Dear Mr. Fantasy<\/i> is a two-disc CD of the memorial concert for the late Jim Capaldi, a founding member of Traffic. Recorded at the Roundhouse in London on Jan. 21, 2007, it features Pete Townshend, Joe Walsh, Paul Weller, Gary Moore and of course Steve Winwood, another founding member. <\/p>\n
Capaldi, Winwood, Chris Wood and Dave Mason founded Traffic in late 1967 and recorded a handful of psychedelic rock tunes, including the title track of this tribute. Once Mason left, the band would turn a little more progressive in the 70s with The Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys<\/i> and John Barleycorn Must Die<\/i>. The band is now in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. <\/p>\n
Capaldi was a rare combination of drummer, lyricist and vocalist and went on to produce a number of solo discs. So honoring him seemed a good idea, and fortunately the musicians here are on par for the evening. <\/p>\n
Walsh escapes the rigid musical confines of the Eagles and revs up his old guitar sound. \u201cForty Thousand Headmen\u201d is a terrible vocal performance but a guitar tour-de-force, wherein Walsh reaches back in time, adds a little wah-wah sound to the mix and just rocks. \u201cLiving On The Outside\u201d puts Walsh\u2019s gruff vocals and guitar against the background of Jon Lord\u2019s organ and Bill Wyman\u2019s bass, and on \u201cJohn Barlycorn Must Die\u201d his subtle vocals and acoustic guitar playing reduce this complicated song to its basics. <\/p>\n
\u201cEvil Love\u201d finds Gary Moore leaving the blues behind and returning to his rock roots. Moore remains true to the song for two verses but then turns his guitar playing loose for several minutes of improvisation, taking his guitar on a musical journey few musicians can equal. \u201cGifts Of Uncommon Things\u201d features a smooth vocal from Phil Capaldi, though the highlight is the organ-bass interplay between Jon Lord and Bill Wyman. It’s good to hear the underrated Rolling Stone back on the stage. <\/p>\n
There are several nice surprises here. Dennis Locorriere, of Dr. Hook fame, seems closest in spirit and vocal style to Jim Capaldi. He sings \u201cElixir Of Life\u201d as a ballad that builds upon itself with acoustic guitar, piano and sax in support. Cat Stevens weaves his own song \u201cWild World\u201d into a wonderful medley with Capaldi\u2019s \u201cMan With No Country.\u201d <\/p>\n
Dear Mr. Fantasy<\/i> has some conspicuous misses, though. Pete Townshend gives a subdued performance on \u201cNo Face, No Name, No Number.\u201d Oddly, Steve Winwood\u2019s \u201cLight Up Or Leave Me Alone\u201d and \u201cDear Mr. Fantasy\u201d are only ordinary. Peter Weller sticks close to the orginal releases with \u201cPaper Sun\u201d and \u201cHere We Go Round The Mulberry Bush,\u201d and they just do not measure up. <\/p>\n
But overall, Dear Mr. Fantasy<\/i> is always interesting and a worthy tribute to the memory and music of Jim Capaldi and Traffic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":28995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5827],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-40504","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-various-artists","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40504"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}