“The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” Traffic (from The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys, 1971)
There is a long tradition in rock and roll of aspiration - the dream of self-actualization, when a hard-working musician can achieve everything they wanted, whether it be stardom, wealth, sex, or anything else. This might have started with Elvis (or the idea of Elvis). Then there’s the tradition of the song explaining how evil the music industry is (The Kinks’ “Top of the Pops” is a good example in a long history of them).
“The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” sits somewhere between these two places, I think, but it’s unique. Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi were veterans of the British Invasion of seven years earlier, which can be a lifetime in pop music (even though, incredibly, Winwood was only 23 when he wrote this). “Low Spark” sounds like the story of musicians who find their childhood dream of pop stardom, only to discover the workaday reality involved with it - corrupt managers and industry shenanigans that can ruthlessly exploit a musician’s work and leave them with nothing left except their creative gifts. That’s one thing that can’t be taken away (though any musician can destroy their own talents, certainly).
It’s a song of innocence and experience. Unlike the “evil industry” tradition, though, I hear the voice of someone who possibly never expected that their desire for pop stardom would not only come true, but become their life. It’s the innocence of that desire that Traffic are celebrating as much as they are detailing the corruption of success - as a reminder to themselves. And it sets this song apart from Ray Davies’ many songs about the evils of the industry, which tend to be cynical, with no room for joy. The dream doesn’t have to die, but experience teaches it needs to be well-protected, from within and without (as John Donne certainly knew).
“Low Spark” is a slow burn of a record, fading in at the start and fading out at the end. It runs on a steady r&b groove built on the experience and knowledge of a band of blues veterans with a passion for the genre. At times, the record is all groove, guided by Winwood’s hook-worthy piano as his vocal drops out, and peppered with Chris Wood’s saxophone. This isn’t commercial pop (at eleven minutes, certainly not), but sounds like the work of musicians who had created enough pop hits and wanted to indulge some more personal creative impulses for a change - a common thread among some 60s music veterans who managed to survive to 1971 undamaged. It was the year Marvin Gaye revamped the Motown system to create What’s Going On, after all. With the wisdom Winwood and Capaldi brought to the song, Traffic were growing older and wiser, as well, while holding on to that creative spark.
