Traffic reached a much wider audience when, on the dissolution of Cream, two thirds of that band, one third being Eric Clapton, joined Steve Winwood (during a temporary Traffic disbanding) to form Blind Faith, which also included future Traffic member and sometime Family man, Ric Grech.
In 1970, after the disbanding of Blind Faith, Winwood set about recording a solo album. After Chris Wood and Jim Capaldi became involved, the decision was taken to release this album (eventually what would become John Barleycorn Must Die) under the Traffic name, despite the absence of Dave Mason.
Around 1971, Mason left for good (having been in and out of the band from the beginning), and the the band experienced a variety of personnel changes. The resulting band added some jazzy elements to their style, pioneering the jazz-rock genre, and the compositions tended to stretch out over longer lengths. With their albums The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (1971) and Shootout at the Fantasy Factory (1973) their popularity in the US grew. After two more albums, personnel problems resulted in the band calling it quits (but for a brief reunion in 1994 without Wood, who had died in 1983). Winwood, Mason, Capaldi, and Wood all pursued solo careers, with Winwood garnering the most success.
There are/were other artists with the same name:
*2) Traffic is also a pop-rock band from Estonia.
3) Traffic is an upcoming rapper from Los Angeles.
2) The Estonian poprock band Traffic came together in 2006 and consists of five members: Silver Laas - Vocals, Stig Rästa - Guitars, Robert Vaigla - Guitars, Tõnis Kivisild - Bass, Ivo Priilinn - Drums. The band has been to Eesti Laul several times, trying to get to the semi-finals of Eurovision. In 2009 they ended up in the 2nd place, in 2014 in the 3rd place.
Traffic has two studio albums. Some of their most popular singles are "Für Elise", "See Päev", "Kesköödisko", "Päevast Päeva", "Elekter" and "Meie laul".
3) Darrail Cail, better known as Traffic, is a rapper from Los Angeles, CA. He first received major mainstream attention in the music industry when he was featured on “Tookie Knows II” from ScHoolboy Q’s fourth LP Blank Face. He is one of Schoolboy’s childhood friends.
4) The Spectes, a band that eventually became Status Quo discovered psychedelia in 1967 and named themselves Traffic, but were soon forced to change it to Traffic Jam to avoid confusion with Steve Winwood's Traffic, following an argument over who had registered the name first. Shortly after Rick Parfitt's recruitment, in August 1967, the band officially became The Status Quo
Rainmaker
Traffic Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The sky is gray just by the touch of your hand
Rainmaker, rainmaker
Make me some rain, make all my crops grow tall
Rainmaker, rainmaker
The sky is gray, the ground is so hard
It's been cracked by the sun
These lyrics to Traffic's song Rainmaker refer to someone with the power to bring rain to the land, thus making the crops grow tall. The singer is pleading with the Rainmaker to use their power to create rain so that he can get his work done. The first line "The sky is gray just by the touch of your hand" suggests that the Rainmaker has the ability to bring clouds and rain with a mere touch of their hand. The phrase "Make me some rain" further emphasizes the singer's desperation for the Rainmaker's help.
The next two lines "The sky is gray, the ground is so hard, it's been cracked by the sun" could be interpreted as a metaphor for a difficult, barren environment where the ground has been parched by the sun and crops are struggling to grow. The singer is seeking the Rainmaker's help to transform the landscape and make it fertile again, hence the phrase "Make all my crops grow tall".
The final line "Rainmaker, you know my work's never done" suggests that the singer is a farmer or someone working in agriculture who is constantly battling adverse weather and conditions to make a living. The Rainmaker is their only hope of relief from their struggle.
Line by Line Meaning
Rainmaker, rainmaker
Addressing someone who has an ability to make rain
The sky is gray just by the touch of your hand
Your mere presence makes the sky gloomy
Make me some rain, make all my crops grow tall
Please use your gift to help me grow my crops and sustain my livelihood
The sky is gray, the ground is so hard
The weather has been harsh and unfavorable for growing crops
It's been cracked by the sun
The ground has been dehydrated and damaged by the heat of the sun
Rainmaker, you know my work's never done
As a farmer, my work is never truly finished because I must constantly tend to my crops and hope for favorable weather
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: STEVE WINWOOD, JIM CAPALDI
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@tuxguys
Pre-Pop Star Steve Winwood, in the Post-Dave Mason/2nd Iteration of TRAFFIC.
I always found this band to be fascinating, from their earliest stuff, and never more so than at this mid-'70's point, where they could easily mix North Atlantic Folk influences with Jazz influences, and could come up with something unlike anything anyone else at the time was doing.
TRAFFIC:
Steve Winwood - vocals, guitar (his guitar playing has never gotten enough attention)
Chris Wood - flute
Jim Capaldi - vocals, percussion (the band's original drummer)
Ric Grech - bass, violin (See? There WAS life after BLIND FAITH!)
Jim Gordon - drums (See? There WAS life after DEREK AND THE DOMINOS!)
Rebop Kwaku Baah - percussion
If this music had existed then, I can easily imagine beatniks in a coffee house digging this around 1956...
@leafsin9
Can we please talk about the last half of this song??? Like holy crap.... Some of the best music on this planet I swear
@bengedalecia9393
Yes!!!! Such a. lugubrious groove. Traffic ruled my old pothead days!!
@maryannspurgin
@@bengedalecia9393 yeah me too
@gardensofthegods
Yeah this was always such a great song really different and I can always remember so clearly like it happened 2 weeks ago where I was and what I was doing when I first heard this and also the other album the John Barleycorn album as I was at a party and it was raining out and we were close to the open back door and windows very close to the Brandywine River which was just beyond the backyard and the whole mood was lovely magical and vaguely haunting in some parts with some of their songs
@craigcolbert9403
Once in a lifetime a song like this is recorded. Traffic is musical perfection at its finest. ❤
@lauracollins4195
Love you Chris Wood and your mind-blowing flute, Rest in Peace.
@noelsalisbury7448
❤
@gardensofthegods
This and Low Spark are my two favorite songs by TRAFFIC . I just wish more people knew these songs because they are PURE EXCELLENCE .. and for these songs I can tell you exactly where I was when I first heard them and how magical a time in my life it was .
@laszlobejczy-kovacs5885
same here.
these two songs are timeless, priceless and one in a million. pure perfection and som kind of higher state of mind. out of this world maybe.
@outsider2222
Me too, very inflection point in my post highschool life