🐇 🐇 🐇 rabbit rabbit rabbit for September, in the middle of another run of AZ-connected birthdays (not of famous people, however admirable; but of (still living) people who are important to me): 8/27 Ken Rudolph of soc.motss (85); 8/30 Ellen Sulkis James, a long-ago companion of mine on the staff of the Reading (PA) Eagle (86); 8/31 Benita Bendon Campbell, dear friend since Princeton in the 1960s and my connection to the late Ann Daingerfield (Zwicky) (90); 9/2 Mike Jankulak of soc.motss (57); and 9/6, yes, me (86)
9/1 came to me with a morning name: The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys — from what experiential or mental source I know not. But with a shiver of delight.
From Wikipedia:
The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys is the fifth studio album by English rock band Traffic, released in 1971. The album was Traffic’s most successful in the United States, reaching number 7 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and becoming their only platinum-certified album there, indicating sales in excess of one million. However, it failed to chart in the United Kingdom. The album features the minor hit “Rock & Roll Stew” and the title track, which received heavy FM airplay
… As with other Traffic albums, The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys featured varied influences, including jazz, folk music and classical. The name of the album’s title track was suggested by the actor Michael J. Pollard.
(You can watch the YouTube video of the track here)
Some analysis of the track on the Culture Sonar website, by Ellen Fagan on 9/22/25:
Twelve minutes of stellar progressive rock, fused with jazz and a smattering of boogie-woogie. A hypnotic rumination on drug addiction, loss of innocence (“We were children once, playing with toys”), corruption of the soul, and belief in the transcendence of spirit. How’s that for an ambitious piece?
Traffic’s “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys,” a track from their 1971 album of the same name, is a masterpiece of musicianship and mystery. It displays stunning saxophone riffs by Chris Wood and Steve Winwood’s fuzzbox-filtered Hammond organ.
Winwood delivers his signature soulful delivery. A dreamy fade-in and fade-out frames the track. Despite its considerable length, it was (and remains) in frequent radio rotation.
I got its hypnotic character, facilitating a kind of trance state. Still do.
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