Traffic - Alternate Studio Versions, 1971-1973

Traffic was a great band, and they were particularly great live. However, there's a frustratingly small amount of good sounding music by them other than what was released on their official albums. Almost no archival material has been released in the decades since the band broke up in the mid-1970s, other than a few bonus tracks here and there. Most live bootlegs of the band are audience recordings that sound poor to awful. There are a few good ones from 1967 to 1970, but I've posted those here already.

The situation gets even worse after 1970. There's one official live album called "On the Road," but it's merely okay. Most critics said the songs went on too long, and the playing wasn't that inspired. I agree. In my opinion, the band's last great album is "Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" from 1971. I've found one fairly good live recording from that time period, which I will post later. But in terms of sound quality, it turns out there are some unreleased studio recordings that sound fantastic, and that's what this album is.

The first three songs are outtakes from the "Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys." There really needs to be some kind of deluxe or even super deluxe release of that album, but as it is, there haven't even been any bonus tracks released. There is a popular bootleg of outtakes though, and that's where these three songs come from. All three are interesting alternate takes with excellent sound quality. 

However, beware that that bootleg has some other songs on it that aren't worthy of inclusion here. For instance, there's an alternate mix of "Rock and Roll Stew" that's just that, an alternate mix, that's barely different from the album version. There also are three instrumental jams that actually aren't Traffic at all, but outtakes from album sessions of a different artist that sounded kind of like them. And so on. These are the three gems from that bootleg.

Most of the rest of the songs date to a performance on the German TV show "Musikladen" in 1973. The band stopped doing BBC sessions and most other TV or radio show appearances after 1970, but this is one key exception. These songs were done live in the studio, without any audience, so they're essentially alternate studio versions as well. Three of the songs are from the band's 1973 album "Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory." But there's also a version of "40,000 Headmen," first done in 1968. And there's an instrumental simply called "Jammin'" by Musikladen. If anyone knows of a better title for that one, please let me know.

The last song, Light Up or Leave Me Alone" from the "Low Spark" album, is a bit of cheat, because it's actually taken from a 1973. But I'm including it here because it was filmed for a German TV show, and the sound quality is so excellent that you'd think it's another studio outtake. That's helped by the fact that I cut out the audience applause at the end.

If you like Traffic from the early 1970s and want to hear something more than what's on their official albums, this is as good as it gets in terms of sound quality and performance. Let's hope more gets officially released someday.

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys (Traffic)
02 Rock and Roll Stew (Traffic)
03 Rainmaker (Traffic)
04 Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory (Traffic)
05 Evening Blue (Traffic)
06 [Sometimes I Feel So] Uninspired (Traffic)
07 [Roamin' thro' the Gloamin' With] 40,000 Headmen (Traffic)
08 Jammin' [Instrumental] (Traffic)
09 Light Up or Leave Me Alone (Traffic)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700891/TRAFFC1971-1973_AltrnteStudioVrsions_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is a screenshot I took from the Musikladen show.