I always thought the lyrics were sung quite clearly. I’ve heard some of Steve Winwood’s with Traffic and I just can’t make it out! A good example of this is the song, “Shootout At The Fantasy Factory”. Go have a listen and I guarantee you that it will leave you scratching your head. However, it IS a kickass Traffic song!
You must have excellent ears. Or maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough. I’m still proud of the time I won a non-monetary bet re the line, ‘Spoken like a big monkey bird.’ A friend of mine with an excellent ear for music said those couldn’t possibly be the words Bowie wrote. I said they were...and you know the rest.
The Traffic song you mentioned is unfamiliar. I’ll plan to give it a listen ASAP.