Empty Pages – relatively tight structure, relatively short playing time of under five minutes – is the closest thing to a pop track. In its length and swells and respites, Freedom Rider is more of the same, only with some soulful Winwood vocals. The percolating keyboards, smoky saxophone, fluttering flute and funky percussion set the tone for the record, as does the musicianship, whose impeccable quality doesn't prohibit grit. Opening an album with a near-seven-minute jazzy instrumental may sound about as listener-unfriendly as can be, but Glad is rather enjoyable. Guitarist and songwriter Mason had a difficult relationship with the group that had already seen him depart and return before their previous split and his chart-friendly fare like Hole in my Shoe, Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush and Feelin’ Alright? were hardly going to fit in with the musical visions of a band about to unleash an LP containing just six tracks. John Barleycorn Must Die started out as a solo Winwood work before he decided that what he actually wanted was to be back with his old Traffic colleagues Chris Wood (woodwind) and Jim Capaldi (drums), though not Dave Mason. Steve Winwood, the mellifluous keyboardist and gravel-throated singer of this ensemble forged in the fires of psychedelia, had veered off into supergroup Blind Faith and a solo career but found them both dead ends. Traffic’s fifth album, released in 1970, could just as easily have been titled Where Were We?
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