{"id":22532,"date":"2022-03-26T05:30:09","date_gmt":"2022-03-26T09:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22532"},"modified":"2022-02-15T10:00:11","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T15:00:11","slug":"march-through-time-traffic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/26\/march-through-time-traffic\/","title":{"rendered":"March Through Time: Traffic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-22533\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/mtt_traffic.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"349\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/mtt_traffic.jpg 355w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/mtt_traffic-300x295.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 355px) 100vw, 355px\" \/>In the space of only eight years, Traffic went through a number of lineups and styles. All of it is worthwhile, though in different ways. The early material has nearly nothing in common with the later music, save for the involvement of Steve Winwood. But the group produced some fine music that helped push rock\u2019s boundaries.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>Mr. Fantasy<\/b><\/i> (1967) \u2013 The debut is a Summer of Love classic, and showcased the uneasy musical alliance among Winwood and Dave Mason. Essential.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>Traffic<\/b><\/i> (1968) \u2013 Arguably even better, the band\u2019s second album is a more cohesive artistic statement.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>Last Exit<\/b><\/i> (1969) \u2013 A record company cash-in assembled from unreleased tracks and live recordings. Less than essential but worthwhile for the initiated.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>John Barleycorn Must Die<\/b><\/i> (1970) \u2013 One of the best hard-to-classify albums of all time. Elements of jazz, soul and English folk are woven seamlessly into the rock idiom.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys<\/b><\/i> (1971) \u2013 The great work continues. Worthwhile if only for the majestic title track, the entirety of the record is excellent.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>Welcome to the Canteen<\/b><\/i> (1971) \u2013 But then there\u2019s this. Jammy and somewhat lifeless, a live album.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory<\/b><\/i> (1973) \u2013 With its die-cut sleeve, made to look like <em>Low Spark<\/em>, but sadly not quite as good. Solid but somehow not memorable.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>On The Road<\/b><\/i> (1973) \u2013 Where <em>Canteen<\/em> was lifeless, this one is just plain dull. The band seems to be going through the motions. Immaculately played by top-notch musicians, it fails to stay in the listener\u2019s mind once it\u2019s over.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>When the Eagle Flies<\/b><\/i> (1974) \u2013 A last breath that\u2019s surprisingly good. Today, nearly a half century after its release, most listeners have never even heard this record. It\u2019s no classic, but for those who\u2019ve enjoyed the ride to this point, it\u2019s well worth hearing.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the space of only eight years, Traffic went through a number of lineups and styles. All of it is worthwhile, though in different ways. The early material has nearly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,65],"tags":[2257],"class_list":["post-22532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-review","tag-traffic","cat-27-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22534,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22532\/revisions\/22534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}