Reissue of band turning point
Labels have so thoroughly recycled and resold 'legacy' artists' back catalogues in the last three decades that it is surprising to come across a worthy new edition to the remastered and expanded canon. This new entrant to the fold is Traffic's 1970 album "John Barleycorn Must Die" which is presented in a two disc format here with additional tracks. Though, it has to be said, it is not in the mould of recent Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen releases which have upped the artefact aspect with deluxe packaging, new DVD documentaries and all the rest.
The music is of course, still important and "John Barleycorn Must Die" is the most successful long player in Traffic's oeuvre. The group of Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Dave Mason and Chris Wood formed in the West Midlands in the late sixties - a once fertile musical corner of the globe that would give the world half of Led Zeppelin and bands such as The Move, Black Sabbath, Slade and Judas Priest amongst others - before moving to London. "John Barleycorn Must Die" was originally conceived as a Winwood solo piece after the dissolution of the less than super supergroup Blind Faith in 1969, however, one by one the original members of Traffic coalesced around the recording sessions to make the record a fully-fledged Traffic release.
The music marks the evolution of Traffic's sound from the pyschedelic pop, soul and rock of previous releases to a more craftsman-like and relaxed jazz-rock. Opener 'Glad' is a loungey seven minute jazz instrumental where Hammond organ meets sax squawks and meandering piano and adeptly demonstrates the changes to the Traffic sound. The invoking of English folk character and touchstone John Barleycorn might have suggested that this record was going to take the more folky, pastoral, back to basics approach of so many records of the time (think The Band's eponymous record, Zeppelin III) but it not as obvious as that. Frivolities such as hit songs are cast aside and the album really is about the songs, man. None of the cheap trappings of mainstream rock culture here. Chris Wood's flutes are unleashed on the, again, vocally and lyrically sparse 'Freedom Rider'. Jazz touches abound as the song's tempo rises and falls. Winwood's pipes take a larger part of the soulful 'Empty Pages' and soar with his organ over a tight rhythm courtesy of Jim Capaldi. 'Stranger to Himself' has acoustic guitar accompainment embellished by some West Coast electricity and a singalong melody from Winwood. 'John Barleycorn Must Die' makes its appearance at track six and is an apt choice for Traffic in hindsight, chronicling as it does the life cycle of the barley crop much as this album marked the re-birth of Traffic as a going concern. The arrangement is kept simple as Winwood's vocals are out front, flanked by flute and percussion, atop the folky guitar you might expect by now making for a fine centrepiece. 'Every Mother's Son' is almost two songs in one as it starts out in a familiar structure before journeying off into a five minute organ and guitar jam before coalescing again with a minute to spare.
An alternate take of 'Every Mother's Son', the first attempt at 'John Barleycorn Must Die' and seven previously unreleased songs from a live performance at the Fillmore East in November 1970 are housed on the second disc or the 'deluxe' aspect if you're Island Records. The out-takes will interest aficionados and the gig adds more value than the previous re-issue which had eight songs and shows how good a live band these guys were although the meandering jam style performance of the era does result in a rather dull 14 minute medley of 'Glad' and 'Freedom Rider'.
When Winwood takes to the microphone he shows time and again why his voice is so admired and his instrumental chops show why he is a coveted collaborator for so many of rock's top table to this day. The album itself has much to admire on it as it nails the sound of FM radio's future but without the self-conscious narrative of the bland AOR acts that followed it in the States for the next decade. A worthwhile remaster then, if only to bring attention to the second act of an influential band and to highlight the fact that seventies rock wasn't all about bombast, cartoon imagery or coke fuelled nihilism.