Contractual fulfillment releases curated by record companies invariably ignore artistic concerns. Traffic’s Last Exit (released 5/22/69) is an exception to that rule, however, probably because Island Records’ founder/owner, Chris Blackwell, is a discerning music lover.
As a result, this now fifty-five-year-old album accurately summarizes the British band’s work up to its May 1969 release. Not coincidentally, it’s also a clear depiction of why guitarist and songwriter Dave Mason could not sustain membership in the mythic British band for too long at a time.
The musicians with whom he founded the group–Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood– were much more inclined toward spontaneity than the man who came and went from their company multiple times after the first Traffic album.
The man who wrote “Feelin’ Alright?” left the group due to artistic differences just after Mr. Fantasy was released in 1967. He rejoined for a few months the following year, just long enough to contribute to seven of the ten songs on their self-titled sophomore album. The band would then tour the US without him, a sojourn that led to the release of what looked to be the last Traffic album.
Last Exit is a collection of odds and ends collated without input from the group (which may account for the different cover art on the English and American packages). The first half of the album consists of previously released singles, while the second half is comprised of live recordings taken from a March 1968 concert at the celebrated Fillmore West.
Of the former five, “Withering Tree”‘s lyrics conjure vivid, ominous imagery, fortunately, offset with twinkling harpsichord and surging organ crescendos at its conclusion. There’s also a soulful lead vocal, wherein Winwood’s ageless voice evokes the mysticism of Traffic’s best work (which may account for its addition to the expanded 2001 remaster of the aforementioned eponymous LP of 1968).
The much more upbeat “Medicated Goo” and “Shanghai Noodle Factory” markedly elevate the substance of this contrived long-player. Both issued as flip sides of the same single, the concise and to-the-point 45-rpm format helped condense the psychedelic elements highlighted by whimsical (nonsensical?) lyrics and altogether infectious refrains.
Much more diffuse (as on this foursome’s first album), Mason’s “Just for You” hearkens to those same elements but sounds extremely dated: the frothy concoction hardly benefits from the presence of the other three members of the original Traffic.
Lacking depth to much the same degree is “Something’s Got a Hold of My Toe.” This quasi-jazz/rock fusion instrumental would be wholly anonymous outside the context of Last Exit, except that it foreshadows the second half of this thirty-four-plus minutes with the three-man lineup playing in at the aforementioned San Francisco venue of Bill Graham’s.
Oddly or perhaps not, neither of the two extended tracks are original Traffic material. “Feelin’ Good”‘s thirteen-some minutes comes from the Broadway musical production “THE ROAR OF THE GREASEPAINT – The Smell of the Crowd” and Winwood’s voice gives the lie to its lyrics, especially after the melodramatic rise of keyboards and saxophone, in addition to the insistent drumming, at each refrain.
The counterpart cut, “Blind Man,” isn’t derived from quite so odd a source. Co-authored by Deadric Malone, a/k/a Don Robey, who was responsible for nurturing the American r&b market in the ’50’s and 60’s, it hearkens to the main influences of so many young British musicians of the era. Rather than emphasizing lyrics as in earlier versions by Little Milton and Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland, though, Winwood, Capaldi and Wood instead extemporize upon the melodic and rhythmic changes within the tune.
The somewhat desultory air that permeates both of those takes may be indicative of how the trio found itself too constricted by their skeletal instrumental set-up. Thus, it’s no surprise they enlisted Rick Grech to play bass with the group when it reformed and toured in support of John Barleycorn Must Die; originally conceived as a solo album of Winwood’s it became Traffic (again) when Wood and Capaldi were recruited for the project (Fillmore East recordings of that quartet appear on the deluxe reissue of that fourth Traffic LP).
In keeping with the aspirational aspect of Traffic’s moniker–a connotation of constant motion–drummer Capaldi then opted to devote himself to singing and percussion (along with percussionist Rebop Kwaku Baah) when Jim Gordon assumed the position at the kit for The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. It is that lineup, plus Mason, that was captured in concert on Welcome to the Canteen: it was released just two months prior to the latter studio effort in order to free up Winwood and company to return to Island Records.
Yet another instance of contractual fulfillment for Traffic (though the group’s name appears nowhere on the black and white cover or label, only its logo), the LP benefits from the same hindsight afforded Last Exit. It is more than just a curiosity piece, holding value fifty-five years hence that its underlying circumstances might otherwise seem to deny.
