It’s remarkable to consider that Steve Winwood was not yet even 19 years old when he formed Traffic and they recorded Mr. Fantasy in 1967. Of course, he had been playing professionally since his early teens, along with brother Muff Winwood in various bands and was the lead singer of the Spencer Davis Group when he was but fifteen, but Traffic’s sound was especially sophisticated coming from someone so young.
Some of the greatest groups of the 60s and 70s are woefully under-documented on film. I’m not aware, for instance, of an entire Allman Brothers concert film, and I’ve never seen more than a handful of clips of Frank Zappa and the original Mothers of Invention that capture what I always imagined their shows must’ve been like. There are only two sync-sound documents of the Velvet Underground. Even David Bowie didn’t accumulate all that much concert footage during his prime years as a performer. Nor, when you get right down to it—considering the amount of gigging they did—did the Grateful Dead. Except for a few pop shows in the US, Britain, plus The Beat Club in Germany and POP2 in France, many groups would have fallen through the cracks of moving documentation altogether. Full concert films were expensive to mount back then and very rarely green-lighted. There were simply few places to exhibit them theatrically. They lost money.
A group like Traffic, with their jazz/rock fusion sound and 12-minute FM-radio friendly epics like “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” would have been a difficult band to book on most TV variety shows of the day, so it was nice to watch the concert documentary of Traffic Live at Santa Monica 1972 and see them in all their jammy, muso glory.
The set begins with a bravura rendition of “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys.” Jim Capaldi, who co-wrote the song with Steve Winwood had this to say about the lyrics to one of their most notable numbers:
It seemed to sum up all the people of that generation who were just rebels. The ‘Low Spark,’ for me, was the spirit, high-spirited. You know, standing on a street corner. The low rider. The ‘Low Spark’ meaning that strong undercurrent at the street level.
There’s also an outstanding rip through “John Barleycorn” but wait for the final two numbers, a delicate “40,000 Headmen” and a powerful take of “Dear Mr. Fantasy” featuring an awe-inspiring guitar solo from Winwood. The whole set is scorching from start to finish. As this 64-minute long performance is the only extended live footage of the group, good thing it’s so incredible.
Set list:
“The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys”
“Light Up or Leave Me Alone”
“John Barleycorn”
“Rainmaker”
“Glad”
“Freedom Rider”
“40,000 Headmen”
“Dear Mr. Fantasy”
Traffic were at this time: Steve Winwood, vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass; Jim Capaldi, percussion, vocals; Chris Wood, flute, saxophone; Rebop Kwaku Baah, percussion; Roger Hawkins, drums; David Hood,bass.