Paper Sun | Song Mango Reddit A trippy song from a trippy year, Traffic’s first release “Paper Sun” is one of those snapshots in time that nabs a moment and keeps it well preserved under glass. It is a brother song to black-light-and-nickel-bag-of-pot favorites like Cream’s “Dance The Night Away” and “SWLABR” off Disraeli Gears; Sgt. Pepper’s; The Stones’ “She’s A Rainbow”; Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man”; “I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night” by The Electric Prunes, and “ Eight Miles High “ from The Byrds. The psychedelic era seems all excess and tiny droplets of colors pulsing from windowpane acid doses, but the intense creativity, while undeniably inspired by “the scene,” also imbued it with a distinctive stamp. There is a “feel” to the years 1966 through 1969 that marks them as the absolute end of the post-World War II era. “Paper Sun” Experimentation in all the arts, in dress, in the way people interacted with their governments, in sexual mores, were all telltale signs.

A generation of young people had come of age and it sought something quite a bit different than what their parents had wanted. But the verities remained. Love was still ecstatic – if slightly bent by the newfound freedoms – and lost love was still dismal and caused tears, choking letdowns, all the grime that goes with broken hopes. “Paper Sun” has been termed a “revenge” song, but it comes across as much more than that especially now that nearly 50 years have passed since its release. It is a sketch of good times a young man and woman had, a quick watercolor study of the swirling days running around while in the delirium of love. He imagines her doing the same things that he and she and done together. There is a tone of mockery in it, but clearly the singer wants the girl back.

It’s not stated, but the undercurrent is real and it is strong: So you think you’re having good times With the boy that you just met Kicking sand from beach to beach Your clothes all soaking wet But if you look around and see A shadow on the run Don’t be too upset because its just a paper sun Ahh Paper Sun, Ahh Paper Sun Running underneath, an African/North African rhythm buoys up the song (it dissolves into a tried-and-true backbeat), which, absent the house-of-mirror lyrics, would be a damned great party tune. Dave Mason supplies the requisite sitar – a staple in the British Rock pantry of the mid-’60s – but it seems natural and unforced. Young Winwood It’s hard to get your arms around the notion that Stevie Winwood was just turning 19 when “Paper Sun” was recorded. While you can hear the mournful, hurt innocence in his voice, his belly-deep blue-eyed soul sound is also unmistakably rich and authentic. Vocals overall are ethereal with haunted, echoey harmonies streaming around on a surreal seashore like the young people described in the track.

As a whole, “Paper Sun” feels unstructured, very much ad hoc, but there is a glinty cut to the diamond-like production. The song feels organic in that way, too, despite the synthetic, better-living-through-modern-chemistry LSD side of the mini-epoch. There are the sun, beach, sand, water, shadows, and so forth. There is a great sense of the outdoors, of open sky, even when the storyline pops into a London flat for some crying time. In the room where you’ve been sleeping All your clothes all thrown about Cigarettes burn window sills Your meter’s all run out But there again it’s nothing You just split when day is done Pitching lips to nowhere, hung up on the paper sun What can be more apropos of an emotionally upset girl than a trashed room? Everything’s going to hell in a handcart – at least in the singer/songwriter’s vision. A slight tempo shift occurs with a similar shift in point of view in and around these lines. Standing in the cool of my room Fresh cut flowers give me sweet perfume Too much sun will burn!

The same arrangement closes out the song after another verse, shifting and slowing: Daylight breaks while you sleep on the sand A seagull is stealing the ring from your hand The boy who had given you so much fun Has left you so cold in the paper sun Perhaps there is a “told-you-so moment” in here, but it’s got a thick dollop of sympathy, rescuing it from the dark corner of pure revenge art. As the song comes to a howling, star-turn end, Winwood is singing with the best of bluesmen. That is, if bluesmen took a few hits of cherry red. “Paper Sun” mapped the way forward for Traffic and a lot of other future Progressive Rock ensembles, mostly those out of the British Isles.

After appearing with the short-lived, ill-fated Blind Faith, Winwood and drummer/co-writer Jim Capaldi would re-group to issue the miraculous John Barleycorn Must Die album, from which come classics like “Freedom Rider” and “(Staring At The) Empty Pages.” (Winwood was by then a ripe old 22.) “Paper Sun” stands big and strong, a girl and her two boyfriends come and gone, reminding the listener of a time when there was another level of disharmony and distortion heaped high on the usual adolescent angst, the long slow train of twisted love. mangoids On the album Dear Mr. Fantasy on which “Paper Sun” appears, there is a 45-second fade out of the jam that was supposed to appear on the singles version but was cut because of length considerations. It is a separate track called “We’re A Fade, You Missed This.” The image of the paper sun in the song’s name is acid-soaked.

Often, on the hallucinogen, objects, bits of nature, and so forth, appear flat and one-dimensional, reduced to their essential “suchness.” Traffic | New Music And Songs | Traffic About Traffic Though it ultimately must be considered an interim vehicle for singer/songwriter/keyboardist/guitarist Steve Winwood, Traffic was a successful group that followed its own individual course through the rock music scene of the late '60s and early '70s. Beginning in the psychedelic year of 1967 and influenced by the Beatles, the band turned out eclectic pop singles in its native Great Britain, though by the end of its first year of existence it had developed a pop/rock hybrid tied to its unusual instrumentation: At a time when electric guitars ruled rock, Traffic emphasized Winwood's organ and the reed instruments played by Chris Wood, especially flute. After Dave Mason, who had provided the band with an alternate folk-pop sound, departed for good, Traffic leaned toward extended songs that gave its players room to improvise in a jazz-like manner, even as the rhythms maintained a rock structure. The result was international success that ended only when Winwood finally decided he was ready to strike out on his own.

Steve Winwood (born May 12, 1948) first attracted attention when, at the age of 15, he and his older brother Muff formed a band in their native Birmingham, England, with Spencer Davis and Pete York, eventually called the Spencer Davis Group. They were signed by record executive Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records, and began recording in 1964. As the band's vocalist, Winwood received the lion's share of attention. By the time he and his brother quit the group in April 1967, the Spencer Davis Group had amassed four Top Ten singles and three Top Ten albums in the U.K., two of those singles also reaching the Top Ten in the U.S. Still not yet 19 years old, Winwood formed Traffic with three 22-year-old friends who had played in lesser-known bands: drummer/singer Jim Capaldi (August 24, 1944 - January 28, 2005), singer/guitarist Mason (born May 10, 1944), and Wood (June 24, 1944 - July 12, 1983).

