tom (04/21/83)
I guess I'm getting old when I can remember well when others are
spouting erroneous legends and myths.
"John Barleycorn Must Die" is a Traffic album containing a song of the
same name. It came after Traffic had broken up. It seemed Stevie
Winwood was doing a solo album (he doing all the instruments -- he's really
very talented), when he decided to call in his friends/former bandmembers
for help on one cut and once they were there it became another Traffic
album. The next album (or at least the next memorable one) that
Traffic put out was "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys". The song JBMD is
NOT on that album -- rather it contains the song LSOHHB.
Both of these albums are excellent. The title tracks on both got quite
a bit of airplay. Even now LSOHHB is played occasionally. My preference
is for the John Barleycorn album. "Glad" (an instrumental) and
"Freedom Rider" on it are Traffic classics in their own right.
My recollection (and for dates my memory is VERY faulty) is that John
Barleycorn came out about 1971-1972. Is it that hard to find these albums?
I have seen LSOHHB in bargain bins several times, but I thought John
Barleycorn was still available. In fact I seem to recall seeing a re-release
(at least the cover had a different shade of brown).
- Tom Beres
{we13, seismo, mcnc}!rlgvax!tom