Several Species of Small Furry Thoughts - John Barleycorn Deluxe and an interesting Dead experience

While I like the self-titled Traffic album the best, John Barleycorn Must Die is a close second. With the loss of Dave Mason, the now three-piece was moving in a leaner, jazzier direction although they are still experimenting with world, folk and psych elements in their work. The maturity in the band’s music is reflected in the understated, memorable image on the cover. Kicking off with the F.M. classic “Glad” this chugging instrumental has no real antecedent in Traffic’s music. Suddenly they are a completely competent jazz/funk outfit with Winwood’s piano, organ and Chris Woods’ sax leading the way. “Glad” is immediately one of the most recognizable and enjoyable instrumentals in rock history. The following three songs – “Freedom Rider,” “Empty Pages,” and “Stranger To Himself” are much more familiar territory to fans of their previous album. Soulful, intelligent, hip and beautifully written and performed, they are classic Traffic. The title song, however, is another anomaly - and a wonderful one at that. With versions being traced back to 1465, this tale of demon drink and its uncanny hold over the human spirit is performed acoustically with Winwood playing acoustic guitar and singing and Chris Wood accompanying on flute. The result is absolutely magic and became an underground classic. The anti-drinking message (wink wink) really hit the right irony buttons with a 1970 audience. The final song on the original release, “Every Mother’s Son” is a fabulous seven-minute tribute to life on the road. 

For this great deluxe version the second disc contains three alternate versions of songs on the album and then a tremendous seven-song concert from the Fillmore West from 1971. The three alternates are uniquely different from the original versions with “Barleycorn” especially offering up a valuable piece of the puzzle. The live show finds the band, aided by Ric Grech on bass and occasional guitar, in rare form indeed. Considering the odd instrumentation and a leader who split his time between lead vocals, lead guitar, organ and piano the band is wonderfully tight and tear through numbers from their first three albums with precision and abandon. It is really exhilarating to hear them tackle complex songs like “Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring” and “Every Mother’s Son” before really stretching out for 14 minutes on exciting versions of “Glad” and “Freedom Rider.”

This is a deluxe version in the best sense of the word. By carefully choosing the right material to illustrate and expand our understanding of a classic album, great gets even better.

Yesterday I got to live out a fantasy of sorts. I got to go to Airshow Mastering in Boulder and not only meet Grammy Award winning sound engineer David Glasser, but I also got to take an early listen to the upcoming Grateful Dead box set - Europe ’72 The Complete Recordings which David is mastering for disc. All I can say is…WOW. As if to read my mind, he chose “Dark Star” from the Tivoli-Copenhagen show. Oh man, it was magnificent. Hearing it played in a perfect stereo room on 8 foot towers of studio monitors… mmmmmmmmmmmmmmDead. It really sounded spectacular. The band was playing with such care during this period. The single-drummer line-up and the plethora of new material had afforded them a lot of rehearsal time and it shows. The fact that they were also playing in some of the great opera houses in Europe also adds to exquisite nature of the playing on this tour. The Dead’s engineer, Jeffrey Norman, and David Glasser have brought this already impressive performance to new levels of clarity and excitement. As the band reaches a spacey climax near the end of the song, Glasser said “I love the organ.” I’ve listened to this show probably 50 times and I’d never noticed that as the band climaxes Pigpen starts playing some slashing, aggressive lines on the organ which add a completely different texture to the performance. The point is that this box set is going to be a revelation to fans I think. The Europe ’72 tour represents one of the major performing zeniths of The Grateful Dead’s career and the 16-track tapes they have of the entire tour are beautifully preserved and are a wonderful keepsake of a grand tour. If you like The Grateful Dead it is hard to imagine that this box (already sold out) will not be a dream come true. I know it will be for me.

I'd Love to Turn You On #9: Traffic - Traffic

Welcome to Twist & Shout’s “I’d Love To Turn You On” a fortnightly column by our deeply knowledgeable staff of hardcore collectors and music lovers who want to spend some time turning you on to some of their favorite releases of yore; titles that may have slipped out of the public favor, or perhaps never quite found the audience they deserve. Dig in to some terrific musical esoterica and enjoy the sounds.


