WELCOME TO THE CANTEEN

	Welcome to the Canteen
	Produced by Chris Blackwell & Steve Winwood
	Released on September 1971
	US CHART POSITION #26
	Find it at GEMM
UAS-5550 cover [high resolution scan]

W elcome to Canteenaville, population You and 40,000 Headmen and a version of Gimme Some Lovin’ that if five seconds longer would qualify as assisted suicide. Unfortunately, the road to Traffic is littered with accidents like this: collisions with contractual obligations and compilations. Worse, Canteen was going in the wrong direction. John Barleycorn was the band’s future, but you won’t find a whiff of it here. Instead, a reunion with Dave Mason for a summer tour in 1971 birthed this monster: one track each from the first three Traffic albums, two from Mason’s solo elpee and the aforementioned Spencer Davis Group classic. Like Last Exit, Welcome to the Canteen is a contractual obligation album, ending their five-album deal with US distributor United Artists. (One day UA and then you ain’t.) And like Last Exit, I wouldn’t pay it no mind. Traffic’s first two albums are psychedelic cornerstones, Barleycorn and Low Spark something even better. After that, you may want to stop at Shoot Out and then start buying solo albums by Mason and Winwood. I’ve never been inspired by any of the live material I’ve heard from Traffic. It doesn’t get any better with bongos. “40,000 Headmen” and not “Medicated Goo” is the best of the batch, building up a dry and folksy vibe that would have felt at home among Barleycorn’s bits. That’s about all I’ve found in this Canteen, despite shaking it dozens of times for something more. I guess I keep shaking it because of the people involved; now six members strong, Traffic should have been making beautiful music. But honestly they achieved more as a trio in the studio. If you really love Traffic and were fantasizing about a Mason reunion, drink up. But I’ll wait, knowing there’s an oasis up ahead (Low Spark) with many of the same players where the music is much sweeter.

UAS-5550 back cover

TRACK LISTING

MEDICATED GOO (Steve Winwood/Jimmy Miller) 3:34
SAD AND DEEP AS YOU (Dave Mason) 3:46
FORTY THOUSAND HEADMEN (Jim Capaldi/Steve Winwood) 6:19
SHOULDN'T HAVE TOOK MORE THAN YOU GAVE (Dave Mason) 5:36
DEAR MR. FANTASY (Jim Capaldi/Steve Winwood/Chris Wood) 10:55
GIMME SOME LOVIN' (Steve Winwood/Muff Winwood/Spencer Davis) 9:00

CREDITS

"REEBOP" KWAKU BAAH -- congas, timbales, bongos
JIM CAPALDI -- vocals, tambourine, percussion
JIM GORDON -- drums
RICK GRECH -- bass
DAVE MASON -- vocals, lead guitar, acoustic guitar
STEVE WINWOOD -- vocals, organ, electric piano, guitar
CHRIS WOOD -- saxophones, flute, electric piano, organ
Brian Humphries -- engineer
visualeyes -- photography & album design

return to TRAFFIC discography

REGION	RELEASE DATE	LABEL	MEDIA	ID NUMBER	FEATURES
UK/ISR/NOR	September 1971	Island	LP	ILPS 9166	white label
US	September 1971	United Artists	LP	UAS-5550
AUS'L	1971	Island	LP	SIL 934338
CAN	1971	Island	LP	2334 022
FRA	1971	Island	LP	6396 041
GER/NET	1971	Island	LP	85676IT
JPN	1971	Island	LP	AML1-1008
ARG	1976	Island	LP	0005707	packaged as BIENVENIDOS A LA CANTINA
UK	1980s	Island	LP	ILPS-9166	blue label
US	September 1971	United Artists	LP	UAS-5550
ITA	1980s	Island	LP	ORL 8077
BRA	1987	Island	LP	6047 259
	May 1988	Island	CD	90922
US	1988	Island	LP	90924
US	1988/9?	Island	LP/CD/CS	842 417
US	March 19, 2002	Island	CD	586 847	digital remaster
JPN	July 28, 2003	Island	CD	UICY-9274

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