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

Record basics

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.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me