Only You Know and I Know<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tBorn May 10, 1946, in Worcester, Dave Mason grew up in the Midlands of England, roughly 12 miles away from where Robert Plant and John Bonham were raised; also nearby was Jim Capaldi, who would become his bandmate in Traffic. Mason sang in the school choir as a child, but his love of music was sparked by the big bang of rock & roll, particularly the music of Buddy Holly. Picking up guitar at the age of 16, he began playing music professionally as part of the instrumental rock group the Jaguars. He departed the band after the release of \u201cOpus to Spring\u201d in 1963, teaming up with Capaldi in the Hellions, who toured through the UK and Germany between 1964 and 1965.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
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\n\tThe Hellions recorded a handful of singles in 1965, the first of which was \u201cDaydreaming of You,\u201d a song composed by Jackie De Shannon and produced by Kim Fowley. None of these singles found much success, so the group spent time acting as the support group for P.J. Proby, after which time Mason drifted away from the band. The guitarist kept gigging, earning extra money by working as a roadie for the Spencer Davis Group, the high-octane R&B outfit featuring a teenage Steve Winwood on keyboard and guitar. Mason worked his way into the inner circle of the Spencer Davis Group, singing background on a few of their sessions. In 1967, Winwood left Spencer Davis to form Traffic with Mason and Capaldi, adding flautist Chris Wood for good measure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tTraffic literally woodshedded in those yearly days: living in a cottage, jamming as they figured out their sound, crossing the baroque British fantasies of early Pink Floyd with the melodicism of the Beatles. Over the course of 1967, Traffic immediately racked up three Top Ten hits in England with \u201cPaper Sun,\u201d \u201cHere We Go Round the Mulberry Bush,\u201d and \u201cHole in My Shoe,\u201d the latter written and sung by Mason. The success of \u201cHole in My Shoe\u201d overwhelmed Mason, leading the guitarist to step away from the band. He released a solo single, \u201cLittle Woman,\u201d in 1968, then produced Music in A Doll\u2019s House<\/em>, the first album by the eccentric progressive rockersThe Family, all before being coaxed back into Traffic when the rest of the group realized they didn\u2019t have enough original material for their second album.<\/p>\n\n\tMason wrote half of Traffic<\/em>, including \u201cFeelin\u2019 Alright?,\u201d the album\u2019s lone single; it wasn\u2019t a hit for the band, but Joe Cocker\u2019s 1969 cover made the song ubiquitous. Shortly after the release of Traffic in 1968, Mason was fired by the group. He later recounted in his memoir that Winwood told him \u201cI don\u2019t like the way you write. I don\u2019t like the way you sing. I don\u2019t like the way you play. And we don\u2019t want you in the band any more.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
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\n\tAlready a familiar fixture at recording sessions \u2014 he played the droning shehnai on \u201cStreet Fighting Man,\u201d the Rolling Stones single produced by Jimmy Miller, who also helmed Traffic\u2019s early LPs \u2014 Mason drifted through a number of musical scenarios in the aftermath of his dismissal. He jammed with Cream drummer Ginger Baker, wound up at the sessions for George Harrison\u2019s All Things Must Pass<\/em>, and played a 12-string acoustic guitar on Jimi Hendrix\u2019s \u201cAll Along the Watchtower.\u201d Hendrix toyed with the idea of having Mason play in the Experience, a notion that didn\u2019t come to fruition. A reunion with Capaldi and Wood in Wooden Frog also fell apart.<\/p>\n\n\tMason headed to America, where Gram Parsons \u2014 an acquaintance of his through the Rolling Stones \u2014 became his gateway into Los Angeles rock. Mason joined Delaney & Bonnie & Friends on tours of America and Britain, where he played alongside Eric Clapton. On that tour, Mason sang \u201cOnly You Know and I Know,\u201d the song that became the centerpiece of Alone Together<\/em>, his 1970 debut for Blue Thumb Records. Cut in Tulsa with a crew largely pulled from Delaney & Bonnie, Alone Together provided a promising start to a solo career for Mason, one that he complicated by releasing a duet album with Cass Elliot in 1971.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tBy the time Dave Mason & Cass Elliot<\/em> saw release, Mason fell into a contract dispute with Blue Thumb, leading the band to issue Headkeeper<\/em> in 1972 and Dave Mason Is Alive!<\/em> without his approval. During his downtime, he accepted an offer to be in Clapton\u2019s Derek & the Dominos but he left after playing one gig, finding the guitarist\u2019s narcotic-inspired stupor proved enervating. He agreed to rejoin Traffic for a spell, playing on a tour that was chronicled on Welcome to the Canteen<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\tOnce his conflict with Blue Thumb resolved, Mason moved to Columbia, releasing It\u2019s Like You Never Left<\/em> in October 1973; Stevie Wonder played on the album\u2019s \u201cThe Lonely One.\u201d A pair of other albums, Dave Mason<\/em> and Split Coconut<\/em>, followed on its heels, and Mason built an audience through regular touring. Certified Live<\/em> provided a sampler of his concerts in 1976.<\/p>\n\n\tMason cameoed on another superstar single when he played guitar on \u201cListen to What the Man Says,\u201d the 1975 smash by Paul McCartney & Wings. Soon, he had his own big hit in the form of \u201cWe Just Disagree,\u201d a ballad written by his guitarist Jim Krueger. \u201cWe Just Disagree\u201d anchored 1977\u2019s Let It Flow<\/em> and he had one other hit album with 1978\u2019s Mariposa de Oro<\/em> before he closed out his Columbia contract in 1980 with Old Crest on a New Wave<\/em>. The album\u2019s title nodded at the new wave that was wiping classic rockers off the charts but the record had another harbinger of the 1980s in the form of Michael Jackson, who duetted with Mason on \u201cSave Me.\u201d Jackson accepted the gig because he sang \u201cFeelin\u2019 Alright\u201d with Diana Ross on a television special when he was 12 years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tMason\u2019s 1980s were slow. He later said<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cThe latest flavor was something I didn\u2019t want to be any part of. I didn\u2019t fit into the business at that point.\u201d Embroiled in a contractual dispute with Columbia Records, Mason toured with Krueger as a duet act, then released Two Hearts on MCA in 1987; it was his last release on a major label.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
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\n\tMason joined Fleetwood Mac in 1993, appearing on the 1995 album Time<\/em>, the first record to not feature Stevie Nicks in twenty years. He rejoined Capaldi in 1998 for a tour that resulted in Live: The 40,000 Headmen Tour<\/em>. It was the last time relations were cordial between the pair. Mason had another spat with Winwood during Traffic\u2019s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2003. In his memoir, Mason writes that Capaldi told Winwood on his deathbed in 2005 to not re-form Traffic.<\/p>\n\n\tUndaunted, Mason released 26 Letters and 12 Notes<\/em>, his first album in twenty years, in 2008. He\u2019d release Future\u2019s Past<\/em> six years later, and re-record Alone Together<\/em> in 2020, but during his last decades, he concentrated on playing live, culminating in a tour called \u201cTraffic Jam\u201d in 2004. It was an unusual ending for a musician who never felt at ease on stage. \u201cI still don\u2019t like standing up there in front of the spotlight. I feel very uncomfortable up there,\u201d He told Rock Cellar<\/a> in 2020. \u201cI\u2019m not a rock star, let\u2019s put it that way. I never wanted to be. I just wanted to write great music, make some money and have fun. And when I was younger, meet girls.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n