"The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" by Steve Winwood and his band Traffic is a perennial favourite of mine. Not a week goes by without me losing myself in its intricate soundscape and the lyrics, which magically change their meaning along with my mood and circumstances.
The song is a musical masterpiece with an elegantly restrained lushness of the number and intricate piano melodies leading to jazzy saxophone solos.
A few decades ago, when I lived under the burden of twin tragedies, one very real and one through self-inflicted delusion, the song signified the themes of betrayal and loss with these lines ringing in my head long after the music stopped playing:
If I gave you everything that I owned
And asked for nothing in return
Would you do the same for me as I would for you
Or take me for a ride
And strip me of everything, including my pride
But spirit is something that no one destroys
And the sound that I'm hearing is only the sound of
The low spark of high-heeled boys (heeled boys)
As time passed, I healed and got busy with the humdrum of life; the song started speaking to me of the transactional nature of the world:
The percentage you're paying is too high priced
While you're living beyond all your means
And the man in the suit has just bought a new car
From the profit he's made on your dreams
But today, you just read that the man was shot dead
By a gun that didn't make any noise
But it wasn't the bullet that laid him to rest, was
The low spark of high-heeled boys
These days, with my life at an angle of repose, I find in the song a metaphysical spirit of quiet acceptance:
If you see something that looks like a star
And it's shooting up out of the ground
And your head is spinning from a loud guitar
And you just can't escape from the sound
Don't worry too much, it'll happen to you
We were children once, playing with toys
And that thing that you're hearing is only the sound of
The low spark of high-heeled boys
If you had just a minute to breathe
And they granted you one final wish
Would you ask for something like another chance
Or something sim'lar as this
Don't worry too much. It'll happen to you
As sure as your sorrows are joys
And the thing that disturbs you is only the sound of
The low spark of high-heeled boys
With the above three excerpts, I have reproduced the entire lyrics of the 11-minute song but in an order that is all mine.
What does "Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" mean?
It's a metaphor for the ups and downs of life.
However, many alternate readings exist among the song's legion of admirers. Two startling ones are as follows:
To some, the song is about drug culture and the relationships between users and suppliers. Low spark is an injection, and high-heeled boys are speedball, a mixture of cocaine and heroin!
To some others, the song expresses contempt for the glam-rock movement of the 1970s, which David Bowie and Marc Bolan led. "Low spark" signifies the "low talent" of the glam-rockers, and "high-heel boys" allude to the self-feminization of Marc Bolan and David Bowie, who wore feminine clothing and makeup on stage.
To each his own.
I embed a YouTube video of the song here for you to enjoy.
Fall under its spell, and it's a gift that will keep giving.
