# Deep Tracks - Traffic - "Mr. Fantasy"



## Guest (Sep 23, 2018)

View attachment 108172


There is *No Limit* for the number of selections allowed for this particular poll.

On all polls created if you click on the number of votes following the song title the username of all voters and their chosen selections will appear.

The tunes themselves will be found below the poll itself as links rather than as embedded videos due to bandwidth issues for those who wish to reacquaint themselves with a tune that may have receded a bit too far into the past to be remembered with the clarity that came when they were first released...

Next up is - Traffic - "Mr. Fantasy"

Traffic were an English rock band, formed in Birmingham, in April 1967 by Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason. They began as a psychedelic rock group and diversified their sound through the use of instruments such as keyboards like the Mellotron and harpsichord, sitar, and various reed instruments, and by incorporating jazz and improvisational techniques in their music.

Winwood, Capaldi, Mason, and Wood met when they jammed together at The Elbow Room, a club in Aston, Birmingham. After Winwood left the Spencer Davis Group in April 1967, the quartet formed Traffic. Capaldi came up with the name of the group while the four of them were waiting to cross the street in Dorchester. Soon thereafter, they rented a cottage near the rural village of Aston Tirrold, Berkshire to write and rehearse new music.

Traffic signed to Chris Blackwell's Island Records label (where Winwood's elder brother Muff, also a member of the Spencer Davis Group, later became a record producer and executive), and their debut single "Paper Sun" became a UK hit in mid-1967 (#4 Canada). Their second single, Mason's psych-pop "Hole in My Shoe", was an even bigger hit (#4 Canada), and it became one of their best-known tracks. The band's third single, "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush", was made for the soundtrack of the 1967 British feature film of the same name. Their debut album was "Mr. Fantasy", produced by Jimmy Miller, and like the singles, was a hit in the UK but not as big elsewhere, although it did reach number 88 in the US.

Mason left the group due to artistic differences by the time "Mr. Fantasy" was released, but rejoined for a few months of 1968, long enough to contribute to a slim majority of the songs on their second album, Traffic.

The four original members of Traffic were inducted for their contributions in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 15 March 2004. Winwood, Capaldi, Mason, and Stephanie Wood (standing in for her late brother Chris) all attended the ceremony. Winwood and Capaldi took part in the induction performance, but were joined by Dave Mason performing his song 'Feelin' Alright' for the grand finale which also featured Keith Richards, Tom Petty and the Temptations.

"Mr. Fantasy" was released in December 1967. The album was recorded at Olympic Studios with American record producer Jimmy Miller and recording engineer Phill Brown. When Brown was asked his favourite memory of engineering, he responded: "Recording Dear Mr Fantasy, one o'clock in the morning, November 1967".

The UK release was one of the earliest albums on the Island Records label. This edition had a color gatefold cover and included 10 songs, but left out hit songs from early Traffic singles. The sitar, an instrument widely associated with this era of Traffic due to its use on the singles "Paper Sun" and "Hole in My Shoe", is used on only one track on the UK album, "Utterly Simple".

The first US version was released in early 1968 by United Artists Records and re-titled "Heaven Is in Your Mind". It featured a different non-gatefold cover showing three members of the group without Mason. For this edition, a short looping snippet of the single "Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush" was added between most of the songs.

The US LP was re-sequenced and also added three other singles ("Paper Sun", "Hole in My Shoe", and "Smiling Phases") but deleted two Mason songs ("Hope I Never Find Me There" and "Utterly Simple".) The final track on the US album, "We're A Fade, You Missed This", is actually the ending of the full length "Paper Sun".

The title of the US album was quickly changed back to "Mr. Fantasy", but the new cover and track list remained until United Artists went out of business and Island reissued the UK stereo version in the United States in 1980.

A review in the Apr 27, 1968 edition of Rolling Stone called the album "one of the best from any contemporary group". The reviewer felt that Steve Winwood's voice had "matured, acquired new depth and new reaches, a more individual feeling and a greater range in both style and tones", and considered that "the strongest points of this album are where the elements of Traffic's 'comprehensible far-out' and Winwood's great R&B style are combined", but deemed Mason's contributions to be good enough in their own right.

Allmusic's retrospective review is positive, calling Traffic's music "eclectic, combining their background in British pop with a taste for the comic and dance hall styles of Sgt. Pepper, Indian music, and blues-rock jamming".

In 1999 the album was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Fantasy

Your commentary on any and every aspect of the album and especially any memories reawakened as a result of the poll is welcomed.


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## Guest (Sep 23, 2018)

"*Heaven Is In Your Mind*" -






"*Berkshire Poppies*" -






"*House For Everyone*" -






"*No Face, No Name, No Number*" -






"*Dear Mr. Fantasy*" -






"*Dealer*" -






"*Utterly Simple*" -






"*Coloured Rain*" -






"*Hope I Never Find Me There*" -






"*Giving To You*" -






"*Paper Sun*" -






"*Hole In My Shoe*" -






"*Smiling Phases*" -






"*Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush*" -


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

My favourite Traffic track is the live version of Dear Mr Fantasy from Welcome to the Canteen. I was never overly enamoured with their studio albums, tbh.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I liked the sense of experimentation on this album, but Dave Mason's wild card talents seemed at odds with the band's overall agenda, especially as regards his own compositions which strayed a bit too close into Donovan/Syd Barrett-like whimsy for comfort. I remember a _MOJO_ interview with Capaldi and Winwood in 1994 where they mockingly sang the sax intro to _House for Everyone_. Some good stuff on this debut but lacks the cohesion of future albums.


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