This is my seventh song pick for Hanspostcard’s song draft. Traffic Dear Mr. Fantasy.
I first heard this song after a band practice. We were in the guitarists garage when I was around 19-20. The guys in that band smoked pot…I didn’t…not because I was an angel…I just cannot smoke anything. That was my second contact high I ever got (my first was at a concert) and this one was much stronger. Someone played this song and the world was a lovely place. I saw right then why they did what they did.
This one would rank in my top twenty favorite songs. I could listen to this song on a tape loop forever and ever. It came out in 1967 on the Traffic album “Mr. Fantasy.” It was written by Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood and Chris Wood.
The song is made for long solos. Normally I like a solo and then move on but certain songs lend themselves to longer solos and this would be one.
The song also transports me to a time that I wasn’t a part of and I wish I would have been. This one and Can’t Find My Way Back Home does the same thing to me. It’s nothing like jazz but it affects me like jazz…I just sit back and let the song take me away to the incents and patchouli oil.
I’ll let Jim Capaldi tell you about the creation of the song:
“It was the summer of 1967, and we were all living in this
cottage in Berkshire. We were one of the first English bands to live
together like that. We thought we’d try it and see if anything came of
it. I remember the day very clearly: A bunch of friends came over early
in the day and we had quite a party. It was sunny and the corn was
coming up nicely around the cottage, and we were quite enjoying
ourselves if you know what I mean. As things finally wound down in the
evening, I was sitting around just doodling, as I would often do,
drawing this character. It was this little fellow with a spiked sun
hat. He was holding some puppeteer’s strings, and the puppet hands on
the end of the strings were playing a guitar. Under that, I just
scribbled some words: ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy,’ play us a tune,
something to make us all happy’ and on a bit. It was nice, but I didn’t
think much of it; certainly, it wasn’t intended to be a song.
“I crashed out eventually, but I remember hearing Steve and
Chris playing around after. The next day, I woke up and found that
they’d written a song around the words and drawing I’d done. I was
completely knocked out by it. Chris wrote that great bass line. We
added some more words later and worked out a bigger arrangement, too.
Those were very happy days for Traffic.”
Great post!
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Thanks I appreciate it!
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Nice video Max. I never heard the long jam of this song before.
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Thanks…I know the Dead did this quite a few times. I didn’t know Winwood could play that well on guitar.
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I liked the way you introduced the song and the song facts. It all flows together very well, the trippiness of the song, the contact high, the nostalgia for a time long gone. I like Traffic a lot. They were a supergroup, no doubt.
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Yes they were…thanks Pam I really appreciate it.
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Good post. Strange times they were.
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Check out this version Max
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It sounds really good Deke…they kept it faithful to the original
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Big Sugar is a great band Max..check em out
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I sure will dude…
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Great pick Max. I enjoyed the backstory and your experience with being introduced to the song!
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Great memory! Thanks Paul.
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Contact high! LOL! Yeah. I wasn’t good at the pot, either. Tried a couple of times…all I wanted to do was hide in a closet until my head cleared. I remember getting woozy at a Foreigner concert in Greensboro in 1985 with all the pot smoke. I was a little better at smoking cigarettes but, I still don’t know what a nicotine fit is. That habit didn’t take, either. I would smoke because someone I was with, smoked. By myself, nope. I must have strange body chemistry (we ARE kin…LOL).
When I blabbed at Hans, when I said “apropos”, I was referring to the lyrics:
Dear Mister Fantasy, play us a tune
Something to make us all happy
Do anything, take us out of this gloom
Much needed in this society these days.
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The long version from the live-session album “Welcome To The Canteen” is also recommended for a self-forgetting dance.
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Love that tune, Max. Definitely one of my favorites by Traffic. And, yes, Steve Winwood is a pretty good guitarist, which I also had not fully realized until I saw him live a few years ago and he demonstrated his chops!
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He is much better than I ever thought…I just thought he was a keyboard player.
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