Friday, June 5, 2020

Traffic - 1972-02-21 - Santa Monica Civic Center, Santa Monica, CA

Traffic
February 21, 1972
Santa Monica Civic Center, Santa Monica, CA
Soundboard recording, excellent quality
Plus Bonus tracks from 1973-04-12 - Rainbow Theatre, London
Available in both Lossless (FLAC) and Mp3 (320 kbps) versions

Here's more from Traffic. Following Dave Mason's third and last departure from the band in 1970, Traffic, with their expanded lineup (trio of Winwood, Capaldi, and Wood supplemented with Ric Grech on bass, Jim Gordon on drums, and percussionist Rebop Kwaku Baah) started work on and released what would become their most successful album, The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys (1971), which contained probably their best blend of jazz, rock, folk, and blues in a landmark album. However, personnel issues persisted, with Grech and Gordon leaving shortly after the album was released. They were replaced by David Hood (bass) and Roger Hawkins (drums) for the subsequent tour, which was a big success. This lineup continued on with the next album, Shootout at the Fantasy Factory (1973), but although the album had some great moments, the slow, sprawling, improvisational style often seemed somewhat lackluster relative to the previous albums. A big world tour followed, which was a major success, and resulted in the double live album On The Road (1973). Unfortunately, more trouble followed, with Hood, Hawkins, and Kwaku Baah all leaving at the end of the tour, Winwood was plagued by recurrent peritonitis issues, and Wood's drug use was becoming worse. Another new album was released in 1974, When The Eagle Flies, but was not up to previous standards, and the band essentially ended when Winwood walked off the stage and left the band in the middle of a show in Chicago in 1974. Both Capaldi and Winwood went on to successful solo careers. Chris Wood died in 1983. The remaining members reunited in 1994 for a one-off tour with the Grateful Dead, but then Winwood and Capaldi continued to work together, releasing a new Traffic album, Far From Home (1994), followed by a tour, which eventually resulted in another live album, The Last Great Traffic Jam (2005). The band and its 4 original members were inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.
Here I have a great show from the 1972 Low Spark Tour, a great soundboard recording from the Santa Monica show, which was filmed and recorded (complete show is available to watch on Youtube. I have supplemented the Santa Monica show with some additional songs from a 1973 London show, which features tracks from the subsequent Shootout at the Fantasy Factory album. So, here is Traffic, once again, and probably at their peak here, but unfortunately they would not last much longer.    

Tracklist:
01. Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys
02. Light Up Or Leave Me Alone
03. John Barleycorn
04. Rainmaker
05. Percussion Solo
06. Glad
07. Freedom Rider
08. Forty Thousand Headmen
09. Dear Mr Fantasy
Bonus Tracks (1973-04-12-Rainbow Theatre, London)
10. Shootout at the Fantasy Factory
11. Rock n' Roll Stew
12. Evening Blue
13. Tragic Magic
14. Sometimes I Feel So Uninspired

band members:
Steve Winwood – vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass
Jim Capaldi – drums, percussion, vocals
Chris Wood – flute, saxophone, keyboards
Rebop Kwaku Baah – percussion
Roger Hawkins – drums
David Hood – bass

FLAC - Traffic_1972-02-21_Santa Monica_FLAC.rar

mp3 - Traffic_1972-02-21_Santa Monica_mp3.rar

8 comments:

Frito Bandito said...

BB The MP3 link doesn't seem to work. Thanks for this show, I love Steve Winwood.

Guitarradeplastico,scraping oddities said...

Many thanks

Ralph said...

FLAC & mp3 cant be opened.
Thanks
Ralph

bing CLING king said...

Thank you!

BBKron said...

Ralph,
Actually, they open just fine. These are compressed rar files. To extact the music files you need a rar-compatible extraction program (which are available free), such as Winrar, 7zip, etc.

Ralph said...

Thanks, usually 7zip works fine but not with these two files
regards
Ralph

La Piazza Gancio said...

I someone managed not to collect this, so thanks for the second opportunity! Looks very promising!

Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing these shows form this unique band..nobody sounded quite like them?...and of course it doesn't help to have Steve Winwood on vocals...favourite LP John Barleycorn...cheers