The 100 Greatest Bands of all time - #81 Traffic

One of the bright lights of British psychedelia; Steve Winwood, Dave Mason, Chris Wood, and Jim Capaldi were Traffic. Coming out of Birmingham in 1967, Mr. Fantasy was a landmark album for the group. Steve Winwood was a fantastic singer at the time. The band broke up and he went on to do Blind Faith, but when that ended Traffic re-formed and released another landmark with John Barleycorn. Great songs, great players.

It's just a paper sun. Their first hit was a nice bit of sitar-tinged psychedelia.

All that I knew was the hole in my shoe that was taking in water.

Ah, Dear Mr. Fantasy. Simply one of the finest pieces of psychedelia ever recorded.

This wasn't a single. If you don't have the Mr. Fantasy album, you may have never heard it. But I assure you, this is the best thing Steve Winwood ever sang. My favorite Traffic song. This is Coloured Rain.

The pure musicianship on display here is awesome. Traffic was such a great band.

Poor John Barleycorn. Folks always tryin' to kill him.

and we conclude our look at Traffic with the low spark of high-heeled boys.