Traffic - Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, CA, 2-21-1972

I previously posted some Traffic studio outtakes from their early 1970s period. I said that really is the only bootleg recording with excellent sound quality from that time, with the exception of one concert recording. This is that one other recording.

For some reason, bootleggers had a dry spell around the release of Traffic's "Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" album in 1971, with no known soundboard recordings or great audience recordings. That leaves us with this. This concert was professionally recorded for a concert film called "Traffic: Live at Santa Monica." For one, a handful of songs were cut for time reasons: "Rock and Roll Stew," "Many a Mile to Freedom," "Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring," "Hidden Treasure," and "Empty Pages." Also, all of the talking between songs was cut. But at least what remains sounds great, a clear cut above all the bootlegs from that time.

I found an audience bootleg that has all the missing songs. Unfortunately, it's an average sounding recording, and to include them would drag the listening experience way down, so I decided to go without. However, I did my best to at least restore the banter between songs. I found some talking from that audience bootleg. I also searched for other bootlegs from that time period, and took the banter from a couple of those. Since it was just talking, I used the audio editing program X-Minus to edit the heck out those bits, removing most of the mud and hopefully making the vocals clear enough to make out what's being said. Then I made little tweaks to the applause on the other tracks, so the clapping would fit in with the talking.

This concert is rather short as concerts of the time go, at an hour and five minutes. The full concert was closer to two hours. Hopefully, someday the concert will be released in full, since it's highly likely the whole thing was recorded. Until then, this will have to do.

01 talk (Traffic)
02 The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys (Traffic)
03 talk (Traffic)
04 Light Up or Leave Me Alone (Traffic)
05 talk (Traffic)
06 John Barleycorn (Traffic)
07 talk (Traffic)
08 Rainmaker (Traffic)
09 talk (Traffic)
10 Glad - Freedom Rider (Traffic)
11 talk (Traffic)
12 [Roamin' thro' the Gloamin' With] 40,000 Headmen (Traffic)
13 Dear Mr. Fantasy (Traffic)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15259273/Trffc_1972_CivcAuditoriumSntaMonicaCA__2-21-1972_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is a screenshot from the Santa Monica video. Unfortunately, the film quality isn't that great, and it shows. I had a hard time finding any good images of all the members of the band (since it was a big band by then), so I took one just showing key band members Steve Winwood (on guitar) and Jim Capaldi (on tambourine) and two others. The band name with arrows hidden in the lettering was taken from the opening credits of the video.