Why Can’t We Live Together
Just because you’re old, that doesn’t mean you’ve got to be imprisoned by your past. It’s a choice. Do you want to play it safe, giving people what they want, or do you want to explore?
Steve Winwood left band after band, and then truly made his name when he went solo. Who expected "While You See A Chance" to become a mainstream hit?
Then Steve repeated the "Arc Of A Diver" formula to diminishing returns with "Talking Back To The Night". It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t new, it was a replica, of a previously successful blueprint.
Then Steve reinvented himself once again. 1986’s "Back In The High Life" was a smash, with "Higher Love" featured on both MTV and Top Forty radio. Combining his blues roots with modern sounds, Winwood stumbled on an elixir the public just couldn’t get enough of. And then he delivered three more albums just like it and just about lost his audience. We want someone who roams around, experiments, tests the limits.
Winwood joined the jam band crew. After all, the young players weren’t only inspired by the Dead, but Traffic, others who used the song as a jumping off point, not a rigid formula to be repeated endlessly. After gigging around, Steve cut an album, released it on his own label, it was not a smash, not enough people heard it, but it’s EXCELLENT! No, that’s too soft a word. "About Time" was a journey into a land unknown, jazz-influenced, that you didn’t even know you wanted to visit, paying further dividends with each spin.
We create our best work when we’re unfettered, following our instincts, reaching for our own brass ring, our own Holy Grail.
To get an idea what Winwood concocted, I want you to dial up this live video of Timmy Thomas’ "Why Can’t We Live Together".
Everybody wants to live together. Why can’t we live together? We want to go to the gig and mesh with not only the music, but the crowd. We want our energy to inspire the musicians to new heights.
And it is music. Catch Mr. Winwood’s recent outfits. If he has a stylist, he should fire her/him. But Winwood’s been through that crap, he lets his music speak for itself.
Unfortunately, with the relative sales failure of "About Time", Winwood signed with a major label and put out another album just like the ones he used to make previously. "Nine Lives" has got that great Clapton solo at the end of "Dirty City", but otherwise it sounds like a Virgin retread. Why did Steve retreat?
Was it his label? Was it his wife? Why did he go back and play it safe? It wasn’t like his live business had dwindled down to nothing. This new music didn’t fill arenas, but he could gig regularly, in theatres, large clubs. He started a fire, then he blew it out, walked away from it.
Now he retreads the past with Eric Clapton. Trots out the oldies for the corporate folk. But not that long ago, Winwood was a king, everybody we wanted him to be.
And make no mistake, we want our artists to take us to places unforeseen, that previously only lived in their heads, that they expose through their music.
Check out some of the samples from "About Time":
They’re longer than thirty seconds, but not quite long enough, to hear these songs meander, have them worm their way into your heart.
And, they’ve got the three bonus songs from the re-release of "About Time", live covers of "Dear Mr. Fantasy", "Why Can’t We Live Together" and "Voodoo Chile". The passion on the oldies will truly inspire. But what will make you feel alive are the ten originals preceding these classics. We like nothing more than finding great new music, having that eureka moment, turning others on to it.
Just because you’re old, that doesn’t mean you’re dead.
But you’ve got to be willing to live.
