''Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory'' is the sixth studio album by English rock band

Traffic Traffic is the movement of vehicles and pedestrians along land routes. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic laws and informal rules that may have developed over time to facilitate the orderly an ...

released in 1973. It followed their 1971 album '' The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys'' and contained five songs. ''Shoot Out'', while achieving poorer reviews than its predecessor, did reach number six on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, one space higher than ''Low Spark'' had peaked in 1972. Like its predecessor, the original jacket for the ''Shoot Out'' LP had its top right and bottom left corners clipped. The album was remastered for CD in 2003. The album was recorded with four members of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (bassist David Hood, drummer Roger Hawkins, keyboardist Barry Beckett, and guitarist Jimmy Johnson). Hood and Hawkins appear on all the songs, and are listed as members of Traffic on the album sleeve. Beckett and Johnson only play on "Tragic Magic". Hood, Hawkins & Beckett would go on tour with the band as evidenced by the subsequent '' On the Road'' album.

Reception

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' had a subdued reaction, saying that most of the songs are too even-tempered and uniform in structure and tone, but that "Evening Blue" and "(Sometimes I Feel So) Uninspired" are high points. They summarized that the album "embodies the inconsistencies that beset the band as well as the high points that have kept Traffic moving." Retrospective reviews were less forgiving, with

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

stating that both the compositions and the performances are uniformly weak, adding up to "a competent, if perfunctory effort in the band's familiar style", while '' Village Voice'' critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

's review consisted of a single sentence followed by the note 'Giveaway: "(Sometimes I Feel So) Uninspired."'

Track listing

Versions of the album

The original, full-length master of ''Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory'' was initially only heard on the U.S. vinyl version. This was at a time when

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

was manufactured and distributed by

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

. When Island's distribution deal with Capitol ended, Traffic submitted a revised master in which "Roll Right Stones" and "Uninspired" were remixed and faded out early.Interview with UMG catalog chief Bill Levenson in ICE Magazine, referenced in a review at Amazon.com. "Uninspired" was shortened by about 15 seconds and "Roll Right Stones" by a full two minutes. This shortened master was used for all subsequent copies of the album until May 2003. With Island's 2003 remaster of the album, the original full-length versions of these songs finally became available on CD. LPs and CDs with the shortened versions of these songs commonly falsely list the longer times for them.

Personnel

Traffic

* Steve Winwood – lead and backing vocals, acoustic piano, organ, guitars * Chris Wood –

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flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

* David Hood – bass * Roger Hawkins – drums * Jim Capaldi – percussion, backing vocals (2) * Rebop Kwaku Baah – percussion

Additional personnel

* Barry Beckett – keyboards (4) * Jimmy Johnson –

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

(4)

Production

* Steve Winwood – producer * Jim Capaldi – producer * Jerry Masters – engineer * Steve Melton – engineer * Tony Wright – cover illustrations * Tommy Wright – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

''Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory'' (1973) album releases & credits
at Discogs.com
Traffic – ''Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory'' (1973) album user reviews & credits
at ProgArchives.com
''Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory'' (1973) album review by William Ruhlmann, credits, releases and ''Billboard'' charts
at AllMusic.com {{Authority control Traffic (band) albums 1973 albums Island Records albums Albums produced by Steve Winwood