This album is a mixed bag of very different things. The first song is a live version of "Can't Find My Way Home." That was a song written and sung by Traffic member Steve Winwood when he was a member of Blind Faith in 1969. Traffic only rarely played the song in concert, and this recording comes from an audience bootleg.
The next song, "Gimme Some Lovin'" was first done by Winwood's first band, the Spencer Davis Group. Traffic recorded a version for their live album "Welcome to the Canteen." This is a single version that's half as long and a much tighter edit.
Two more songs, "It's So Hard" and "Easter Weekend" have a strange history. Jim Gordon was the drummer for Eric Clapton's band Derek and the Dominos. He fancied himself a singer-songwriter as well as a drummer, and did at least the song "It's So Hard" for the Dominos. But that band fell apart in mid-1971, and he became a member of Traffic instead. These recordings have him singing his two songs as part of Traffic, with band member Jim Capaldi singing as well.
However, neither song was ever included on a Traffic album, even though they're good songs. I suspect this is because Gordon was a very good drummer, but he also was increasingly mentally unstable. He only was part of Traffic for about a year. He later got a very long prison sentence after murdering his mother in 1983. Due to that shocking fact, I suspect his songs have been ignored even for archival releases.
Traffic almost never played cover versions, either in the studio or in concert. But I've found an unreleased one from a concert, "Get Me Back on Time, Engine Number 9." This is mislabeled on bootlegs as "Keep On Moving." It's mostly instrumental, but there are some vocals, which makes clear it's a version of a minor hit by Wilson Pickett. It comes from an audience bootleg, so the sound quality is just good, not great.
The last three songs are from Jim Capaldi's first solo album, released in 1972, but I've included them because they're kind of Traffic songs. "Big Thirst" prominently features former Traffic member Dave Mason, and it was co-written by him and Capaldi. The song "Open Your Heart" is actually an outtake from the Traffic album "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys," but it was bumped to Capaldi's solo album instead. I suspect that's the case with "How Much Can a Man Really Take" as well, since all the members of Traffic at the time appear on that also.
Steve Winwood sang lead on the vast majority of Traffic songs. On this album, two are sung by Gordon and three more by Capaldi., which is kind of strange But keep in mind that Capaldi did sing lead on Traffic songs sometimes, such as "Rock and Roll Stew," and he also co-wrote the vast majority of the band's songs.
01 Can't Find My Way Home (Traffic)
02 Gimme Some Lovin', Part 1 [Single Edit] (Traffic)
03 It's So Hard (Traffic)
04 Sittin' Here Thinkin' of My Love (Traffic)
05 Easter Weekend (Traffic)
06 Get Me Back on Time, Engine Number 9 (Traffic)
07 Big Thirst (Jim Capaldi with Dave Mason)
08 Open Your Heart (Jim Capaldi & Traffic)
09 How Much Can a Man Really Take (Jim Capaldi & Traffic)
https://www.imagenetz.de/meZN9
The cover art uses a photo from a Traffic concert in Amsterdam in 1971. A couple of the band members are out of the frame. I added the Traffic logo at the bottom, since the band loved sticking that on their album covers.
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