In the spirit of the times (and despite Winwood's prominence), the group was intended to be a cooperative, with the members living together in a country cottage in Berkshire and collaborating on their songs. Blackwell quickly signed them and released their debut single, "Paper Sun," which peaked in the U.K. Top Five in July 1967 and also spent several weeks in the lower reaches of the charts in America, where Blackwell licensed it to United Artists, as he had the Spencer Davis Group's recordings. Meanwhile, as Traffic recorded material for its debut album during the summer of 1967, its communal outlook was disrupted by Mason, who, unlike Winwood (a composer who needed help with lyrics and therefore tended toward collaboration), was capable of writing songs on his own and did so. The success of "Paper Sun" encouraged Blackwell to release a follow-up single quickly, and he chose "Hole in My Shoe" (written and sung by Mason) as the most likely candidate among the songs Traffic had recorded so far.

It became an even bigger hit than "Paper Sun," almost topping the British charts in October, but that didn't sit well with Winwood, who felt it was unrepresentative of the sound he wanted for Traffic. The group's third single was "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush," the title song from a motion picture, which became their third British Top Ten hit in December, the same month that their debut album, Mr. Fantasy, was released. It, too, earned a Top Ten ranking in January 1968, but by then Mason had left Traffic. A fourth single, "No Face, No Name, No Number," culled from the album, made the British Top 40 in March, the month that Traffic debuted as a live attraction in the U.S., where Mr. Fantasy (initially titled Heaven Is in Your Mind) reached the Top 100. Traffic encountered two problems as a trio. First, given its unusual instrumentation, it had difficulty on-stage doing without a player like Mason, who could handle the bass guitar work.

In his absence, Winwood was forced to fill in the bass sound by playing the organ's bass pedals with his feet while simultaneously playing the organ keyboards with his hands and singing. Second, without a prolific writer like Mason, the group had more difficulty coming up with enough new material to satisfy its contractual commitments. As a result, Winwood, Capaldi, and Wood reconciled with Mason, who rejoined Traffic in the spring of 1968 and contributed heavily to the band's second album, Traffic, writing half of the songs, among them "Feelin' Alright?," which went on to become a rock standard, particularly after Joe Cocker's 1969 cover version became an American Top 40 hit in 1972. Traffic was released in October 1968, and the band went on tour in the U.S. to promote it. But just after the start of the tour, Winwood, Capaldi, and Wood fired Mason. Then, at the conclusion of the tour, Winwood withdrew, announcing the breakup of Traffic at the beginning of 1969. These events notwithstanding, the album reached the U.K. Top Ten and the U.S. Top 20.

And breakup or no, Winwood was contracted to Island and United Artists for five albums, of which only two had been delivered. Thus, in April 1969, the labels released Last Exit, a collection of non-LP singles sides, outtakes, and live recordings. It was another Top 20 success in America. Meanwhile, Capaldi and Wood rejoined Mason along with keyboardist Wynder K. Frog in the short-lived band Wooden Frog, which never recorded, and Winwood teamed with former Cream members Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker as well as former Family member Ric Grech (November 1, 1946 - March 16, 1990) in Blind Faith. This highly touted supergroup made one album, Blind Faith, which topped the charts in the U.S. and U.K., and played one American tour before breaking up. Still owing his record labels two albums, Winwood began work on a solo record in early 1970, but quickly brought in Capaldi and Wood and turned it into a Traffic LP. John Barleycorn Must Die was released in June 1970.

In the U.S., it was a gold-selling Top Ten hit; in the U.K. it reached the Top 20. Embarking on extensive touring, Traffic expanded its lineup, adding Ric Grech on bass. In the spring of 1971, in anticipation of British and American touring, drummer Jim Gordon, formerly of Derek and the Dominos, was brought in, as was percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah. Also joining for a handful of U.K. dates was Dave Mason, who had in the meantime become a solo star with his 1970 album Alone Together. The band was able to work off its contractual commitment with a live album from this lineup, Welcome to the Canteen, released in September. Although it failed to make the U.K. charts, it reached the Top 40 in America. Re-signed to Island, which began releasing albums in the U.S. as well as the U.K., Traffic quickly followed in November with the studio album The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, which reached the American Top Ten and sold a million copies, though, in an indication of the group's increasingly international focus, didn't even chart back home in Britain.

A winter 1971-1972 tour was aborted by Winwood's poor health (he was later revealed to be suffering from peritonitis), and Grech and Gordon left the band, while Capaldi recorded his debut solo album, Oh How We Danced; it reached the American Top 100. In the fall of 1972, with Winwood recovered, Traffic convened to record a new album, adding drummer Roger Hawkins and bassist David Hood, members of the studio band at the famed Muscle Shoals recording studio. (Keyboardist Barry Beckett, another Muscle Shoals alumnus, played with the band live.) Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory, released in January 1973, reached the American Top Ten and went gold. The world tour that promoted it was chronicled on Traffic: On the Road, released in October 1973. At the end of the tour, the Muscle Shoals musicians returned home and Kwaku Baah also left Traffic, which recruited bassist Rosko Gee. Capaldi released a second solo album, Whale Meat Again, in the summer of 1974; "It's All up to You" from it reached the U.K.

Top 40. With Traffic, he recorded a new album, When the Eagle Flies, released in September. It was the band's fourth consecutive studio album to reach the American Top Ten and go gold, and the group toured to support it, but at the conclusion of the tour Traffic silently disbanded. With a headstart on a solo career, Capaldi scored a Top Five hit in the U.K. in 1975 with a cover of "Love Hurts" from his third album, Short Cut Draw Blood. (The single charted in the U.S., but lost out to a competing version by Nazareth.) Along with former Santana drummer Michael Shrieve, Winwood participated prominently in Japanese percussionist Stomu Yamashta's concept album Go, which made the Top 100 in the U.S. in 1976. In 1977, he finally made his solo bow, releasing the modestly successful album Steve Winwood.

