"The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" is a song by the band Traffic

Traffic (band)

Traffic were an English rock band whose members came from the West Midlands. The group formed in April 1967 by Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason...

 from their 1971 album of the same name

The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (album)

The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys is the sixth album by English rock band Traffic, released in 1971. As with other Traffic albums, The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys featured different forms and offshoots of rock including jazz rock, progressive rock, as well as classic rock and roll. The title of...

. The song was written by Jim Capaldi

Jim Capaldi

Nicola James "Jim" Capaldi was an English musician and songwriter. His musical career lasted more than four decades. He co-founded Traffic in Birmingham with Steve Winwood, and the band's psychedelic rock was influential in Britain and the United States...

 and Steve Winwood

Steve Winwood

Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English international recording artist whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is a songwriter and a musician whose genres include soul music , R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, and jazz...

.

The title refers to an inscription written by actor Michael J. Pollard

Michael J. Pollard

- Early life :Born Michael John Pollack, Jr. in Passaic, New Jersey, he is the son of Sonia and Michael John Pollack. He attended the Montclair Academy and the Actors Studio.- Career :...

 in Jim Capaldi's book while they were both in Morocco

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

. Capaldi and Pollard were planning to work on a movie that was never filmed. Capaldi said:

Pollard and I would sit around writing lyrics all day, talking about Bob Dylan and the Band, thinking up ridiculous plots for the movie. Before I left Morocco, Pollard wrote in my book 'The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys.' For me, it summed him up. He had this tremendous rebel attitude. He walked around in his cowboy boots, his leather jacket. At the time he was a heavy little dude. It seemed to sum up all the people of that generation who were just rebels. The 'Low Spark,' for me, was the spirit, high-spirited. You know, standing on a street corner. The low rider. The 'Low Spark' meaning that strong undercurrent at the street level.

The song begins with a gradual fade-in

Fade (audio engineering)

In audio engineering, a fade is a gradual increase or decrease in the level of an audio signal. The term can also be used for film cinematography or theater lighting, in much the same way ....

 and ends with a slow fade-out. At about 11 minutes and 35 seconds, it is the longest song on the album. Musically, it is noteworthy for its sparse arrangement and slow deliberate pace alternating with a double-time densely layered pop chorus

Verse-chorus form

Verse-chorus form is a musical form common in popular music and predominant in rock since the 1960s. In contrast to AABA form, which is focused on the verse , in verse-chorus form the chorus is highlighted...

. The verses are in D minor

D minor

D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. In the harmonic minor, the C is raised to C. Its key signature has one flat ....

 while the choruses

Refrain

A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...

 modulate

Modulation (music)

In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest...

 to D major

D major

D major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature consists of two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor....

. The song has received wide praise for the extended solos

Solo (music)

In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

 played by band members in the later portions of the song.

A live rendition of the song is the opening track on Traffic's only concert video, which was recorded at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium

Santa Monica Civic Auditorium

Santa Monica Civic Auditorium is a multipurpose convention center in Santa Monica, California owned by the City of Santa Monica. It was built in 1958 and designed by Welton Becket....

 in Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...

 on 21 February 1972, with the lineup of Winwood, Capaldi, Wood, Rebop Kwaku Baah

Rebop Kwaku Baah

Anthony "Reebop" Kwaku Baah was a Ghanaian percussionist perhaps best known for working with the 1970s rock groups Traffic and Can.-Biography:...

 (percussion), David Hood

David Hood

David Hood , is a bassist from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He also plays the trombone and is a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame....

 (bass) and Roger Hawkins

Roger Hawkins

Roger G Hawkins , is an American drummer best known for playing as part of the studio backing band known as The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section of Alabama...

 (drums).

In addition to being performed solo by Capaldi and Winwood after the breakup of Traffic, the song has been covered

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 by Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee Jones is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards.-Childhood:...

, Widespread Panic

Widespread Panic

Widespread Panic is an American rock band from Athens, Georgia. The current lineup includes guitarist/singer John Bell, bassist Dave Schools, drummer Todd Nance, percussionist Domingo "Sunny" Ortiz, keyboardist John "JoJo" Hermann, and guitarist Jimmy Herring...

, and The Dead

The Dead (band)

The Dead is an American rock band composed of some of the former members of the Grateful Dead.After the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann formed a band called The Other Ones. They performed concert tours in 1998 , 2000 , and 2002, and released one...

, among others.

External links

• [ Song review] by Matthew Greenwald at Allmusic.