In Praise of... The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys by Traffic

read a few posts up

Traffic didn't really sustain a fanbase outside of the seventies did they? Not American enough to be jamrock, not glam or heavy enough to keep a punk or buttrock profile. Monthly plays on Spotify are on the order of Ten Years After or Uriah Heep, not The Faces or Free or even Procul Harum.

That is interesting. Traffic only reunited once although they did do a tour with the Dead. This album and John Barleycorn were popular like with also with Tull with Deadheads I knew in college in the late 80s/early 90s.

I'd figure streaming numbers, Traffic doesn't have a huge tune like 'Whiter Shade of Pale' or 'All Right Now' that have remained very popular songs over the decades. I'd guess 'Mr. Fantasy' might be Traffic's most popular tune streaming...

Faces have had a couple numbers like 'Debris', 'Maybe I'm Amazed' and 'Ooh La La' that I think have gotten much better known in the streaming era than they were in the classic rock era.

It's because younger people think 80s sax is now cool but 70s sax is still lame.
Also, among music-savvy Gen Xers, they probably still have the stigma of being hippie self-indulgence, like the Spin Alternative Guide that went out of their way to put them down in a Ramones writeup.

low spark, mr fantasy, feelin alright… they had a few radio mainstays in the Bay Area throughout the 90s at least ime

I swear kfog in sf would play all 11 minutes of low spark, probably misremembering.

Winwood is on John Martyn’s One World too.

winwood has a much cooler career than I was aware of for years

Arc of a Diver us solid imo. I think of "The Finer Things" as basically a rewrite of "While You See a Chance."

*is solid

Definitely heard a lot of Traffic on Chicago FM radio in the ‘80s, the songs brimstead mentioned plus “Freedom Rider,” and “John Barleycorn.” Also heard this one a few times, which Paul Weller apparently based all of his ‘90s solo records on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB9CQVzSV3o

he somehow made Clapton sound non-shit on the Blind Faith lp

Talking of which, how much better is Jim Gordon's drumming on this album than Ginger Baker's thumping and thrashing on the Blind Faith album?