A three-and-a-half year silence ensued, broken by the 1980 release of Arc of a Diver, which hit the American Top Five and went platinum, paced by the Top Ten single "While You See a Chance." 1982's Talking Back to the Night was a commercial disappointment, but Winwood had the greatest success of his career with 1986's Back in the High Life, a multi-million seller that threw off four Top 20 singles, among them the chart-topping "Higher Love." In 1987, "Valerie," a remixed version of a song from Talking Back to the Night, hit the Top Ten. 1988's Roll With It was another multi-platinum seller for Winwood, with both the album and the title song topping the charts. But Refugees of the Heart (1990) was less successful. In 1994, Winwood announced a reunion with Capaldi (Wood had died of liver failure), who had continued to record solo albums with diminishing success. The two made a new album, Far from Home, and toured as Traffic during the summer. The album quickly reached the U.S. and U.K.

Top 40, but did not sell well, and the tour also performed disappointingly, signaling another retirement of the Traffic name. Nevertheless, the 1967-1974-era band continued to enjoy significant status as a classic rock act, its albums earning CD reissues along with the release of compilations like Smiling Phases (1991) and Feelin' Alright: The Very Best of Traffic (2000). Capaldi's death on January 28, 2005, appeared to put an end to the band. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi Hear more of Paper Sun So you think you're having good times With the boy that you just met, Kicking sand from beach to beach Your clothes all soaking wet! But if you look around and see A shadow on the run Don't be too upset Because it's just a paper sun. Ahh paper sun, Ahh paper Sun. In the room where you've been sleeping All your clothes all thrown about. Cigarettes burn window sills Your meter's all run out. But then again it's nothing; You just split when day is done-- Hitching lifts to nowhere, Hung up on the paper sun.

[Refrain] Standing in the cool of my room. Fresh cut flowers give me sweet perfume. Too much sun will burn! (2x) When you're feeling tired and lonely You see people going home; You can't make the train fare Or the six pence for the phone. And icicles you're crying From your cheek have just begun. Don't be sad, good times are had Beneath the paper sun. Daylight breaks while you sleep on the sand. A seagull is stealing the ring from your hand. The boy who had given you so much fun Has left you so cold in the paper sun. [Coda] At this point, Psychedelic Masterworks introduces Steve Winwood, but this is not the first American audiences had heard of him. He first appeared as the organist and lead singer of the Spencer Davis Group with which he recorded two American hit singles, Gimme Some Lovin (#7 November 1966) and I’m a Man (#10 February 1967). The Spencer Davis Group had enjoyed an even greater success and a longer line of hits in the UK before the U.S. audience ever heard of them.

Steve Winwood’s electric organ and blues inflected voice made quite an impression on pop music from the start—the boy was only 16 or 17 years old when he became a sensation. He was almost a child star, being only two years older than Stevie Wonder. But, at first, Winwood’s output wasn’t what one would call psychedelic. Evidently he fell under the sway of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, because Paper Sun, and much of the album from which it is drawn, Mr. Fantasy, participates in a similar aesthetic. Of course, many groups at the time fell under the spell of Sgt. Pepper—I have written here about similar influence on the work of the Rolling Stones’ Satanic Majesties Request, the Beach Boys’ Smiley Smile, the Doors’ Strange Days, the Jefferson Airplanes’ After Bathing at Baxters, Bee Gees’ 1st, and Pink Floyd’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

What distinguishes Traffic’s first album is that Steve Winwood’s blues and jazz influences are already evident on several tracks, and hint at the new direction that psychedelia would go in during the following year, in league with the blues-inflected psychedelia of Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. When Paper Sun was recorded in April 1967 it was probably heard as fairly current, and it was a single on the BBC before the release of Sgt. Pepper. The song was a good sized hit in the UK. However, when it was released to the U.S. in December of that year on the Mr. Fantasy album it didn’t make much of an impression. After six months, the Sgt. Pepper aesthetic was already wearing thin. Winwood had taken a chance in forming a group that sounded nothing like the Spencer Davis Group, and Traffic didn’t pick up on his previous audience. This was a time also when audiences were not accustomed to group members leaving to form other bands. Only Eric Clapton had attempted it, leaving the Yardbirds to form Cream. In 1969, Clapton and Winwood would leave their groups again to work together in Blind Faith.

By that time the Beatles were breaking up, Simon & Garfunkel were breaking up, and the Rolling Stones had lost Brian Jones and replaced him. The audience by 1969 had less expectation of permanence. Paper Sun uses an actual sitar, but it is played as if a guitar in a repeated phrase and scales much simpler than the Beatle’s first attempt with the instrument in Norwegian Wood. (Actually, the traditional sitar in the song is used much as the “electric sitar” was being used.) It is not so much the sitar that gives the song its distinctiveness as the use of reed instruments. Very few popular groups at the time had someone in their membership with any talent on horns and flutes--though the Stones' Brian Jones was willing to give any instrument a try; when used at all, winds were most often the work of session musicians. The major exception was John Entwistle of The Who, but until Tommy, released in 1969, Entwistle tended to use horns as a novelty. He is better known as a bass player. Traffic was the first group to feature a reed player, Chris Wood.

Wood turned out to be a pioneer in the field, with a distinctive style, particularly in his use of the flute. He brought popularity to the instrument in a rock group context that it had rarely enjoyed previously, and paved the way for other talented flautists like Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. It is Wood’s buzzing horns and peripheral flutes that give Paper Sun its most distinctive sound. The song form of Paper Sun is a standard eight line ballad, with rhymes on the even lines. A one line refrain breaks up the verses. Between the second and third verses a four line B section comes in with rhymed couplets. Near the end of the song a C section comes in that is similar in structure to B but carries a different melody in a minor key. It has something of the effect of the reprise section at the end of Strawberry Fields Forever, though without the engineering feats. The lyric of Paper Sun seems to be somewhat a warning against living a life of pleasure. I say “somewhat” because the line “Don’t be sad, good times are had” echoes Dear Mr. Fantasy, the concluding song on the album. The song Dear Mr.

Fantasy carries the lines “Don’t be sad, if it was a straight mind you’d had / We wouldn’t have known you all these years.” Given the larger context of the song within the album, it seems the message is that though chasing after pleasure is illusory, it also provides cherished memories. This is not the sort of encouragement toward hedonism that psychedelic music usually supported, but it isn’t fully a condemnation either. Criticism about the hippie lifestyle was rare before this (Dance the Night Away by Cream and All Tomorrow’s Parties by Velvet Underground come to mind), but soon there would be quite a bit of self-criticism on psychedelic records. Paper Sun points to the poverty in a life of pleasure; that such a life doesn’t get the girl in the story anywhere. The metaphor of the paper sun is not a clear one. Much of the time the sun is real in these verses; however, in memory that sun perhaps only exists on paper. It is not the same sun under which people toil (as a “pay person”) to get ahead.

