Dear Mr Fantasy
In the 60s access to music was scarce compared to today. Your music came from the radio, your own record collection or that of a friend. If your parents had a reel to reel tape recorder there was a very slight chance that you could record onto magnetic tape. The same thing went for information. We had magazines like GoSet, Daily Planet and a bit later American Rolling Stone, these were our only source of information about music and musicians. The scarcity made the music we had access to far more valuable. Having an album was almost like having a friend. Something to sit down with, all on your own and share some communication.
I first heard Traffic in mid 1967 when they released their first single “Paper Sun” and a bit later “Hole In My Shoe”. Steve Winwood who sang, played keyboards and guitar was only 4 years older than I was. Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood were 4 years older than him and Dave Mason wasn’t really around for all that long, he sort of came and went.
Traffic were an important band in my music evolution. I hadn’t explored that much jazz or even soul at the time so Chris Wood’s sax and flute playing were quite exotic for me. There was also that sense of jamming that felt very natural to me.
I was 15, in between my first two bands, still at school and doing a part time job after school delivering wooden boxes of vegetables on the handle bars of my bicycle. I listened to music that played on the transistor in the back room of the fruit shop while I waited for Charlie, the owner, to get my next delivery ready. I’m pretty certain that this is where I first heard Traffic.
Steve Winwood had already sang and played Hammond Organ in The Spencer Davis Group who he joined at the age of 14. That was the age I was when I joined my first band (I was actually 13). He had a voice like an American Blues singer when he was only 16. Even now if I listen to Keep on Running, Gimme Some Lovin’ or I’m a Man it’s hard to believe that the singer was in his mid teens.
I must have purchased their first album Mr Fantasy in 1968, the year I started working and also joined my second band The Woz. Over the next few years I remained loyal to Traffic until they broke up around the John Barleycorn Must Die/ Low Spark of High Heeled Boys period. Dave Mason had left Traffic after their first singles but returned for their second album which featured his song “Feelin’ Alright” which Joe Cocker immortalized soon after.
Steve Winwood was one of my early influences as a guitar player.
Chris Wood and Jim Capaldi have both sadly passed away now.
A bit of trivia. In 1971 they released an album called “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys”. I never went to the trouble to find out what this meant until just last night, although I must admit that I had wondered. Turns out “low spark” is a heroin injection and “a high heeled boy” is a concoction of heroin and cocaine. Fancy that!
