Dave Mason’s tenure with Traffic, the band he co-founded as guitarist and co-singer in 1967, was always somewhat precarious. Overwhelmed by scoring a major UK hit with “Hole In My Shoe” – “It was the first song I ever wrote,” Mason told Uncut in 2008 – he initially quit in December ’67, just prior to the release of the psych-rock adventurers’ debut Mr Fantasy. “I couldn’t deal with the success,” he continued. “I had no life experience, so I thought I’d better get some.”
Dave Mason’s tenure with Traffic, the band he co-founded as guitarist and co-singer in 1967, was always somewhat precarious. Overwhelmed by scoring a major UK hit with “Hole In My Shoe” – “It was the first song I ever wrote,” Mason told Uncut in 2008 – he initially quit in December ’67, just prior to the release of the psych-rock adventurers’ debut Mr Fantasy. “I couldn’t deal with the success,” he continued. “I had no life experience, so I thought I’d better get some.”
His answer lay in short-term collaboration. At London’s Olympic Studios, Mason produced Family’s Music In A Doll’s House (which included his own “Never Like This”), played shehnai on the Stones’ “Street Fighting Man” and, during sessions for Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland, added 12-string guitar to “All Along The Watchtower” and backing vocals to “Crosstown Traffic”.
By the following spring, Mason had reunited with Traffic for their self-titled second album. His five writing contributions included “You Can All Join In” and lead single “Feelin’ Alright?”, the latter a two-chord gem that was swiftly popularised by Joe Cocker.
Before long, though, Mason found himself exiled again, largely due to creative tensions with other members. Steve Winwood complained that he was too pop for a band that sought to freely experiment with folk, jazz and ethno-rock. Mason’s habit of writing alone, as opposed to developing songs from a group jam, was another issue. “The same thing happened – my songs were pushed to be the singles,” Mason explained. “I got a call to go over to [label boss] Chris Blackwell’s house in London. Chris [Wood], Jim [Capaldi] and Steve were there. Steve said: ‘I don’t want you in the group.’ And that was the end of that.”
Mason would briefly join Traffic for a third (and final) time in the summer of 1971, appearing on live effort Welcome To The Canteen. By then, he’d already served as touring member of Delaney & Bonnie, played in an early iteration of Derek And The Dominos and appeared on George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, having previously schooled the ex-Beatle in the art of slide guitar. Mason’s solo career was also underway, beginning with 1970’s gold-selling Alone Together, featuring modest Billboard hit, “Only You Know And I Know”.
He subsequently spent most of his time in the States, touring and recording as head of a band that included guitarist Jim Krueger, who composed Mason’s biggest US single: 1977’s soft-rock ballad, “We Just Disagree”. The following year’s Mariposa de Oro proved to be his last significant success, with Mason spending the early ‘80s in a contract dispute with former label Columbia and rueing the fact that “I didn’t fit into the business at that point”.
Mason deviated from solo work to become part of a reconstituted Fleetwood Mac (minus Buckingham and Nicks) for a 1994 tour and the following year’s poorly-received Time. In early 1998 he reconvened with Jim Capaldi for dates that yielded Live: The 40,000 Headmen Tour. After a 20-year gap, he rediscovered his appetite for solo studio recording with 2008’s 26 Letters 12 Notes, followed six years later by Future’s Past. The latter saw Mason revisit various songs from his back catalogue, among them several Traffic classics, suggesting that the band was something he continued to hold dear.
“For me, Traffic pointed the way where music could go,” Mason told Uncut. “Our potential was limitless. I always saw us as the British equivalent of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, a group with equal partners who musically could go any place they wanted. But then all the other shit just got in the way.”