The Best of Traffic - Traffic | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic The Best of Traffic google+ AllMusic Review by William Ruhlmann Though Traffic broke up at the start of 1969, the band was on a commercial ascent, which led Island Records, their U.K. label, and United Artists, which licensed their product for the U.S., to assemble a posthumous album, Last Exit , released in April 1969, that, like its predecessor, Traffic , peaked in the American top 20. Meanwhile, former band member Steve Winwood formed Blind Faith , which produced a debut album that topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. No wonder Island and UA determined that the fall of 1969 was a good time for a Traffic compilation. The release was especially needed in Britain, where the singles sides "Paper Sun," "Hole in My Shoe," and "Smiling Phases" had not yet appeared on an LP. Since Traffic had moved away from being a singles band after its first year, the album was not dubbed a hits collection, though all its tracks had been released on one side or the other of a single on one side or the other of the Atlantic.

As a selection of the best and most popular material from the group's first three albums, the result is hard to fault, though it's worth noting that the missing "Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush," the theme song from the 1967 movie of the same name, was a Top Ten hit in England. Also missing, on the British version of the LP, anyway, was "You Can All Join In," a song that had enjoyed popularity in continental Europe. (The American version did include "You Can All Join In," which replaced "Smiling Phases.") The group's U.K. hit singles, "Paper Sun" and "Hole in My Shoe," were already beginning to sound like quaint bits of psychedelia by 1969, but the entire second side of the LP, comprising "Medicated Goo," "Forty Thousand Headmen," "Feelin' Alright," "Shanghai Noodle Factory," and "Dear Mr. Fantasy," was the kind of progressive rock that would define Traffic and give it its place in the rock pantheon. Who could have known when this disc was first released that the band's story was far from over?

Track Listing Traffic | Biography & History | AllMusic google+ Artist Biography by William Ruhlmann Though it ultimately must be considered an interim vehicle for singer/songwriter/keyboardist/guitarist Steve Winwood , Traffic was a successful group that followed its own individual course through the rock music scene of the late '60s and early '70s. Beginning in the psychedelic year of 1967 and influenced by the Beatles , the band turned out eclectic pop singles in its native Great Britain, though by the end of its first year of existence it had developed a pop/rock hybrid tied to its unusual instrumentation: At a time when electric guitars ruled rock, Traffic emphasized Winwood 's organ and the reed instruments played by Chris Wood , especially flute. After Dave Mason , who had provided the band with an alternate folk-pop sound, departed for good, Traffic leaned toward extended songs that gave its players room to improvise in a jazz-like manner, even as the rhythms maintained a rock structure. The result was international success that ended only when Winwood finally decided he was ready to strike out on his own.

Steve Winwood (born May 12, 1948) first attracted attention when, at the age of 15, he and his older brother Muff formed a band in their native Birmingham, England, with Spencer Davis and Pete York , eventually called the Spencer Davis Group . They were signed by record executive Chris Blackwell , founder of Island Records, and began recording in 1964. As the band's vocalist, Winwood received the lion's share of attention. By the time he and his brother quit the group in April 1967, the Spencer Davis Group had amassed four Top Ten singles and three Top Ten albums in the U.K., two of those singles also reaching the Top Ten in the U.S. Still not yet 19 years old, Winwood formed Traffic with three 22-year-old friends who had played in lesser-known bands: drummer/singer Jim Capaldi (August 24, 1944 - January 28, 2005), singer/guitarist Mason (born May 10, 1944), and Wood (June 24, 1944 - July 12, 1983).

In the spirit of the times (and despite Winwood 's prominence), the group was intended to be a cooperative, with the members living together in a country cottage in Berkshire and collaborating on their songs. Blackwell quickly signed them and released their debut single, "Paper Sun," which peaked in the U.K. Top Five in July 1967 and also spent several weeks in the lower reaches of the charts in America, where Blackwell licensed it to United Artists, as he had the Spencer Davis Group 's recordings. Meanwhile, as Traffic recorded material for its debut album during the summer of 1967, its communal outlook was disrupted by Mason , who, unlike Winwood (a composer who needed help with lyrics and therefore tended toward collaboration), was capable of writing songs on his own and did so. The success of "Paper Sun" encouraged Blackwell to release a follow-up single quickly, and he chose "Hole in My Shoe" (written and sung by Mason ) as the most likely candidate among the songs Traffic had recorded so far.

It became an even bigger hit than "Paper Sun," almost topping the British charts in October, but that didn't sit well with Winwood , who felt it was unrepresentative of the sound he wanted for Traffic . The group's third single was "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush," the title song from a motion picture, which became their third British Top Ten hit in December, the same month that their debut album, Mr. Fantasy , was released. It, too, earned a Top Ten ranking in January 1968, but by then Mason had left Traffic . A fourth single, "No Face, No Name, No Number," culled from the album, made the British Top 40 in March, the month that Traffic debuted as a live attraction in the U.S., where Mr. Fantasy (initially titled Heaven Is in Your Mind ) reached the Top 100. Traffic encountered two problems as a trio. First, given its unusual instrumentation, it had difficulty on-stage doing without a player like Mason , who could handle the bass guitar work.

In his absence, Winwood was forced to fill in the bass sound by playing the organ's bass pedals with his feet while simultaneously playing the organ keyboards with his hands and singing. Second, without a prolific writer like Mason , the group had more difficulty coming up with enough new material to satisfy its contractual commitments. As a result, Winwood , Capaldi , and Wood reconciled with Mason , who rejoined Traffic in the spring of 1968 and contributed heavily to the band's second album, Traffic , writing half of the songs, among them "Feelin' Alright?," which went on to become a rock standard, particularly after Joe Cocker 's 1969 cover version became an American Top 40 hit in 1972. Traffic was released in October 1968, and the band went on tour in the U.S. to promote it. But just after the start of the tour, Winwood , Capaldi , and Wood fired Mason . Then, at the conclusion of the tour, Winwood withdrew, announcing the breakup of Traffic at the beginning of 1969. These events notwithstanding, the album reached the U.K. Top Ten and the U.S. Top 20.

