Box Set Part 4: Finer Winwood

Steve Winwood is many things to me and countless others.  He is an incredibly talented musician from England.  When he was starting out people called him the "white Ray Charles" because if you close your eyes he sounds like just like him.  His voice carried him through his whole career.  I had the pleasure of seeing him with a reformed Traffic in 1994 as the opened up for The Grateful Dead. I also saw them again at Woodstock '94. I also saw him in 2003 with a great band that killed it on such a small stage. AgainI  saw him with his band during the 2008 tour for his album Nine Lives.  Both times he was amazing and playing his music from the past gave new life to songs fifty years old.  Then I saw a year later at Madison Square Garden with Eric Clapton.  I small reunion of old friends who have know each other forever.  The show was amazing and I did not want the two plus hour show to end.

Winwood's music is part of a larger picture and the bands he was in like Spenser Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith were some of the music I loved and would hear on the radio.  It was also parent friendly.  My dad accompanied me on the 2008 show and loved it.  He liked the classics as much as I did. My dad told me that his song "Gimmie Some Lovin'" was his favorite tune and when he let the band play it it brought him chills.  I loved when he dug into the Spenser Davis Group's music and did "I'm a Man" a song that Chicago did with perfection on their first album. It was an enjoyable night for both of us.

Steve Winwood's music was in our house.  It was not the first time my dad saw his music live.  He needed to be reminded that he saw Traffic in the early ears.  He along with my uncle saw them in 1970 in NYC. He told me how Traffic commanded the stage and loved the mix of Rock and Jazz and some Folk elements in their music.  It was there they were promoting an album that was not like their previous albums. John Barleycorn Must Die was talked about here in a previous post in May.  It truly is an amazing mix of genres and Steve Winwood made it great. With Winwood's music there was always something new to listen to.

I started listening to Steve Winwood with that album, but when I grew up he was all over the radio.  His was at the top of his popularity with his solo music.  Songs like "Valerie," "Roll With It," "Higher Love," and "Back in the High Life Again." These songs were in heavy rotation on the radio.  All these songs I liked a lot and my dad as well.  You could hear in these pop songs the Blue-Eyed Soul that Winwood was famous for.  With Chronicles released and a very out of print album called Winwood that came out in 1971 there was no real career retrospective of his work.  In 1995 that all changed with a Box Set called The Finer Things.  It covers his career up to 1995 and adds music from all his great band; Spenser Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith and solo music too.  There is even a couple tracks from a supergroup called Go where Winwood played on with Stomu Yamashta and a song with Remi Kabaka. The song has a huge Reggae influence.

This Box Set is nothing special if your looking for rare tracks or live music that has never been released, but the album is a great career retrospective.  I only wish that when this box set that they re-issued his solo albums.  One album in particular was his first solo album after Traffic called Steve Winwood. It still remains out of print in his short solo collection.  Three of the six songs appear on the Box Set, but it feels missing.

As it is, this is a fine overview of Steve Winwood's music.  I only wish there was more unreleased music out there to listen to or even a live recording from a solo show from the late 1970's or early 1980's. They put out another Box Set fifteen years later in 2010 and this time there are a repeat of 36 songs and this box set has Steve Winwood selecting his music to represent him.  Then again this box set too does not do him justice as far as rare or unreleased material.  It's also really, really hard to find. I like Steve Winwood's music a lot and his music with his bands, Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith really so much that a Box set of his early years with archive material will give him a new listen to new fans and would really be loved by his older ones.  If you want to start a Steve Winwood collection, buy this box, then go back and listen to his music he did with the other bands he was in. It's a great box set, but it has reservations for the die hard fan like myself.  Enjoy!!