Jeff’s Playlist: Fierce Heart

Jim Capaldi — Fierce Heart

I picked up this cas­sette dur­ing my stint in Minnesota in the ear­ly eight­ies. I would play it on my Walkman while rid­ing my bike around Lake Harriet near down­town Minneapolis. I loved it but lost track of the cas­sette on my trav­els back to Kentucky. I hadn’t lis­tened to it until recent­ly when I came across it on YouTube. I still love it. Capaldi is long gone but he was a great per­cus­sion­ist in Traffic and his solo career. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Album Information

Fierce Heart is Capaldi’s eighth solo album and reached num­ber 91 on the Billboard 200 in the US. Capaldi ded­i­cat­ed the album to the mem­o­ry of Rebop Kwaku Bath, his for­mer band­mate in Traffic who died in January of the year this album was released. All music is writ­ten by Capaldi, except where noted.

1. “Tonight You’re Mine” – 4:09
2. “Living on the Edge” – 4:40
3. “Bad Breaks” (music: Willem Ennes) – 3:06
4. “Runaway” (music: Solution) – 3:24
5. “Back at my Place” – 3:02
6. “That’s Love” – 3:37
7. “I’ll Always be Your Fool” – 3:48
8. “Don’t Let Them Control You” (music: Macau) – 5:10
9. “Gifts of Unknown Things” – 5:10

• Jim Capaldi – lead vocals, drums (tracks 1–2, 5–8), acoustic gui­tar (track 5), per­cus­sion, glock­en­spiel (track 7)
• Steve Winwood – key­boards, gui­tar (tracks 1–3, 8), back­ing vocals (tracks 3–4, 6, 9), marim­ba (track 9)
• Pete Bonas — bass gui­tar (track 4), gui­tar (track 3), acoustic gui­tar (track 6), ova­tion gui­tar (track 9)
• Brent Forbes – bass gui­tar (track 3)
• Bryson Graham — drums (tracks 3–4, 9)
• Van Morrison – acoustic gui­tar (track 1)
• Chris Parren – key­boards (track 3)
• Ray Otu Allen – con­gas (tracks 3, 7–9), per­cus­sion (tracks 7–8)
• John Mizarolli – lead acoustic gui­tar (track 5)
• Nicole Winwood – back­ing vocals (track 6)
• Mel Collins — sax­o­phone (tracks 7–8)
• Stevie Lange, Simon Bell – back­ing vocals (track 7)
• Geoff Driscoll – sax­o­phone (track 8)
• Martin Drover – trum­pet (track 8)
• Linn drum pat­terns by Jim Capaldi and Steve Winwood

Engineered by:

• Steve Winwood (except tracks 5 and 7)
• Nobby Clark (except tracks 5 and 7)
• Dave Belotti (track 9)
• John Etchells (track 9)
• Phil Bodger (track 6)
• Mark Freegard (except track 2)
• Jon Walls (except track 2)
• Graham Watts (except track 2)
• Keith Fernley (except track 2)
• Tom O’Leary (track 4)

Released 1983
Recorded 1983

Studio       Netherturkdonic Studios, Gloucestershire, UK

                 Jam Recording Ltd, London

                 Regents Park Studios, London

                  Wessex Studios, London

                  Matrix Studios, London

Length      36:06
Label        WEA
Producer  Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi