Steve Winwood: Nine Lives

By Steve Morley

With his distinctively soulful voice and stellar credentials, Steve Winwood would have a permanent place in musical history even without the massive wave of pop success initiated by his 1980 solo album, Arc of a Diver. A major force on the British music scene from the mid-60s onward, he collaborated with Eric Clapton and also fronted Traffic, a band that inventively fused rock, folk, jazz and world music well before such concoctions became commonplace. Still, second-wind hits like “Higher Love” and “While You See a Chance” were succinct and memorable songs that made him a slightly unlikely but entirely credible adult-contemporary star. His ninth solo album, Nine Lives, returns him to previous musical territory, with an emphasis on rhythm, atmosphere and unrestrained musicianship. The album’s nine tracks, eight of which average nearly seven minutes apiece, bear little resemblance to the sleek ‘80s and ‘90s hits that made Winwood a household name. However, they re-establish his preeminence as a classic-rock organist and vocalist, and further sharpen the ethnic rock experiments he began with Traffic.

“Raging Sea,” a song about new possibilities as well as the pain of moving away from familiar terrain in order to find them, indirectly addresses the geographical diversity represented on the disc. Like the character in the song who is “looking for new worlds,” Winwood’s racially varied band members join forces on a multicultural sound unimaginable if each was to remain in his country of origin. It’s a picture of global community that Winwood touches upon in the lyric to “At Times We Do Forget,” a commentary on our shared humanity, despite distances and differences: “And the light shines above every nation/ But at times we do forget about them/ Like my brother who is falling down/ But at times we do forget about him.”        

The Afro/Latin-rocker “Hungry Man,” set on foreign soil, identifies a man in need of both sustenance and “love in the world,” a sentiment echoed by the discouraged protagonist in “Dirty City” who watches his urban family erode despite his best efforts to provide. The track has gained some mainstream attention for its Eric Clapton cameo, which finds the guitar legend sparking off the energy of Winwood’s emotive singing. (“Dirty City/ This is a dirty town/ Where’s the pity/ I can’t move on up to higher ground.”)

Throughout the album, Winwood’s forceful vocals add fire to lyrics added after the fact by collaborator Peter Godwin to musical ideas that grew from jam sessions. While the disc is music-driven, it aspires to thought-provoking and spiritually-based themes like those in “Other Shore” and “We’re All Looking,” the latter a standout propelled by pulsing organ and an onslaught of percussion. (“We’re all looking/ Sometimes we find/ We’re all waiting/ To see a sign/ But we’re searching/ Deep in our own minds…”)

Though the statements on faith are often limited to images of new mornings and distant shores, the passionate performances on Nine Lives often speak eloquently about a world that, despite its pleasures, leaves us longing for something more.

Audio Clips

"I'm Not Drowning"

"Fly"

"Raging Sea"

"Dirty City"