Steve Winwood

Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born May 12, 1948 in Great Barr, West Midlands) is an English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who, in addition to his solo career, was a member of the bands the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, and Blind Faith.

Career

Winwood was a part of the Birmingham rhythm and blues scene from a young age, playing the Hammond B-3 Organ and guitar, backing blues singers like Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker, Howlin' Wolf, B. B. King, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Eddie Boyd, Otis Spann, Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley on their United Kingdom tours (the norm at that time being for US singers to travel solo and be backed by 'pick-up' bands).

Winwood became a member of the Spencer Davis Group at 15 with his older brother 'Muff' (who later had much success as a record producer), and had hit singles with "Keep On Runnin'". Steve wrote and recorded "Gimme Some Lovin'" and "I'm A Man" before leaving to form Traffic with Chris Wood, Jim Capaldi and Dave Mason.

During the late-1960s, Winwood and Mason became close friends of Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix first heard "All Along the Watchtower" at a party he was invited to by Mason, they recorded the Hendrix version later that night in a London recording studio. Winwood played often with Hendrix, featuring prominently on Electric Ladyland.' Notably, he contributed the powerful Hammond organ riffs on Voodoo Child.

In 1969, Winwood once again gave a powerful organ expression on Joe Cocker's With A Little Help From My Friends, he has later played keyboards on albums as diverse as Toots & The Maytals Reggae Got Soul and Howlin' Wolf's The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions. He formed Blind Faith in 1969 with Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Ric Grech, but the band was short-lived, due to Clapton's greater interest in Blind Faith's opening act Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, Clapton left the band after the tour had ended. However, Baker, Winwood, and Grech stayed together to form Ginger Baker's Air Force. The lineup consisted of basically 3/4 of Blind Faith (sans Clapton, replaced by Denny Laine), 2/3 of Traffic (Winwood and Chris Wood, minus Jim Capaldi), plus musicians who interacted with Baker in his early days like Phil Seaman, Harold McNair, and Graham Bond. But this supergroup turned out to be just another short-lived project. Winwood soon went into the studio to begin work on a new solo album, tentatively titled Mad Shadows. However, Winwood ended up calling Chris Wood and Jim Capaldi in to help with session work, which instead prompted Traffic's amazing comeback album John Barleycorn Must Die. Winwood has always said that the sound of John Barleycorn Must Die really reflects what Winwood intended Traffic to be.

Constant artistic differences and personnel changes led to Traffic's final break-up and Winwood's release of his eponymous first solo album in 1977. This was followed by his 1980 hit Arc Of A Diver and Talking Back To The Night in 1982 (both albums recorded at his home in Gloucestershire with Winwood playing all instruments). He enlisted the help of a coterie of stars to record Back In The High Life (1986) in the US, and again he was rewarded with a hit album. All were released on Island Records. In 1986, he topped the Billboard Hot 100 with "Higher Love".

At the peak of his commercial success, Winwood moved to Virgin Records and released Roll With It and Refugees Of The Heart. He recorded another album with Jim Capaldi released under the Traffic name, Far From Home, then resumed his solo career with his final Virgin album Junction Seven.

In 1995 and 1996, his last hit song that Winwood had reached #1 on the U.S. singles charts was "Reach for the Light (Theme from Balto)".

In 2003, Winwood released a new studio album, About Time on his new record label, Wincraft Music. 2004 saw his 1982 song 'Valerie' used by DJ Eric Prydz, in a song called 'Call On Me'. It spent five weeks at Number 1 on the UK singles chart. Winwood heard an early version of Prydz' remix and liked it so much, he not only gave permission to use the song, he re-recorded the samples for Prydz to use.

In the 2005, Soundstage Performances DVD was released, featuring his recent work from the album About Time along with his classic hits including "Higher Love" and "Back in the High Life". Winwood also performs hits from his days with Traffic (recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) as well as current recordings that represent a tapestry of tastes woven after 40 years in music.

He is currently working on his new studio album slated for release in 2006, and is preparing a live album from his American 2005 tour.

Trivia

In his hit song While You See A Chance, in a stanza where he sings "And that old gray wind is blowing and there’s nothing left worth knowing," Winwood accidentally overdubs "nothing left..." with "no one left..." The entire track was thrown together in a relatively quick fashion, and at one point Winwood accidentally deleted the drum track in preparation for vocals.

Prior to forming Blind Faith with Eric Clapton, the two collaborated on a record as "Powerhouse"

Discography

Albums

Steve Winwood (1977) #22 US US sales: 2x Platinum
Arc of a Diver (1981) #3 US US sales: 4x Platinum
Talking Back to the Night (1982) #28 US US sales: Platinum
Back In the High Life (1986) #7 US US sales: 5x Platinum
Chronicles (1987) #26 US US sales: Gold
Roll With It (1988) #1 (1 week) US US sales: 3x Platinum
Refugees Of the Heart (1990) #27 US US sales: Platinum
Junction Seven (1997) #123 US
About Time (2003) #126 US

Singles

"While You See A Chance" (1981) #7 US
"Arc Of A Diver" (1981) #48 US
"Still In The Game" (1982) #47 US
"Valerie" (1982) #70 US
"Higher Love" (1986) #1 US - 1 week, #13 UK
"Freedom Overspill" (1986) #20 US
"The Finer Things" (1987) #8 US
"Back in the High Life" (1987) #13 US
"Valerie" (remix) (1987) #9 US, #19 UK
"Roll With It" (1988) #1 US - 4 weeks
"Don't You Know What The Night Can Do?" (1988) #6 US
"Holding On" (1988) #11 US
"Hearts On Fire" (1989) #53 US
"One and Only Man" (1990) #18 US
"Reach for the Light (Theme from Balto)" (1995) #1 US - 4 weeks

Session work

David Gilmour - About Face
Marianne Faithfull - Dangerous Acquaintances
Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
Lou Reed - Berlin

External links