Traffic - Santa Monica 1972

[Canard]

The complete show. A very good, tight performance by the Traffic big band, rather than the trio. Excellent sound.

Interesting things:

• A Gibson sounding almost convincingly like a Fender Strat.
• Winwood's use of a thumb pick.
• Winwood's very dilated pupils.
• Poor Mr. Capalidi, reduced to playing tambourine for most of the show.

 

[Prince of Darkness]

The complete show. A very good, tight performance by the Traffic big band, rather than the trio. Excellent sound.

Interesting things:

• A Gibson sounding almost convincingly like a Fender Strat.
• Winwood's use of a thumb pick.
• Winwood's very dilated pupils.
• Poor Mr. Capalidi, reduced to playing tambourine for most of the show.

I was always amazed that Steve Winwood could play so well (or at all) based on his pupils! Interesting to note that his brother, Muff, played bass with a thumb pick

 

[Minnesota Flats]

All I get is "video unavailable".

Edited to say...

That's odd: tried again and it plays fine. Must've been a glitch.

If the venue is Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, I saw Cal Tjader, Bob Dylan, a million surf movies and movies by Jacques Cousteau there as a kid.

 

[davismanLV]

I was born in Santa Monica, CA. The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium had TONS of great shows over the years. Traffic was such a great band. This is 2 years after John Barleycorn Must Die was released and Dave Mason had already left. It was a strange and disjointed album that liked a lot for some reason.

 

[Canard]

This is 2 years after John Barleycorn Must Die was released and Dave Mason had already left. It was a strange and disjointed album that liked a lot for some reason.

John Barleycorn Must Die is largely a Winwood solo album with a Traffic logo attached.

 

[davismanLV]

John Barleycorn Must Die is largely a Winwood solo album with a Traffic logo attached.

It is that. He went into the studio to do his solo thing and then .....

 

[Boneman]

Indeed there were many great performances there, too bad it all ended before I moved to SM in the late 90s. I do miss the old third street before the promenade and all that business there started, but do have many good memories of my time there.

 

[Minnesota Flats]

Santa Monica was a great place during the 1950s and 1960s when I lived in that area.

By comparison, not so much, any more.

 

[Minnesota Flats]

Ry Cooder graduated from Santa Monica High School.



And then went on to play with Captain Beefheart, Taj Mahal, and so on: