Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Steve Winwood
Steve Winwood tabs Steve Winwood discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Steve Winwood guitar tabs

CD reviews

The Finer Things

Steve Winwood - The Finer Things Audio CD

A fair review of the Steve Winwood "The Finer Things" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Steve Winwood reviews here, or go back to the Steve Winwood tabs.

Band: Steve Winwood
Title: The Finer Things
Rating:

Release Date: 1995-03-21
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Dimples - The Spencer Davis Group 2: I Can't Stand It - The Spencer Davis Group 3: Every Little Bit Hurts - The Spencer Davis Group 4: Strong Love - The Spencer Davis Group 5: Keep on Running - The Spencer Davis Group 6: Somebody Help Me - The Spencer Davis Group 7: When I Come Home - The Spencer Davis Group 8: I Want to Know - Eric Clapton, 9: Crossroads - Eric Clapton, 10: Gimme Some Lovin' - The Spencer Davis Group 11: I'm a Man - The Spencer Davis Group 12: Paper Sun - Traffic 13: Dealer - Traffic 14: Coloured Rain - Traffic 15: No Face, No Name, No Number - Traffic 16: Heaven Is in Your Mind - Traffic 17: Smiling Phases - Traffic 18: Dear Mr. Fantasy - Traffic 19: Pearly Queen - Traffic 20: Forty Thousand Headmen - Traffic 21: No Time to Live - Traffic 22: Shanghai Noodle Factory - Traffic 23: Medicated Goo - Traffic 24: Withering Tree - Traffic 25: Had to Cry Today - Blind Faith 26: Can't Find My Way Home - Blind Faith 27: Sea of Joy - Blind Faith 28: Sleeping in the Ground - Blind Faith 29: Under My Thumb - Blind Faith 30: Stranger to Himself - Traffic 31: John Barleycorn - Traffic 32: Glad - Traffic 33: Freedom Rider - Traffic 34: Empty Pages - Traffic 35: Low Spark of High Heeled Boys - Traffic 36: Rainmaker - Traffic 37: Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory - Traffic 38: (Sometimes I Feel So) Uninspired [Live] - Traffic 39: Happy Vibes - Amao, , Steve Winwood 40: Something New - Traffic 41: Dream Gerrard - Traffic 42: Walking in the Wind - Traffic 43: When the Eagle Flies - Traffic 44: Winner/Loser - Stomu Yamashta 45: Crossing the Line - Stomu Yamashta 46: Hold On - Steve Winwood 47: Time Is Running Out - Steve Winwood 48: Vacant Chair - Steve Winwood 49: While You See a Chance - Steve Winwood 50: Arc of a Diver - Steve Winwood 51: Spanish Dancer - Steve Winwood 52: Night Train - Steve Winwood 53: Dust - Steve Winwood 54: Valerie - Steve Winwood 55: Talking Back to the Night - Steve Winwood 56: Your Silence Is Your Song - Steve Winwood 57: Higher Love - Steve Winwood 58: Freedom Overspill - Steve Winwood 59: Back in the High Life Again - Steve Winwood 60: Finer Things - Steve Winwood 61: Roll with It - Steve Winwood 62: Don't You Know What the Night Can Do? - Steve Winwood 63: One and Only Man - Steve Winwood

Greats of Today & Yesterday
Many people are living a comfortable retirement overlooking Haight & Ashbury from the talents of musicians like Steve Winwood. This reminds us how much Steve Winwood did for music & the music industry. He reminds the old vets of R&R how great he was, even at the young age of The Spencer Davis era, & up to today's new releases. This Box Set repsents those early years & is a great introduction for the ones that weren't born when Dear Mr. Fantasy was the hit song of the season. The sad reminder is how much we lost with the loss of Wood & Capaldi. If you enjoy grass roots music and talent or want to be introduced to it at its best, this CD set is a good start. Its not music hidden or covered up with digital tweeking. This man & his band mambers played "Music" - Not A Computer Software Program that can make any fool sound good. Thank goodness for people like Steve Winwood, Robert Palmer, Eric Clapton & the likes of John Mayall. Not lip sincing acts such as Madonna & Ashlee Simpson. Maybe one day raw talent will once again be required before you can accept a Grammy.

Great overview.

You hear the portrait of a young soul man in the Spencer Davis Group, the experimentalist in Traffic, the supergroup Blind Faith and Ginger Baker's Air Force and lesser known projects like Go and Aiye-Keta and finally the 80s pop superstar that sounds older but just as good as he did in his earlier recordings. Because his own career has had a lot of variations over 3 decades (going into a fourth), it was inevitable that they'd have to put it all in one place. That's not even counting sessions with Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Howlin' Wolf, B. B. King, Lou Reed, George Harrison, David Gilmour, Billy Joel, Tina Turner, Jimmy Buffett, Phil Collins, and countless others which speaks volumes about his demand and generosity as a keyboardist.

But the bulk of material focuses on 3 different bands.
The Spencer Davis material contains the classic "Gimme Some Lovin" and "I'm A Man". Keep in mind that he was 16! If the "blue eyed soul" applied anywhere, he'd be one of the first to come to mind.