And breakup or no, Winwood was contracted to Island and United Artists for five albums, of which only two had been delivered. Thus, in April 1969, the labels released Last Exit , a collection of non-LP singles sides, outtakes, and live recordings. It was another Top 20 success in America. Meanwhile, Capaldi and Wood rejoined Mason along with keyboardist Wynder K. Frog in the short-lived band Wooden Frog , which never recorded, and Winwood teamed with former Cream members Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker as well as former Family member Ric Grech (November 1, 1946 - March 16, 1990) in Blind Faith . This highly touted supergroup made one album, Blind Faith , which topped the charts in the U.S. and U.K., and played one American tour before breaking up. Still owing his record labels two albums, Winwood began work on a solo record in early 1970, but quickly brought in Capaldi and Wood and turned it into a Traffic LP. John Barleycorn Must Die was released in June 1970.

In the U.S., it was a gold-selling Top Ten hit; in the U.K. it reached the Top 20. Embarking on extensive touring, Traffic expanded its lineup, adding Ric Grech on bass. In the spring of 1971, in anticipation of British and American touring, drummer Jim Gordon , formerly of Derek and the Dominos , was brought in, as was percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah . Also joining for a handful of U.K. dates was Dave Mason , who had in the meantime become a solo star with his 1970 album Alone Together . The band was able to work off its contractual commitment with a live album from this lineup, Welcome to the Canteen , released in September. Although it failed to make the U.K. charts, it reached the Top 40 in America. Re-signed to Island, which began releasing albums in the U.S. as well as the U.K., Traffic quickly followed in November with the studio album The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys , which reached the American Top Ten and sold a million copies, though, in an indication of the group's increasingly international focus, didn't even chart back home in Britain.

A winter 1971-1972 tour was aborted by Winwood 's poor health (he was later revealed to be suffering from peritonitis), and Grech and Gordon left the band, while Capaldi recorded his debut solo album, Oh How We Danced ; it reached the American Top 100. In the fall of 1972, with Winwood recovered, Traffic convened to record a new album, adding drummer Roger Hawkins and bassist David Hood , members of the studio band at the famed Muscle Shoals recording studio. (Keyboardist Barry Beckett , another Muscle Shoals alumnus, played with the band live.) Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory , released in January 1973, reached the American Top Ten and went gold. The world tour that promoted it was chronicled on Traffic: On the Road, released in October 1973. At the end of the tour, the Muscle Shoals musicians returned home and Kwaku Baah also left Traffic , which recruited bassist Rosko Gee . Capaldi released a second solo album, Whale Meat Again , in the summer of 1974; "It's All up to You" from it reached the U.K.

Top 40. With Traffic , he recorded a new album, When the Eagle Flies , released in September. It was the band's fourth consecutive studio album to reach the American Top Ten and go gold, and the group toured to support it, but at the conclusion of the tour Traffic silently disbanded. With a headstart on a solo career, Capaldi scored a Top Five hit in the U.K. in 1975 with a cover of "Love Hurts" from his third album, Short Cut Draw Blood . (The single charted in the U.S., but lost out to a competing version by Nazareth .) Along with former Santana drummer Michael Shrieve , Winwood participated prominently in Japanese percussionist Stomu Yamashta 's concept album Go , which made the Top 100 in the U.S. in 1976. In 1977, he finally made his solo bow, releasing the modestly successful album Steve Winwood .

A three-and-a-half year silence ensued, broken by the 1980 release of Arc of a Diver , which hit the American Top Five and went platinum, paced by the Top Ten single "While You See a Chance." 1982's Talking Back to the Night was a commercial disappointment, but Winwood had the greatest success of his career with 1986's Back in the High Life , a multi-million seller that threw off four Top 20 singles, among them the chart-topping "Higher Love." In 1987, "Valerie," a remixed version of a song from Talking Back to the Night , hit the Top Ten. 1988's Roll With It was another multi-platinum seller for Winwood , with both the album and the title song topping the charts. But Refugees of the Heart (1990) was less successful. In 1994, Winwood announced a reunion with Capaldi ( Wood had died of liver failure), who had continued to record solo albums with diminishing success. The two made a new album, Far from Home , and toured as Traffic during the summer. The album quickly reached the U.S. and U.K.

Top 40, but did not sell well, and the tour also performed disappointingly, signaling another retirement of the Traffic name. Nevertheless, the 1967-1974-era band continued to enjoy significant status as a classic rock act, its albums earning CD reissues along with the release of compilations like Smiling Phases (1991) and Feelin' Alright: The Very Best of Traffic (2000). Capaldi 's death on January 28, 2005, appeared to put an end to the band. HOLE IN MY SHOE (1967) by Traffic (incredible stereo mix) - YouTube HOLE IN MY SHOE (1967) by Traffic (incredible stereo mix) Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Nov 5, 2009 I bought this single when it came out (Smiling Phases was the 'B' side).

This song was written and sung by Dave Mason, rather than Steve Winwood who did most of the singing for the band. Interestingly, Dave said it was the first song he wrote and that it was like a nursery rhyme. He said he had not tried LSD at the time he wrote the song (many thought it was influenced by that drug). Francine Heimann was the six year old girl who did the spoken part in the middle of the song. She was the stepdaughter of Island Records boss Chris Blackwell. Winwood had success as a musician prior to joining Traffic, becoming the frontman of the Spencer Davis Group at age 15 in 1963. Winwood met drummer Jim Capaldi, guitarist Dave Mason, and multi-instrumentalist Chris Wood 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. Soon thereafter, they rented a cottage near the rural village of Aston Tirrold, Berkshire to write and rehearse new music. Traffic signed to Island Records label and their debut single "Paper Sun" became a UK hit in mid-1967.

Their second single, Mason's psych-pop classic "Hole in My Shoe", was an even bigger hit, and it became one of their best-known tracks, but it set the stage for increasing friction between Winwood and Mason, the group's principal songwriters. The rest of their career involved various personnel comings and goings (Winwood joined Blind Faith for a year) and Dave Mason even rejoined again for a short period. They had varying success, although scoring with John Barleycorn Must Die and The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (Nov. 1971), which was a Top 10 American album athough did not chart in the UK. Sadly Chris Wood died in 1983 and Jim Capaldi in 2005. The above was adapted from Wikipedia. I have put together a slide show video for this song, hopefully matching up images to the music. Comments are invited. I've also uploaded a live version of this song, which can be found here: Category TRAFFIC PAPER SUN [ 1967 ] - YouTube TRAFFIC PAPER SUN [ 1967 ] Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist.

Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jan 29, 2016 Traffic was een Engelse rockband uit Birmingham, gevormd in 1967 en met Steve Winwood als frontman, nadat deze The Spencer Davis Group had verlaten. Nadat Steve Winwood (zanger, toetsenist en gitarist) op achttienjarige leeftijd de Spencer Davis Group had verlaten, richtte hij met drummer/zanger Jim Capaldi, zanger/gitarist/bassist Dave Mason en fluitist en saxofonist Chris Wood Traffic op. De vier leden betrokken een afgelegen hut in Berkshire, waar ze samen aan de liedjes werkten. In 1967 kwam de eerste single uit, "Paper Sun", die onder andere in het Verenigd Koninkrijk en in Nederland een hit werd en het ook in de Verenigde Staten aardig deed. De tweede single, "A Hole in My Shoe", werd evengoed een hit.

Dit zorgde echter ook voor wrijving tussen Winwood en Mason, de twee tekstschrijvers. Winwood, die zijn nummers in samenwerking met anderen schreef, zag hoe het door enkel Mason geschreven "A Hole in My Shoe" in de UK een grotere hit werd dan zijn "Paper Sun". De derde hit, "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush", volgde vrij snel dat jaar, en in december '67 kwam in het Verenigd Koninkrijk het eerste album uit, Mr. Fantasy. Vlak na het uitkomen van het album verliet Mason de groep. Na het vertrek van Mason stond de band voor enkele problemen. Ze misten tijdens live-optredens hun bassist, waardoor Winwood ook de bass-pedalen moest bespelen terwijl hij zong en het keyboard speelde. Ook misten ze Masons kwaliteiten als tekstschrijver, waardoor ze moeite hadden nieuw materiaal te schrijven.

In 1968 keerde Mason weer terug bij Traffic voor het tweede album, Traffic. Hij schreef meerdere nummers, waaronder de grote hit "Feelin' All Right" (die later nog meer bekendheid kreeg in de versie van Joe Cocker). Eind 1968 ging de band op tournee door de Verenigde Staten om hun nieuwe album te promoten. Gedurende de tournee werd Mason opnieuw ontslagen en kondigde Winwood aan dat de band zou worden opgeheven. De platenmaatschappij bracht het album Last Exit uit, bestaande uit live-opnamen en B-kantjes. Winwood vormde Blind Faith met Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker en Rick Grech en Capaldi, Wood en Mason vormden samen met Mick Weaver, ook wel bekend als Wynder K. Frog, de band Wooden Frog. Wooden Frog bracht geen album uit, Blind Faith één.

Na het uiteenvallen van Blind Faith begon Winwood te werken aan een soloalbum, maar Capaldi en Wood sloten zich al vrij snel bij hem aan, wat resulteerde in het Traffic-album John Barleycorn Must Die. De lineup werd uitgebreid in 1971 met bassist Rick Grech, drummer Jim Gordon (ex-Derek and the Dominos) en percussionist Rebop Kwaku Baah. In september werd in deze bezetting, aangevuld met Mason, het live-album Welcome to the Canteen uitgebracht, gevolgd door het studioalbum The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. Opvallend genoeg werd het laatste album wel een grote hit in de Verenigde Staten, maar haalde het in Groot-Brittannië de hitlijsten niet. Van '71 tot '72 kwamen er problemen, toen Winwood moest genezen van peritonitis, Capaldi een solocarrière begon en Grech en Gordon de band verlieten. Het volgende album, Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory, werd opgenomen met drummer Roger Hawkins en bassist David Hood.

Capaldi kwam nog een keer bij de band, voor het album When the Eagle Flies uit 1974. Solo begon hij echter steeds succesvoller te worden, en ook Winwood ging succesvolle soloalbums maken, waardoor het na '74 stil werd rond Traffic. Pas in 1994 kwamen Capaldi en Winwood weer bij elkaar om een album uit te brengen, Far From Home genaamd. Chris Wood was toen al gestorven. Na 1994 gingen ze weer op tournee onder de naam Traffic. Met de dood van Capaldi in 2005 lijkt een einde gekomen aan de band.

Category The Greatest Hits 1967 (UK) Donovan - There Is A Mountain - 11-67 Val Doonican - Memories Are Made Of This - 03-67 Val Doonican - If The Whole World Stopped Loving - 11-67 The Dubliners - Seven Drunken Nights - 05-67 The Dubliners - Black Velvet Band - 10-67 Simon Dupree & The Big Sound - Kites - 12-67 Georgie Fame - Sittin' In The Park - 01-67 Georgie Fame - Because I Love You - 04-67 The Flowerpot Men - Let's Go To San Francisco - 09-67 Wayne Fontana - Pamela Pamela - 01-67 The Foundations - Baby, Now That I Found You - 10-67 The Four Tops - Standing In The Shadows Of Love - 01-67 The Four Tops - Bernadette - 04-67 The Four Tops - Seven Rooms Of Gloom - 07-67 The Four Tops - Walk Away Renee - 12-67 Aretha Franklin - Respect -

 07-67 Bobby Gentry - Ode To Billie Joe - 10-67 Anita Harris - Just Loving You - 08-67 The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Hey Joe - 01-67 The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Purple Haze - 04-67 The Jimi Hendrix Experience - The Wind Cries Mary - 05-67 The Herd - From The Underworld - 10-67 Herman's Hermits - There's A Kind Of Hush - 03-67 Vince Hill - Edelweiss - 03-67 Vince Hill - Roses Of Picardy - 06-67 The Hollies - On A Carousel - 03-67 The Hollies - Carrie-Anne - 06-67 Engelbert Humperdinck - Release Me - 02-67 Engelbert Humperdinck - There Goes My Everything - 06-67 Engelbert Humperdinck - The Last Waltz - 09-67 The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Hey Joe - 01-67 The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Purple Haze

 - 04-67 The Jimi Hendrix Experience - The Wind Cries Mary - 05-67 The Johnny Mann Singers - Up Up And Away - 08-67 Paul Jones - I've Been A Bad Bad Boy - 02-67 Tom Jones - Detroit City - 03-67 Tom Jones - Funny Familiar Forgotten Feeling - 05-67 Tom Jones - I'll Never Fall In Love Again - 08-67 Tom Jones - I'm Comin' Home - 12-67 The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset - 05-67 The Kinks - Autumn Almanac - 11-67 Long John Baldry - Let The Heartaches Begin - 11-67 Lulu - The Boat That I Row - 05-67 Lulu - Let's Pretend - 08-67 The Mamas & The Papas - Dedicated To The One I Love - 05-67 The Mamas & The Papas - Creeque Alley - 08-67 Manfred Mann - Ha Ha Said The Clown - 04-67 Scott McKenzie - San Francisco (Be

 Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair) - 07-67 The Monkees - I'm A Believer - 01-67 The Monkees - A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You - 04-67 The Monkees - Alternate Title - 07-67 The Monkees - Pleasant Valley Sunday - 08-67 The Monkees - Daydream Believer - 12-67 The Move - Night Of Fear - 01-67 The Move - I Can Hear The Grass Grow - 04-67 The Move - Flowers In The Rain - 09-67 The New Vaudeville Band - Peek-A-Boo - 02-67 The New Vaudeville Band - Finchley Central - 06-67 Des O'Connor - Careless Hands - 12-67 Pink Floyd - See Emily Play - 07-67 Gene Pitney - Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart - 12-67 The Alan Price Set - Simon Smith & His Amazing Dancing Bear - 03-67 The Alan Price Set - The House That Jack Built - 08-67 Pro

col Harum - A Whiter Shade Of Pale - 06-67 Procol Harum - Homburg - 10-67 Jim Reeves - I Won't Come In While He's There - 02-67 Cliff Richard - In The Country - 01-67 Cliff Richard - It's All Over - 04-67 Cliff Richard - The Day I Met Marie - 09-67 Cliff Richard - All My Love - 12-67 The Rolling Stones - Let's Spend The Night Together / Ruby Tuesday - 02-67 The Rolling Stones - We Love You / Dandelion - 09-67 Diana Ross & The Supremes - Reflections - 09-67 The Royal Guardsmen - Snoopy Vs The Red Baron - 02-67 Scaffold - Thank U Very Much - 12-67 Harry Secombe - This Is My Song - 02-67 The Seekers - Georgy Girl - 03-67 The Seekers - When Will The Good Apples Fall - 10-67 Sandie Shaw - Puppet On A String - 04-67 Nancy

 Sinatra - Sugar Town - 02-67 Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood - Jackson / You Only Live Twice - 07-67 Nancy & Frank Sinatra - Somethin' Stupid - 04-67 The Small Faces - Here Come The Nice - 07-67 The Small Faces - Itchycoo Park - 09-67 The Spencer Davis Group - I'm A Man - 02-67 Cat Stevens - Matthew And Son - 01-67 Cat Stevens - I'm Gonna Get Me A Gun - 04-67 The Supremes - The Happening - 06-67 Felice Taylor - I Feel Love Comin' On - 11-1967 Topol - If I Were A Rich Man - 07-67 Traffic - Paper Sun - 06-67 Traffic - Hole In My Shoe - 09-67 Traffic - Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush - 12-67 The Tremeloes - Here Comes My Baby - 02-67 The Tremeloes - Silence Is Golden - 05-67 The Tremeloes -

 Even The Bad Times Are Good - 08-67 The Troggs - Any Way That You Want Me - 01-67 The Troggs - Give It To Me - 03-67 The Troggs - Love Is All Around - 11-67 The Turtles - Happy Together - 04-67 The Turtles - She'd Rather Be With Me - 07-67 Frankien Vaughan - There Must Be A Way - 09-67 Keith West - Excerpt From 'A Teenage Opera' - 09-67 Whistling Jack Smith - I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman - 03-67 The Who - Happy Jack - 01-67 The Who - Pictures Of Lily - 05-67 The Who - I Can See For Miles - 11-67 Stevie Wonder - I Was Made To Love Her - 08-67 The Young Rascals - Groovin' - 06-67 Traffic — Listen for free on Spotify Traffic Play on Spotify Though it ultimately must be considered an interim vehicle for singer/songwriter/keyboardist/guitarist Steve Winwood ,

 Traffic was a successful group that followed its own individual course through the rock music scene of the late '60s and early '70s.

Beginning in the psychedelic year of 1967 and influenced by the Beatles , the band turned out eclectic pop singles in its native Great Britain, though by the end of its first year of existence it had developed a pop/rock hybrid tied to its unusual instrumentation: At a time when electric guitars ruled rock, Traffic emphasized Winwood 's organ and the reed instruments played by Chris Wood, especially flute. After Dave Mason , who had provided the band with an alternate folk-pop sound, departed for good, Traffic leaned toward extended songs that gave its players room to improvise in a jazz-like manner, even as the rhythms maintained a rock structure. The result was international success that ended only when Winwood finally decided he was ready to strike out on his own. Steve Winwood (born May 12, 1948) first attracted attention when, at the age of 15, he and his older brother Muff formed a band in their native Birmingham, England, with Spencer Davis and Pete York , eventually called the Spencer Davis Group . They were signed by record executive Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records , and began recording in 1964. As the band's vocalist, Winwood received the lion's share of attention.

By the time he and his brother quit the group in April 1967, the Spencer Davis Group had amassed four Top Ten singles and three Top Ten albums in the U.K., two of those singles also reaching the Top Ten in the U.S. Still not yet 19 years old, Winwood formed Traffic with three 22-year-old friends who had played in lesser-known bands: drummer/singer Jim Capaldi (August 24, 1944 - January 28, 2005), singer/guitarist Mason (born May 10, 1944), and Wood (June 24, 1944 - July 12, 1983). In the spirit of the times (and despite Winwood 's prominence), the group was intended to be a cooperative, with the members living together in a country cottage in Berkshire and collaborating on their songs. Blackwell quickly signed them and released their debut single, "Paper Sun," which peaked in the U.K.

Top Five in July 1967 and also spent several weeks in the lower reaches of the charts in America, where Blackwell licensed it to United Artists , as he had the Spencer Davis Group 's recordings. Meanwhile, as Traffic recorded material for its debut album during the summer of 1967, its communal outlook was disrupted by Mason , who, unlike Winwood (a composer who needed help with lyrics and therefore tended toward collaboration), was capable of writing songs on his own and did so. The success of "Paper Sun" encouraged Blackwell to release a follow-up single quickly, and he chose "Hole in My Shoe" (written and sung by Mason ) as the most likely candidate among the songs Traffic had recorded so far. It became an even bigger hit than "Paper Sun," almost topping the British charts in October, but that didn't sit well with Winwood , who felt it was unrepresentative of the sound he wanted for Traffic. The group's third single was "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush," the title song from a motion picture, which became their third British Top Ten hit in December, the same month that their debut album, Mr. Fantasy, was released.

