Position: 100 of 100
Artist: Traffic
Song: Shanghai Noodle Factory
Album: Last Exit (1969)
Deezer link: http://www.deezer.com/track/2420967
Grooveshark link: http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Shanghai+Noodle+Factory/2J4y7X?src=5
Kicking off the Top 100 for 2013 is a song by Steve Winwood's band Traffic. I was passing through a Saturn in Munich, last year, when, among other jewels I found a double album compilation of Traffic songs called Gold. It was just the right ticket! I've been curious about Traffic ever since I saw Steve Winwood with Eric Clapton live, and I have to say it did not disappoint.
The sound is very typical of the late 60s and early 70s, a combination of rock with just a splash of reggae and Steve Winwood's clear vocals laid over the top of it. This particular song had some staying power in my rotation mostly due to the exotic location it evokes. In the port cities of Old China like Macau and Shanghai there was an entire tradition of noodle making where the dough is prepared by hand then pressed with the help of a long bamboo stick and then cut finely into noodles. These traditions do well to have survived even to this day. Ultimately I perceive the song to be about despair, about toiling away in such an industry, day in, day out. This feeling of running in place, of constant struggle without anything to show for it, is very relatable in this day and age. Wether you do it in an office, in front of a computer keyboard, or in some sweaty hall folding dough and pressing and cutting noodles, the feeling of wasting your life each hour at a time is very real and very similar wherever you do it.
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