About Time

If songs like Cigano, Phoenix Rising, and Silvia proved that Steve Winwood could still turn heads in the rock world, the additional tracks on the 2004 release of About Time may have dropped some jaws all the way to the floor. "Dear Mr. Fantasy" was a smoking hot blues-rocker when Winwood first did it as a member of Traffic, and I didn't think it would be possible to top that version, but this well-recorded live rendition may have done just that. I'm not sure if the import "Box Set" has updated liner notes for the extra CD (the "Expanded Edition" available from stevewinwood.com apparently did not revise the notes), but I believe that Mr. Fantasy is the only tune where Winwood lights it up on electric guitar. He sticks to burning up the Hammond B-3 on all the others.

A beautiful change of pace comes with a concert performance of the Latin-influenced "Why Can't We Live Together", where Winwood seems to be really getting into the soulful vocals. Again, the recording quality for this live show was excellent. As the song finishes and the next one begins, you soon realize that the fire started by these musicians during Mr. Fantasy is about to burn down the house in the form of "Voodoo Chile", an equally incredible blues-rock sizzler done in the studio.

Of course, Winwood handled the keyboards in the Jimi Hendrix original. (Most if not all of the founding Traffic members worked some with the great guitarist - Mason & Wood are also credited on Electric Ladyland, and evidently were part of his band on occasion during recorded concerts.) For all you voodoo lovers out there, don't get mad and pull out the pins and dolls, but if you ask me, Voodoo Chile has some strange lyrics to it. Winwood does a convincing job with the words, yet it is the heat generating interaction between the great organist and his inspired bandmates on guitar and drums (Neto & Reyes, I assume) that make this a worthy tribute to the legendary Fire. The intensity, combined with the level of instrumental skill, is beyond what most rock acts today can compete with.