1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 189. Traffic – John Barleycorn Must Die (1970)

 

From the title I was expecting some folk-rock kind of deal, and the title track is kind of this, a cover of the traditional tune where the planting, harvesting, and milling of barley is turned into a kind of brutal ritualistic murder of the mythical figure John Barleycorn. Every folk singer and his or her dog has done this at some point, but the Traffic version is a nice addition.

The rest of the album, though, is more funky. Classified as jazz-rock, it’s not so much jazz although it borrows some of the elements of jazz. The whole deal sounds tighter than that, yet with plenty of space for the different instruments – funky piano, mellow sax, and so on – to breathe. Steve Winwood’s voice is in fine form too, although some of the tracks, such as album opener Glad, are instrumental.

I liked this a lot more than their debut album, and this is perhaps due to the departure of Dave Mason, whose songwriting style seems to have been at odds with the rest of the band. Without him, it feels like they are more free to be themselves, with most of these tracks written by Steve Winwood alone or with drummer Jim Capaldi (no relation to Peter and Lewis, as far as I could tell). There’s a jam band feel to it, and it does touch on Grateful Dead a little in terms of sound, but also the tracks are lot more concise. Some touch on the 7-minute mark, because of extended soloing rather than an epic structure, but the sounds coming out of it are glorious.