25(!) tracks come from the Traffic era, which he was barely 19(!!). Dave Mason's hits "Feelin Alright" and "Hole In My Shoe" aren't on here (but are on 2 Traffic compilations), and the 2 eras of Traffic (they broke up for a while) are covered nicely.

In between Traffic's breakup, a one off project named Blind Faith was formed with Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Rick Grech. Being that "Presence of the Lord" was EC's is left off here, but "Can't Find My Way Home" and a bulk of the album is here, including a cover of "Under My Thumb". But what comes next is some of Winwood's best music, a reformed Traffic with an entirely new funkier free form sound that you could tie into bands like Phish, String Cheese Incident or Dave Matthews Band. . . "Glad/Freedom Rider", "Empty Pages", "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" and some cuts from "When the Eagle Flies".

After Traffic disbanded, Winwood would have to find his own footing as a solo artist. The end of the third CD features tracks from his debut solo album that's purpose was more about transition than anything else.

But the fourth CD starts off with hit single "While You See A Chance" from "Arc of A Diver" (which contains 5 tracks from the album), which has the formula that he'd follow through the 80s. "Talking Back to the Night" has just a couple of cuts, but t"Your Silence is Your Song" taken from an 80s soundtrack is worth a listen.

The next 6 tracks hail from "Back in the High Life" and "Roll With It" and should be the most familiar, the final track "One and Only Man" ending the collection from "Refugees of the Heart", the only track from that CD represented here. The Traffic reunion "Far From Home", his solo "Junction Seven" and "About Time" not represented in this box set.

However, what would be great is if he could put out a retrospective DVD. The Spencer Davis Group has a video planned for next month, there was a Traffic Live in Santa Monica on VHS, his own solo career had around 20 videos, as well as the other appearances on TV over the years.

It would also be great if he put out a 2 CD "best of" that would cover around 30 songs.

.

The Finer Things
The first 3 CDs show what the young genius could do. This 4 CD set shows how really good Stevie was in the 60's and 70's and how really bad music overtook him and almost everyone else in the 80's. He played with three terrific bands and created some of the best jam band, jazz and drug influenced music of the generation. The fourth CD is a sad reflection of electronic drums, synthesized keyboards and awful mixing that was the 80's. Underneath the noise I think there might be some good songs. 3 out of 4 ain't bad!.

Excellent coverage of Steve Winwood's career
Significant chunks are included from virtually all his Island albums, together with a small taster from his first two Virgin Records albums in 1988 and 1990. This 4CD, 63 song set provides extremely thorough coverage of Steve Winwood's career from the early 1960s up to his last Island Records album in 1986, including numerous tracks from his work in such memorable bands as the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic and Blind Faith, as well as his later solo recordings.

Inevitably there are one or two other favourite tracks which one might feel merited inclusion, but this is undoubtedly a very effective career retrospective, with the principal emphasis being on the Traffic years. The collection does not purport to give thorough coverage of Winwood's solo work (although more than a quarter of the music is from his solo albums), and at present no comprehensive compilation from 1977 onwards is available, largely due to his change of record labels.

This is such a detailed account of Winwood's recordings that it is likely to be of interest only to dedicated fans, but for these it will be a real treat. As well as the superb music there is a beautifully illustrated book with a detailed account of Steve's career and full musician credits for each track. Highly recommended.

The Best Box Set Set Ever
While many many many artists nowadays have put together some kind of box set, few artists truly deserve one. Like my title says, "Finer Things" is simply the best box set ever put together. Steve Winwood, however, I'm happy to say is one of them. This is mainly due to the fact that he's been in a lot of bands as well as having a successful solo career. Because of this, he's very difficult to compile in a one CD collection and in fact, nobody has ever tried. Sure there's been a great Spencer Davis collection, a number of Traffic compilations of varying degrees of value, and a good collection of solo songs that cover his solo debut through his biggest seller, "Back In The Highlife. " However, there is no single collection aside from this one which covers his Spencer Davis Group, Blind Faith, solo and, Traffic work in one place. And frankly, this can only be done in four CD's. Universal did release a new Steve Winwood CD that covers the early part of his career (Spencer Davis Group, Blind Faith, and Traffic) a few months ago under that "Millenium Collection" banner but to get a true retrospective, you really need the solo material which is great as well. Perhaps Universal is planning a second Millenium Collection for Steve?

This collection has all the songs you know, but even rewards the serious fan with fantastic rarities, especially from the Blind Faith period. Every Winwood fan must hear the live cover of the Rolling Stones' "Under My Thumb" at least once and the electric version of "Can't Find My Way Home" is absolutely essential, perhaps even better than the classic acoustic version--no joke. The only thing I would have liked to have seen--and this is a minor detail--is "Here Comes A Man" from Traffic's 1994 album which came out a year before this box set. But the bottom line is that this collection is not to be missed if you're a big fan of all stages of his work. However, if you want to save a few bucks, you can get the Millenium Collection CD and "Chronicles" to get a decent bare-bones overview of his career in 2 CD's.

You can see a complete list of all Steve Winwood discography, or go back to the Steve Winwood tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.