs and other devices.

That 'note' at the end is a chord. Unless Wood overdubbed there's no way he could have played that IMHO.

I agree with Adinfinitum, sometimes more is created out of limitation. I much prefer the early keyboard sounds to what came later...you could mess around with them because of their in-built quirks.

[Trane]

for a while Hot Tuna (and to a lesser extent Jefferson Airplane ) werejamming every day...

Hot Tuna would open the show, than the Airplane would do their stuff, and afterwards Jorma, Casady and Dryden (and later Covington) would return to the stage and jam out for another 90 minutes (and sometimes more)...

Meaning that some days Jorma and Casady played up to six hours live (according to Jeff Tamarkin)

[Trane]

If you mean the distorted solo toward the end (and the long note at the very end of the song), I am pretty sure that is Wood, and that Winwood only plays piano on the track. Have no proof, but I think it was discussed here some time ago. And Wood was definitely fond of using wah-wahs and other devices.

Listen at around the 5 and a half minute mark and you hear that sound alongside Wood's sax. Any Canterbury fan ought to be able to identify it as a keyboard.
In the live video from Santa Monica, Winwood stuck with the piano, and there's a lengthy solo by Wood on electrified sax using the wah-wah, so maybe that's where the controversy started.

As far as I can hear, this is indeed Wood's sax... I've seen different videos where indeed Wood's successor plays the part.

[GuitarGeek]

FYI - I always thought it was a distorted Chris Wood sax in Low Spark. It didn't even occur to me that Steve pulled a Jon Lord and played the Hammond sans Leslie through a overdriven amp. Wow.
.

Not an overdriven amp, but a fuzztone. He said when he was interviewed in Keyboard magazine back in the early 80's. The interviewer actually asked if it was a sax, then said something like "Or maybe it's a synth through a fuzztone", and Steve said "Actually, it's an organ through a fuzz".

[GuitarGeek]

As far as I can hear, this is indeed Wood's sax... I've seen different videos where indeed Wood's successor plays the part.

What's done on a live performance and what's done on a studio track aren't always the same thing.

[Trane]

What's done on a live performance and what's done on a studio track aren't always the same thing.

Agreed, but it's easier to "cheat" in the studio than on stage

[Rarebird]

Steve Winwood could sing a Wikipedia article and it would be heavenly to me. An amazing talent and incredible voice. And damn Glad/Freedom Rider/Empty Pages and Low Spark are just amazing songs that I never get tired of.

FYI - I always thought it was a distorted Chris Wood sax in Low Spark. It didn't even occur to me that Steve pulled a Jon Lord and played the Hammond sans Leslie through a overdriven amp. Wow.

Today we have all this incredible technology and those 70's bands still blow us away making due with Hammonds, Marshall's, Moogs/Arps, Strats, Les Pauls, some crappy stomp boxes, stellar engineers, 16 tracks and creativity.

I can agree. People seem to think technology can replace creativity. It's not the technology, it's what you do with it. I often tend to prefer obscure groups from the seventies over modern prog-groups. They were making music and not trying to make prog, whatever that might be.

[Trane]

I can agree. People seem to think technology can replace creativity. It's not the technology, it's what you do with it. I often tend to prefer obscure groups from the seventies over modern prog-groups. They were making music and not trying to make prog, whatever that might be.

This is almost signature-worthy, Renate

[Vic2012]

Anyone heard this one?



I found a used copy a few years ago cheap so I got it. Why they called it a "Traffic" album is beyond me. I think I like one song, and the rest is synthetic, pop crap. The only thing I can think of is that Steve Winwood's career must've been sliding a bit by 1994 after the HUGE success of his solo career in the 80s, so they took another 80s sounding Winwood solo album, added Jim Capaldi in the credits, and called it Traffic.

[JJ88]

That album sounds more like a Winwood solo release. The last track had some of the jam elements of late Traffic but other than that...The biggest problem as I recall was that it used a trigger drum and digital keyboards on it, and that kind of thing goes against the rustic appeal of Traffic really.

There was a pseudo-Cream reunion around the same time as that came out, for the same label, BBM (Baker, Bruce, Moore).

