Genre: rock
Rating: *** (3 stars)
Title: When the Eagles Flies
Company: Asylum
Catalog: 7E-1020
Year: 1973
Country/State: UK
Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+
Comments: original inner sleeve
Available: 2
GEMM catalog ID: 4502
Price: $10.00
Cost: $66.00
First off, I seldom publish a review without having at least listened to the album at least three times (preferably over an extended period of time - okay I'll admit I couldn't get through Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" three times). My opinions also tend to change with time. I'll also mention that I have a fondness for Traffic and Steve Winwood.
Those things said, most of 1973's "When the Eagle Flies" leaves me cold. Produced by Chris Blackwell, this late inning set found Capaldi and Winwood continuing to explore their interest in extended, pseudo-jazzy improvisations. Mind you, the album has more than its share of fans, but to my ears the results are rather dull. Sporting one of the album's most accessible melodies, the bluesy opener 'Something New' was pretty good. The most commercial song, 'Walking In the Wind' was tapped by Asylum as a single (Asylum catalog number 45207). Co-written with the late Bonzo Dog Band headman Viv Standshall, 'Dream Gerrard' seems to go on forever, but sports an interesting mix of free form jazz and funk. Chris Woods contributed one of those sax figures which was simultaneously mesmerizing and irritating, while Roscoe Gee added a wonderful bass solo to the song. Elsewhere Winwood and company sound flat and rather uninspired; almost as if they knew Traffic has run out of creative steam. About the best thing I can say is that anyone who liked "Low Spark" or Winwood's forthcoming self-titled debut will probably find this worth their time. Perhaps the result of an American tour, the album sold better in the States (where it went top-10), than in the UK where it stalled at # 31.
"When the Eagles Flies" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Something New (Jim Capaldi - Steve Winwood) - 3:20
2.) Dream Gerrard (VIvian Stanshall - Steve Winwood) - 11:04
3.) Graveyard People (Jim Capaldi - Steve Winwood) - 6:07
(side 2)
1.) Walking In the Wind (Jim Capaldi - Steve Winwood) - 6:55
2.) Memories of a Rock & Rolla (Jim Capaldi - Steve Winwood) - 4:56
3.) Love (Jim Capaldi - Steve Winwood) - 3:20
4.) When the Eagle Flies (Jim Capaldi - Steve Winwood) - 4:21