When I was 14 I was delivering newspapers and packing potatoes at the local greengrocers.
When Steve Winwood was 14 he was playing keyboards and guitar for the Spencer Davis Group. By the time he turned 16 the group released their first single and he was lead singer on their 1965 #1 hit 'Keep on Running'. Not a bad resume.
Winwood left SDG in 1967 and along with Jim Capaldi, Dave Mason and Chris Wood they created Traffic. In the same year that they formed the group they put out 3 singles that all made the U.K. top ten. 'Paper Sun' was a Capaldi/Winwood composition, 'Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush' was the title song to a movie of the same name. The song was written and sung by all the group, and 'Hole in My Shoe' was a Dave Mason song. The other members of the group didn't like it, saying it didn't represent their style (it was very psychedelic). Despite not liking it, the song got to #2 in the charts.
Their debut album, Mr. Fantasy in 1967 didn't include any of their hit singles, but did have the brilliant song 'Dear Mr. Fantasy'. Just over 50 years later the song found a whole new audience, a whole new generation, when it was used as the opening song in the Marvel movie Avengers: Endgame. It sent shivers down my spine when it burst out in the cinema !!
The following year, 1968 they released the single 'Feelin' Alright' which didn't do ANYTHING. In fact, it wasn't until many years later that I realised Joe Cockers version was not the original. The song was one more of the few not written by Winwood/Capaldi, it was another Dave Mason composition. Winwood and Capaldi became the Lennon/McCartney - Jagger/Richards of Traffic, writing the majority of their recorded work - Winwood on music, Capaldi on lyrics.
They also released another album, self-titled 'Traffic'. Mason left the group just after that and the remaining three did a U.S. tour in late '68. Winwood and Chris Wood also played with Jimi Hendrix and were on the 'Electric Ladyland' album. Oddly, so was Dave Mason, but he wasn't credited.
In 1969 the band broke up for a while, Winwood formed Blind Faith with Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Ric Grech but Blind Faith also broke up after less than a year. Winwood started working on a solo record, but brought in Wood and Capaldi, which basically got Traffic back together !! Inevitably the sessions ended up with a new Traffic album, 'John Barleycorn Must Die' which was their most successful album to date. The song 'John Barleycorn' at first glance is an horrific tale of blood and murder and torture. When you look at the history of it though, it is a song about the barley crop being grown and then harvested for beer and whisky. It's based on an English folk song from around 1725. Well worth a listen, keep the lyrics in front of you to read along. The version done by Traffic has been compared to the style of Pentangle and Fairport Convention.
By 1970 ex-Blind Faith member Ric Grech joined the 3 Traffic lads, then in 1971 Jim Gordon of Derek and the Dominoes came on board along with Ghanian Rebop Kwaku Baah. That was the line-up that recorded today's feature album 'The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys'.
OK - are we ready. Here's my obligatory Bob Dylan reference !!
The title of the song and album came from an entry in Jim Capaldis notebook, written by actor Michael J. Pollard. Capaldi said:
"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."
The song was never released as a single, mainly because it is almost 12 minutes long, but with the advent of 'album oriented rock' on American FM radio, it got and still gets lots of airtime.
"Don't worry too much, it'll happen to you
We were children once, playing with toys
And the thing that you're hearing is only the sound of
The low spark of high-heeled boys"
For a more complete discography there are some great compilations out there - but the more recent ones are CD based. My go-to is from 1991 - Smiling Phases. Well worth hunting out.
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