IIn the final month of 1968, Dave Mason was called into a meeting with his band, Traffic, for reasons that haunt him to this day. According to Mason, the band's biggest star, Steve Winwood, immediately told him four cold words: “I don't like the way you write songs. I don't like the way you sing. I don't like the way you play. And I don't want you in the band anymore.”
“I was shocked,” Mason recalls. “To me, that was the ultimate band.”
It's no wonder he hasn't completely put Traffic behind him. Mason has since scored a string of gold and platinum hits as a solo artist, including a flawless solo debut, Alone Together, in 1970, but in his brutally candid new memoir, he makes it clear that Traffic was the band he missed. He even goes so far as to call his entire frontman career, which has lasted more than 20 times longer than his time with Traffic, a default to the true love that's been lost in classic band dynamics. “As someone wrote years ago, 'Differences come together to create beauty,'” Mason says of the ideal band interaction. “Unfortunately, differences also come together to divide people.”
Mason's on-and-off, decades-long feud with Traffic is just a few of the dramatic bullet points in his book, named after one of his biggest solo hits, “Only You Know and I Know.” The 78-year-old singing, songwriting and guitarist has been married four times (divorced three times), bankrupted twice, lost a son to drugs and been sued by several powerful record companies, one of which threatened to end his career forever. Naturally, the book also chronicles his many historic achievements, including his work with Jimi Hendrix on the album Electric Ladyland, with Eric Clapton in an early version of Derek and the Dominos, George Harrison's greatest set All Things Must Pass, the Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet, Delaney & Bonnie's historic 1969 tour, his unexpected joint album with Cass Elliott, and his work with Michael Jackson as backing singers for The Beatles. he Regarding solo works.
Originally from rural Worcester, England, Mason showed early talent as a guitarist. After moving to London in his late teens, he quickly caught the attention of the emerging rock scene, and had already made connections with members of Traffic before the band formed. He played in a band with Jim Capaldi, who became a close friend and drummer and lyricist. He also sang backing vocals on several hits for the Spencer Davis Group, all of which were enhanced by the teenage Winwood's incredibly soulful singing. When Winwood decided to leave Spencer Davis in the spring of 1967 to form a more adventurous group, he turned to Capaldi, Mason, and multi-instrumentalist Chris Wood, with whom he had previously jammed. “It was obvious that the band we were putting together was going to be a hit, thanks to Steve Winwood,” Mason said. “And so the question arose: 'What on earth are we going to sound like?'”
To find it, they abandoned the hustle and bustle of the city and rented a rundown cottage in the countryside. Unknowingly, their move helped start a trend of bands returning to the “country” to record, foreshadowing Bob Dylan and the Band's similar explorations in the English countryside at Woodstock and Fairport Convention. The songs Mason wrote at the time were more dreamy and more pop-oriented than what the other members were writing. Traffic's debut album, Mr. Fantasy, was released eight months after the band's formation, and Mason wrote and sang its biggest hit in the UK, the cheesy pop-psychedelic “Hole in My Shoe.” The song reached number two, beating Winwood-Capaldi's Paper Sun at number five. Despite their success, Mason made the shock decision to leave the band shortly after their debut album came out. “I realized I needed more life experience to write songs that would stand the test of time,” he said.
The fact that the other band members reacted to his decision with a shrug should have shown him that they were not very favorably disposed towards his work. However, a few months later, while the rest of Traffic were working on their second album, they realized that they did not have enough new songs to complete the album. At the time, Mason was furiously writing songs. Perhaps out of convenience, Traffic invited him back to help complete their self-titled second album. On the album, Mason sang and wrote half the songs, including the classic Feelin' Alright?. Given Mason's improved songwriting and the band's growing confidence, Mason felt nothing but excited about his future with them. But after just two months, he was fired. Now he believes the move stemmed from jealousy over him having composed some of their most famous songs. “I didn't steal money from them or elope with their girlfriends. I don't know what else could have caused it,” he said.
