I recall when i was in high school I was a member of the Columbia House record club....remember that? They would have a "selection of the month" and they would send you this card in the mail, and you had to mark the card "no thanks" and send it back within so many days if you didn't want that selection of the month. Like everyone else, I was bad about declining the selection of the month and always ended up with unwanted albums in my mailbox - and then I always had to mail em back. I forever was on their poop list. Ya had to buy eight or nine selections in three years --- sounded easy, until ya had to fulfill it. Then it was brutal, at like $17 bucks an album. Well, anyway, I remember them featuring "When the Eagle Flies" as one of their selections of the month. Of course I ended up with it --- AND HATED IT. This was 1974 and I was 17 years old. Seventeen-year-olds by and large don't like Traffic - too many horns! Then later, as an adult, I rediscovered Traffic. Now they are one of my top 15 classic rock artists of all time. Steve Winwood ranks way up there in rock history -- going back to the mid-60s. Even his solo albums of the new millineum are great. Ever hear his 2008 song "Dirty City'' w/Clapton on guitar? Killer.
Anyway, here are my top 10 Traffic cuts:
The low spark of high-heeled boys
dear mr. fantasy (live version)
john barleycorn
shootout at the fantasy factory
40,000 headmen
medicated goo
shanghai noodle factory
walking in the wind
pearly queen
dream gerrard
*honorable mention... heaven is in your mind and holy ground (from their 1994 album)