[progfan1]

That album sounds more like a Winwood solo release. The last track had some of the jam elements of late Traffic but other than that...The biggest problem as I recall was that it used a trigger drum and digital keyboards on it, and that kind of thing goes against the rustic appeal of Traffic really.

There was a pseudo-Cream reunion around the same time as that came out, for the same label, BBM (Baker, Bruce, Moore).

Agreed about "Far from Home" basically being a Winwood solo album with sprinklings of Capaldi percussion and backing vocals, but the tour behind it was fantastic. Winwood was playing the sh*t out of keys and guitar and they played lots of great stuff, including Medicated Goo, Glad, Empty Pages, Low Spark, etc. They also opened for the Dead for a few shows that year.

[Jubal]

Both JBMD and LSOHHB have some great moments. Overall, I favor John Barleycorn. Both albums have great jams with Glad on JBMD and the title track if Low Spark.

[trurl]

BTW, regarding the whole fuzz organ thing- I'm 80% sure it's a Farfisa or similar combo organ and not a Hammond but it's hard to say. If Winwood had a stock B3 setup it might not have been wired for easy output to an amp or stomp pedals.

[grego]

I like Far From Home - not great, but not bad either..

[profusion]

Today we have all this incredible technology and those 70's bands still blow us away making due with Hammonds, Marshall's, Moogs/Arps, Strats, Les Pauls, some crappy stomp boxes, stellar engineers, 16 tracks and creativity.

I'd say there's a direct relationship there. They had to take that equipment to the edge in order to create new sounds. Otherwise, they all would have sounded pretty much like Motown or CCR.

The electronica movement had the potential to take advantage of all the newfangled technology, but they couldn't get past that dumbed-down dance beat. I would say there are still people doing interesting electronic music, but it does seem like many of them have embraced vintage tech rather than explore what modern equipment and software can do.

One other factor I see is that western culture generally is in a very orthodox, non-exploratory mood right now. Artists are exploring on the margins, but the wider society doesn't embrace it. You see that in all the arts.

[GuitarGeek]

That album sounds more like a Winwood solo release. The last track had some of the jam elements of late Traffic but other than that...The biggest problem as I recall was that it used a trigger drum and digital keyboards on it, and that kind of thing goes against the rustic appeal of Traffic really.

.

Didn't Winwood and Capaldi record the entire album without other musicians? I think that would be a detriment as well. I know they went out on tour for the album, seems to me like they should have organized the band first, recorded the album with them, THEN gone on tour. I remember seeing them on Letterman and The Tonight show at the time, and it appeared that Capaldi was back to playing drums full time.

[profusion]

Didn't Winwood and Capaldi record the entire album without other musicians?

That's what I recall, as well. The biggest criticism back then was that they chose to have Winwood play "reed" parts using samples rather than bringing in a proper replacement for Chris Wood.

I enjoyed the album, since it was heavier and more organic than what Winwood was doing solo at the time. I agree that it's not up to the level of the classic Traffic albums, though.

[Romerovm]

Does anyone think Dave Mason's Traffic Jam will be cool to see???

I saw them a couple of weeks ago, and it was great. I think you would enjoy it.

[Big Ears]

The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys is Traffic's best album imo. I also like Steve Winwood's Arc of a Diver, Jim Capaldi's One Man Mission and Dave Mason's Headkeeper. Winwood and Capaldi appeared as the reformed Traffic on TV in the mid-ninties.

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ True. Cream in particular were as defining to UK variations on "jam-rock" as Butterfield/The Dead/QMS/Santana/Allmans were in the US.

Who was the ultimate, then?

I'd say Hawkwind.

Decidedly so, although they're often not thought of in that term. But jamming was very much what they were doing, in their own peculiar fashion with the blaster-riffage and those audio generators and dotty electronics suckling atop. It was the fare of the day, dominant parts of the UK underground dealing in it; Mighty Baby, Greatest Show On Earth, Skin Alley, Groundhogs, Edgar Broughton Band, Taste, Help Yourself and those countless other "semi-progressive" fillings on the Dawn/Neon labels. Not to mention bigger acts in hard rock quarters, like Deep Purple, LedZ or Wishbone Ash, the latter heavily informed by Man etc. Of course, Canterbury stalwarts such as Softs and Caravan were also doing it, but from a different angle as I hear it.