Album · Traffic
John Barleycorn Must Die by Traffic
John Barleycorn Must Die is an album by Traffic, released in 1970. 3 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 21 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Glad”, on 10 lists with a best position of #364.
John Barleycorn Must Die hit the shops in July 1970 on Island, with United Artists handling America, and it's the sound of Traffic rising from the dead. Blind Faith had fallen apart, so Steve Winwood regrouped with Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood, minus Dave Mason, and with Chris Blackwell producing they cut the band's fourth studio album.
What they made is loose-limbed and searching, a stew of rock, folk and jazz fusion where the tunes stretch out and the players improvise their way home. "Glad", "Freedom Rider" and the title track are where the magic lives, and "Empty Pages" gave them a single that hung around the Hot 100 for eight weeks. America ate it up: number 5 on the Billboard chart, the band's best showing there, and a gold record, while Britain took it to number 11.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from John Barleycorn Must Die on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Glad | 10 | #364 | – | 1991–2026 | |
| 2 | John Barleycorn | 10 | #163 | – | 2001–2023 | |
| 3 | Freedom Rider | 1 | #1697 | – | 2020 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.