50 Years Later: Revisiting Traffic’s Expansive ‘The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys’ LP

The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys (released 11/1/71) is not the first album featuring this particular personnel lineup of Traffic. The same sextet, with erstwhile co-founder of the band Dave Mason also in tow, actually first appeared on the live album Welcome to the Canteen, a contractual obligation collection of concert recordings also originally released fifty years ago, just weeks before this fifth studio effort. In keeping with the somewhat enigmatic collective persona Traffic had nurtured to this point, the band’s name appeared nowhere on the first pressings of the former: it’s sole identifier otherwise was the symbol used so regularly in the past it had become a de facto logo.

Rough and tumble R&B-infused rock and roll predominates hat aforementioned live release, including a nod to titular leader Steve Winwood’s days in The Spencer Davis Group in the form of “Gimme Some Lovin’.” But guitarist Mason’s “Sad And Deep As You” (from his splendid solo debut Alone Together) carries a palpable air of mystery, its spooky mood compounded within the six-cut tracklisting by juxtaposition with the near-nightmarish imagery and haunting melody of “40,000 Headmen,” a cull from the eponymous sophomore work of Traffic’s on which his contributions are so prominent.

A precedent for similarly combustible mixes of sound was set all the way back in 1967on the Mr. Fantasy debut of the group’s. But Low Spark is easily the most sustained expression of mysticism in the British band’s discography. The very first track, in fact, begs the question of where exactly is the”Hidden Treasure?” Just when a listener might be able to discern what chief lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Winwood is singing about in such ghostly fashion, his voice becomes drenched with echo in a split-second: spanning the stereo spectrum as that occurs, the resulting effect creates an aural panorama into which this title song fades.

Subsequently becoming thoroughly and completely hypnotic over the course of its near twelve minute duration, “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” is the virtually definition of a tour-de-force, not only for this band, but for the era in which it appeared. As such, even if its cryptic lyrics don’t follow suit, the clarity of Winwood’s production allows bassist Ric Grech (from Blind Faith and Family) to cement the light touch at the drum kit of one-time friend of Delaney & Bonnie (as well as one of the Dominos to Eric Clapton’s Derek) Jim Gordon. The soft pop of percussion by Rebop Kwaku Baah highlights their solidarity as much as the airy tones of flute from the third charter member of Traffic (with Winwood and Capaldi), Chris Wood.

The latter’s feather-light notes also accentuate the world-weary air that pervades “Many A Mile to Freedom” and the appropriately understated urgency of “Rainmaker.” The ageless and haunting timbres of Winwood’s voice have never sounded so pervasive in the pleas comprising the latter which, in sum, simultaneously echoes and updates the bucolic setting of the traditional English folk tale Traffic interpreted on the “John Barleycorn Must Die ” album of the previous year.

As in the high dynamic contrast of Canteen, two dollops of upbeat material appear right next to each other, at the center of these half-dozen tracks on its Island Records successor. With lead vocals from Jim Capaldi, erstwhile drummer and regular composing partner of Winwood, the  guitar-dominated “Light Up Or Leave Me Alone” and “Rock & Roll Stew” are slices-of-life from the road, their down-to-earth air decidedly different from surroundings that seem to emanate from some netherworld rife with dream-like images in both word and sound.

Musicians often speak of the creation of songs and sounds as retrieval of what is already in the air around them and in the half-century since it came out, the spell Traffic casts on The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys has only deepened, thereby reaffirming that notion. Its singular, mesmerizing nature remains all the more abiding since a slightly-modified version of the group, including veterans of  Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, was unable to replicate the phenomenon for the following record (or its tour-derived counterpart On The Road). As a result, apart from its title-tune, only the similarly hexagonal-shaped cover art and packaging of Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory bears any tangible relation to its deservedly-lauded predecessor.

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