It, too, earned a Top Ten ranking in January 1968, but by then Mason had left Traffic. A fourth single, "No Face, No Name, No Number," culled from the album, made the British Top 40 in March, the month that Traffic debuted as a live attraction in the U.S., where Mr. Fantasy (initially titled Heaven Is in Your Mind) reached the Top 100. Traffic encountered two problems as a trio. First, given its unusual instrumentation, it had difficulty on-stage doing without a player like Mason , who could handle the bass guitar work. In his absence, Winwood was forced to fill in the bass sound by playing the organ's bass pedals with his feet while simultaneously playing the organ keyboards with his hands and singing. Second, without a prolific writer like Mason , the group had more difficulty coming up with enough new material to satisfy its contractual commitments.

As a result, Winwood , Capaldi , and Wood reconciled with Mason , who rejoined Traffic in the spring of 1968 and contributed heavily to the band's second album, Traffic, writing half of the songs, among them "Feelin' Alright?," which went on to become a rock standard, particularly after Joe Cocker 's 1969 cover version became an American Top 40 hit in 1972. Traffic was released in October 1968, and the band went on tour in the U.S. to promote it. But just after the start of the tour, Winwood , Capaldi , and Wood fired Mason . Then, at the conclusion of the tour, Winwood withdrew, announcing the breakup of Traffic at the beginning of 1969. These events notwithstanding, the album reached the U.K. Top Ten and the U.S. Top 20. And breakup or no, Winwood was contracted to Island and United Artists for five albums, of which only two had been delivered. Thus, in April 1969, the labels released Last Exit, a collection of non-LP singles sides, outtakes, and live recordings.

It was another Top 20 success in America. Meanwhile, Capaldi and Wood rejoined Mason along with keyboardist Wynder K. Frog in the short-lived band Wooden Frog, which never recorded, and Winwood teamed with former Cream members Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker as well as former Family member Ric Grech (November 1, 1946 - March 16, 1990) in Blind Faith . This highly touted supergroup made one album, Blind Faith, which topped the charts in the U.S. and U.K., and played one American tour before breaking up. Still owing his record labels two albums, Winwood began work on a solo record in early 1970, but quickly brought in Capaldi and Wood and turned it into a Traffic LP. John Barleycorn Must Die was released in June 1970. In the U.S., it was a gold-selling Top Ten hit; in the U.K. it reached the Top 20. Embarking on extensive touring, Traffic expanded its lineup, adding Ric Grech on bass.

In the spring of 1971, in anticipation of British and American touring, drummer Jim Gordon, formerly of Derek and the Dominos , was brought in, as was percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah. Also joining for a handful of U.K. dates was Dave Mason , who had in the meantime become a solo star with his 1970 album Alone Together. The band was able to work off its contractual commitment with a live album from this lineup, Welcome to the Canteen, released in September. Although it failed to make the U.K. charts, it reached the Top 40 in America. Re-signed to Island , which began releasing albums in the U.S. as well as the U.K., Traffic quickly followed in November with the studio album The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, which reached the American Top Ten and sold a million copies, though, in an indication of the group's increasingly international focus, didn't even chart back home in Britain.

A winter 1971-1972 tour was aborted by Winwood 's poor health (he was later revealed to be suffering from peritonitis), and Grech and Gordon left the band, while Capaldi recorded his debut solo album, Oh How We Danced; it reached the American Top 100. In the fall of 1972, with Winwood recovered, Traffic convened to record a new album, adding drummer Roger Hawkins and bassist David Hood, members of the studio band at the famed Muscle Shoals recording studio. (Keyboardist Barry Beckett, another Muscle Shoals alumnus, played with the band live.) Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory, released in January 1973, reached the American Top Ten and went gold. The world tour that promoted it was chronicled on Traffic: On the Road, released in October 1973. At the end of the tour, the Muscle Shoals musicians returned home and Kwaku Baah also left Traffic, which recruited bassist Rosko Gee. Capaldi released a second solo album, Whale Meat Again, in the summer of 1974; "It's All up to You" from it reached the U.K.

Top 40. With Traffic, he recorded a new album, When the Eagle Flies, released in September. It was the band's fourth consecutive studio album to reach the American Top Ten and go gold, and the group toured to support it, but at the conclusion of the tour Traffic silently disbanded. With a headstart on a solo career, Capaldi scored a Top Five hit in the U.K. in 1975 with a cover of "Love Hurts" from his third album, Short Cut Draw Blood. (The single charted in the U.S., but lost out to a competing version by Nazareth .) Along with former Santana drummer Michael Shrieve , Winwood participated prominently in Japanese percussionist Stomu Yamashta 's concept album Go, which made the Top 100 in the U.S. in 1976. In 1977, he finally made his solo bow, releasing the modestly successful album Steve Winwood.

A three-and-a-half year silence ensued, broken by the 1980 release of Arc of a Diver, which hit the American Top Five and went platinum, paced by the Top Ten single "While You See a Chance." 1982's Talking Back to the Night was a commercial disappointment, but Winwood had the greatest success of his career with 1986's Back in the High Life, a multi-million seller that threw off four Top 20 singles, among them the chart-topping "Higher Love." In 1987, "Valerie," a remixed version of a song from Talking Back to the Night, hit the Top Ten. 1988's Roll With It was another multi-platinum seller for Winwood , with both the album and the title song topping the charts. But Refugees of the Heart (1990) was less successful. In 1994, Winwood announced a reunion with Capaldi (Wood had died of liver failure), who had continued to record solo albums with diminishing success. The two made a new album, Far from Home, and toured as Traffic during the summer. The album quickly reached the U.S. and U.K.

Top 40, but did not sell well, and the tour also performed disappointingly, signaling another retirement of the Traffic name. Nevertheless, the 1967-1974-era band continued to enjoy significant status as a classic rock act, its albums earning CD reissues along with the release of compilations like Smiling Phases (1991) and Feelin' Alright: The Very Best of Traffic (2000). Capaldi 's death on January 28, 2005, appeared to put an end to the band. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi Read More Show less

Question: Which group had a 1967 hit with “Paper Sun”?
Answer: TRAFFIC