"The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" is exciting because of its implications. Herbie Hancock had yet to release "HeadHunters" which fuses funk and jazz, creating a new market and breaking new ground. Traffic was on this path as early as 1970, Hancock released his album in 1973 and Steely Dan burst on the scene in 1972, though their first jazz-rock offering was not untill 1973-1974. Traffic truly stand out infront and it is exciting to get this first look at a new genre in music.


Terrific set.   March 2, 2000
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This recording, along with John Barleycorn Must Die and Shootout At The Fantasy Factory complete Traffic's finest recorded moments. Where On The Road and When The Eagle Flies are also worth obtaining it is this trio of recordings that find Traffic at their most inspired. Steve Winwood, Chris Wood and Jim Capaldi are joined here by Rick Grech(Blind Faith) on bass, Jim Gordon(Derek & The Dominos) on drums, and Nigerian percussionist Reebop Kwaku Bah. The sound here is more full than on the sparse John Barleycorn but not quite as dense as Shootout. The title cut is the standout here but Many A Mile To Freedom and Rainmaker are also exceptional. Rock & Roll Stew and Light Up And Leave Me Alone are both sung by Capaldi and are enjoyable but not quite up to the standard of the rest of the material. The overall sound can be best described as a synthesis of jazz, folk and rock influences. Well ahead of it's time, still brilliant to this day. Highly recommended...Simon


utopian flashback/flashforward   January 5, 2001
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

"Low Spark" was Traffic's best album, and one of the best of the whole great 65-75 period. I know there are those partial to "John Barleycorn," but it's not as consistent. What you have here is perhaps the most purely realized expression of the counterculture's dream -- a glimpse of utopia, through the haze, at twilight, or late at night... "Hidden Treasure" is the gateway, complete with mystical flute from Chris Wood. The brilliant title track is the first vision, and it ruled the underground radio airwaves for months with piano and spacey organ! There's an element of tension with the mainstream -- "the man in the suit has just bought a new car from the profit he's made on your dreams..." But The Man loses! He's done in by "The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys," the power of the dreamers, who are building a new world in the ruins of the old. The other two visionary tracks are "Many a Mile to Freedom," with ringing guitar ("together we melt like the river -- together we melt like the snow") and "Rainmaker" with a long instrumental coda, and all four are by the Winwood/Capaldi team. The drummer and bass player actually team up for a fine funky number, "Rock and Roll Stew," with Winwood on wicked guitar and the refrain "and I'm gone, gone, gone!" Capaldi's "Light Up" is the one weak track, and it's not really bad, it's just out of place here. Of course nowadays you can easily edit it out. I find it hard to imagine exactly what people hear in "Low Spark" by 2001. For me, it takes me back to 71/72, and through that door to a much better future! "Spirit is something that noone destroys." The dream lives on...


fiercely penetrating without a screaming guitar   September 26, 2001
 5 out of 8 found this review helpful

I bought this album back when it came out in 1971. People used to stop at my dorm-room door just to listen to it when the title track was on.
I never knew what "the low spark of high-heeled boys" was or how it triumphs over "the man in the suit who just bought a new car on the profit he made on your dreams," but, man it sounds soooo good. Winwood's piano and electronic keyboard, Chris Woods' flute and sax, Jim Gordon's drumming, Ric Grech's minimalist bass, all contribute to a crescendo of pure musical indulgence that has hardly ever been matched by any other rock composer. THIS SONG LASTS FOR TWELVE MINUTES! Incredible! The rest of the album doesn't come close, except for some moments of instrumental swagger by Chris Wood and especially Stevie Winwood. If you've never heard this thing, you're in for a real treat.


For real Traffic fans, not their best   August 20, 2004
 4 out of 8 found this review helpful

I was surprised by so many rave reviews here, but reading them in detail it seems most were written by listeners who came to Traffic late, or didn't know their entire oeuvre so well.

As one Amazon reviewer has noted, Traffic was pretty much a spent band by the time this was released, and it was their effort to try and squeeze more cash out of the market before their total demise.

If you were a Traffic fan at the time this album was first released -- which I was, having been a Traffic listener since the release of their first album, yes back in those days when vinyl ruled -- you would have regarded this album as a sellout. More than that, compared to their earlier work it just sounded slapped together. It was when pop radio listeners starting knowing who Traffic was, and when early Traffic fans stopped listening to them ... for better or worse.

Not that it's a bad album, and really I'm glad lots of people do enjoy this album today. The more who get into Traffic the better, they were a great band.

For me their strongest album was their self-titled second release, TRAFFIC. It's the only Traffic album I still play regularly, nearly 40 years after buying the original.