Traffic: On The Road (1973)

From jazzmusicarchives.com

Review by aglasshouse

On The Road is the second and last live album from Traffic not too long before they broke up. ’73 was undeniably a big year for rock, with Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, Selling England by the Pound by Genesis, and to a lesser extent Shoot Out At the Fantasy Factory was released in that year. Like any progressive rock band Traffic has to live up to other amazing live performances by other bands of it’s caliber. Welcome to the Canteen wasn’t terrible two years prior but it’s undoubtedly pushed aside by the fantastic jam that this is.

With a very small track-list of only four songs, The performance does lack slightly on the variety they could have had if they had played from their earlier albums. But the epics are the ones to come first which is always pleasant. ‘Low Spark’ is obviously the main event here; the icing on the cake if you will. With a run time that goes about five minutes or so over the studio version, Traffic really does play their hearts out over this one. Their playing on it is unbroken and contrasts very well with the original, albeit with some more jazz and psychedelic tidbits in the longer time-span.

The band does rock pretty hard as well with ‘Shoot Out’ where the tempo’s quickened to a beating pace. Again, flawless performance with Winwood’s fantastic playing. ‘(Sometimes I Feel So) Uninspired’ was spiced up a little to the point where it seemed more like ‘Sometimes I feel so inspired’. Even ‘Light Up or Leave Me Alone’, perhaps my least favorite track on Low Spark was made great with a longer run time for more experimentation and rocking capabilities. Truly marvelous.

A great staple on the progressive live performance scene if I’ve ever seen one.

Review by seyo

This live set begins with the storming avalanche of “John Barleycorn” openers “Glad/Freedom Ryder”, which will continue till the end of the record. What a superb musical performance it must have been, watching them live in concert!

The extended TRAFFIC line-up with phenomenal conga player Kwakuh Baah and additional drummer, bassist and organist is one of the best live acts I ever heard. Extended jams of compositions taken from their three celebrated and easily the best albums (“John Barleycorn Must Die”, “Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” and “Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory”) leads you to a wonderful world of improvisation, masterful solo parts (especially Winwood on rare electric guitar, Kwakuh on congas, Wood on wah-wah-ed saxophone) and wild and playful performance.

While Capaldi’s “Light Up or Leave Me Alone” is maybe not the best selection from the masterpiece album “Low Sparks…”, its extended version here is improved by Capaldi’s lively presentation of individual band members. The title track of that album is nicely performed although I will always prefer the studio version due to its incredible fuzzed organ solo that is lacking in a live performance.

If you like extended jam playing in a jazz-rock style, you should definitely get this album, because it’s one of the best and unfortunately one of the most shamelessly overlooked live albums in the “classic rock” history. ****1/2 stars for excellent live performance, masterful solos and Stevie Winwood’s solo guitar.

From udiscovermusic.com

Founder members Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood were joined on the 1973 tour by their Ghanaian percussionist of recent times, Rebop Kwaku Baah, plus collaborators David Hood (bass), Roger Hawkins (drums) and Barry Beckett on organ and piano. They began the year with an extensive North American tour, then a European leg included visits to such cities as Bologna, Vienna and Frankfurt.

The whole of side one of the UK double album was taken up with an epic, 20-minute performance combining “Glad” and “Freedom Rider.”  In addition to the title track from Shoot Out…, the set included its fellow LP tracks “Tragic Magic,” composed by Wood, and the Winwood/Capaldi co-write “(Sometimes I Feel So) Uninspired.” On The Road concluded with “Light Up Or Leave Me Alone” and the title track from the same 1971 album Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys, which itself ran to 17 minutes.

The live album entered the UK chart at No.47, which at least put the group back among the bestsellers after the failure of either Low Spark…or Shoot Out… to make the listings at all. That week, David Bowie’s covers album Pin Ups was in the fourth of its five weeks at No.1. On The Road climbed to its No.40 peak a week later, as it moved to a No.29 peak in America, and a robust 24-week chart stay.

November 24 was also a chart date for Traffic in 1968, when the single “Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush” was new in UK record shops. It was the theme for the British comedy movie of the same name, and provided Traffic with their third consecutive Top 10 UK hit. It also has a lesser-known link with The Beatles: a performance of it was commissioned for possible inclusion in the Magical Mystery Tour film. It didn’t make the edit, but was included among the extras in the 2012 DVD reissue.