John Barleycorn Must Die by Traffic (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: John Barleycorn Must Die

Group name: Traffic

Year: 1970

Number of discs: one

Label: United Artists

Collection: Friedman

Buy it on Amazon: $22.49

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I am unfamiliar with this Traffic record, but I previously reviewed The low spark of high-heeled boys (1971) and did not like it. I also am familiar with the John Barleycorn folk song.

What I expected

Folk.

What it was actually like

I would not say that this was a folk record at all, but I did enjoy the folk style version of John Barleycorn. It made extensive use of the flute, which made sense in the context of a traditional English folk song, and I wasn’t bothered by it at all.

I did not, however, approve of some of the instrument choices in a couple of the other songs: Glad, a jazz instrumental with strong funk and soft rock elements and a horrendous saxophone solo; and Freedom Rider, more of a rock song with harder drumming but even more saxophone and a really atrocious saxophone part.

The rock songs Empty Pages, Stranger to Himself and Every Mothers Son were all better. I enjoyed the organ solo on the first of those. The latter two were both hard rock with more electric guitar, and the second was my favorite for its guitar solo.