Do you know the phenomenon of being in a record store and seeing an LP or CD cover and having that momentary pulse-quickening excitement where you think; “oh I gotta have that record?” Then the rational side of your brain takes over and you remind yourself that you already have it. The funny thing is that there is a moment of sadness as real as the excitement you felt at seeing it in the first place. You are sad because you can’t buy it and have the experience of listening to it for the first time again. Traffic’s self-titled second album is that album for me. Every time I see it in the racks or in a collection that I am buying I stop and pine for the day I first discovered this wondrous thing. Recorded in 1968, this album is everything I want out of a rock album. Start with the cover. Has a band ever looked cooler? The first time I saw Stevie Winwood’s outfit and Jim Capaldi’s beads and red socks and Dave Mason’s battered cowboy hat or Chris Wood’s knowing smile, I knew these guys were part of a club I had to join. That’s the least of it. Honestly, I can’t think of a more sublime album from start to finish. Let me break it down song by song.
“You Can All Join In” – Common wisdom is that the three-man line-up of Traffic (which produced the great John Barleycorn Must Die) is the ultimate version. Not in my opinion. I feel that Dave Mason’s contribution was key to the greatness of Traffic. It certainly is on this album. Opening with Mason’s upbeat anthem to hippie inclusiveness, “You Can All Join In” is as buoyant and pleasing as a slow boat ride on a summer day. Propelled by Mason’s roiling acoustic guitar and nursery rhyme lyrics it is a perfect opening. Winwood adds some beautiful electric guitar lines while Chris Wood chugs along in the background on sax and the whole thing sets the album off on a light positive note.
“Pearly Queen” – is another type of animal altogether. Starting with a snaky organ line, this masterpiece unfolds as a musical and lyrical tribute to Winwood’s greatness. He sings, plays guitar, organ and bass, and the song is probably the most persuasive argument that he is everything his fans think he is. Jimmy Miller’s woozy production (panning the guitar solos from speaker to speaker) adds a mystical quality to the song, but the complex lyrics (which my poor adolescent brain just couldn’t quite grasp) are everything the 60’s were about; insinuating, yearning, and ultimately confusion. The song unfolds like a coiled snake, both mesmerizing and threatening at the same time.
“Don’t Be Sad” – Another fine example of Dave Mason’s important contribution to the band. Mason’s pleading vocals are wrapped in a cocoon of his own guitar lines, lovely harmonica work and a layer of Winwood’s lush organ playing. The quadruple threat nature of Winwood’s talent (singer, songwriter, guitar, organ) was always central to Traffic’s appeal, but with the added bonus of singer, songwriter, guitarist Dave Mason the band was exploding with great songs and musical ideas.
“Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring” – When, in 1968, I heard the first lines of this song “We are not like all the rest you can see us any day of the week/Come around, sit down, take a sniff, fall asleep, Baby you don’t have to speak” I felt as though I found the club I wanted to join. I knew it wasn’t the Boy Scouts or ROTC - it was THIS place where people were free to come and go, and sniff things and the line between waking and dreaming was blurred. Yeah, this was where I wanted to be. Musically, it’s all Winwood. He plays everything but drums, and his musicianship is sublime. His organ playing is impossibly loose and precise at the same time. No player in rock has come close to Winwood’s mastery of this instrument. A stoned, funky groove from start to finish - this might be my favorite song on the album.
“Feelin’ Alright” – But then there is “Feelin’ Alright.” This song defines classic. Covered by everyone from Joe Cocker to The Jackson Five, it has a magical vibe about it that has made it one of the most beloved songs of the 60’s. It skirts the line between psychedelic wizardry and soulful strut with careful aplomb. It shows Dave Mason to be a great songwriter and his sly vocal is the best of all the many versions. When the song rounds the corner and Mason and Winwood are both wailing on vocals, it’s a pretty strong argument for this lineup of Traffic. This song is all about the details: Jim Capaldi’s cricket-like percussion, Chris Woods’ woodwind work, Winwood’s subtle piano. At their best, Traffic were not about individuals soloing, it was about an almost baroque ensemble form of playing.
“Vagabond Virgin” – Side two opens with this charming slice of English folk, anchored by Chris Wood’s snaky flute playing, some tasteful acoustic piano and Mason’s great lyric about innocence and lack thereof, it is the pastoral side of Traffic.

“40,000 Headmen” – One of Steve Winwood’s most mysterious and very best songs, it’s hard to overstate what a profound effect it had on me as a youth. I would listen to this song over and over trying to understand the lyrics - following along in the lyric book included with the album. That’s something else worth mentioning. The package of the original LP was just amazing. It had a 10 page booklet with great photos of the band (were they passing a joint in that one photo?) and all the lyrics, and information about who played what. You could really spend some time with this record and then you felt like you knew the band.
“Crying To Be Heard” – Dave Mason’s last song on the album starts with an explosive chorus and masterful organ and harpsichord flourishes by Winwood. There are lyrical hints at the tensions between Mason and the rest of the band. Producer Miller again employs some crazy special effects for some very trippy results.
“No Time To Live” – A slow, moving Winwood ballad, it is a showcase for his otherworldly vocal abilities. Chris Wood adds some spooky soprano sax wailing and Mason takes a turn at the organ to pretty good effect. This song should be a standard among soul singers. Ray Charles could have killed with it.
“Means To An End” – A very soulful Winwood offering with his own exciting guitar work and Jim Capaldi’s propulsive drumming and percussion pushing it along. When I read the final lines “O sweet silence without kings and queens/No one here has ever reached your centre/Better to be quiet than to speak/without a thought or you may loose/ The meaning of your venture/Save as who knows” I knew I had my work cut out for me.
It was clear that I could now spend some of my life (the rest of my life as it turned out) exploring and trying to understand music. As much as any album I’ve heard, Traffic by Traffic is responsible for that quest. If you don’t have this album and are going to buy it and hear it for the first time today, I envy you.

--Paul Epstein