Mason believes the reasons he later gave to the press (that Mason was writing more pop-oriented songs than they wanted, that they were writing songs together while Mason was writing alone) were merely excuses. Mason was particularly hurt by Capaldi's cold shoulder towards him, with whom he had previously been close friends. Interestingly, Chris Wood is barely mentioned in Mason's book. “I was never really close with him,” he said.
But it's clear from the interview that he didn't think much of Wood's work. “Chris was an art student,” Mason says. “As a musician? Maybe a little.”
Wood, who died of liver disease at age 39, also had a well-known drug problem. “He collapsed face down at the keyboards at the Fillmore East,” Mason says. “Of course, we were all experimenting, but unfortunately Chris took it too far.”
Mason may have been hurt by his dismissal, but he had no trouble catching the attention of other top rockers. Ginger Baker had contacted him to form a new power trio after Cream broke up, but their jam sessions didn't go well. He then asked him to work with Hendrix, whom he'd met while working for Traffic. In fact, he once invited Hendrix to jam with the band at his cottage, but the others turned down the offer. “They didn't welcome a disturbance,” he said.
For a while, there was talk of Mason replacing Noel Redding on bass in Hendrix's band. He ended up playing acoustic guitar on the Hendrix classic “Crosstown Traffic” and providing backing vocals and sitar on “Electric Ladyland.” On another occasion, Joe Cocker covered Mason's song “Feelin' Alright” (without the question mark) on his hit debut album, providing the definitive piano and percussion arrangement. After hearing Cocker's arrangement, Mason recalls thinking, “Damn, I wish I'd just kept doing that!”
Mason then participated in Delaney & Bonny's historic UK tour, which also featured Clapton and Harrison. In his book, Mason credits Harrison with teaching him slide guitar techniques while on the road, which greatly influenced his signature smooth style on All Things Must Pass. The Delaney & Bonny tour and subsequent live album also introduced a new song written by Mason, “Only You Know and I Know,” which became the lead track on his 1970 solo debut, released two months later. Mason's debut also stood out for its design: the first 250,000 copies were decorated with random swirls of color on the vinyl, making each one a unique work of art.
His next album was similarly unexpected, a collaboration with Cass Elliot, a friend of his from the Laurel Canyon scene. Mason said that while the album had its strengths, it was ultimately “just a patchwork piece put together,” which was one of the reasons for its lukewarm public response. Another factor was the friction he was experiencing at the time between him and his record company, the boutique label Blue Thumb. As their top-selling artist, Mason wanted to renegotiate his contract, which he considered unfair, but they were unwilling to do so. As tensions rose, Mason stole the tapes he was working on, and they retaliated by releasing an album of outtakes and demos titled Head Keeper. This resulted in Mason being so angry that he told his fans at a press conference not to buy the album.
During the same difficult time, Mason began jamming with Clapton and the rhythm section of the band Delaney & Bonnie, which later became Derek and the Dominos. Unfortunately, Clapton was heavily addicted to heroin at the time, and Mason says, “I just sat around doing nothing for a long time. After a while, I was like, 'I can't do this anymore. I've got to go.'”
Soon after, Mason had another awkward encounter with Traffic. Incredibly, they invited him back, if only for a six-date tour of the UK that resulted in the exciting live album, Welcome to the Canteen. Asked why he thought they'd called him back, given their contentious history, Mason speculated, “Probably to fulfill recording obligations.”
Fortunately, his solo career was reinvigorated by a new deal with Columbia Records, which resulted in a huge hit with the single “We Just Disagree” in 1977. But he also eventually ran into contractual issues with his new label, which led to a nearly disastrous lawsuit, in which the company's lawyers told him, “We're going to bury you.”
“Just do your best,” Mason recalled replying.
As a result of these combined encounters, the guitarist gained a reputation for being difficult to work with. They “That's hard,” he shot back. “My artistic integrity is all I have. It's my work. Don't mess with it!”
Like many classic rockers, Mason's chart career ended in the '80s, but he has remained a steady favorite in concert for the decades since. Along the way, he received some more harsh criticism from Traffic. In the '90s, he and Capaldi reunited for a tour that included a show at New York's Bottom Line. That night, Winwood appeared in the audience, and despite Capaldi's specific warning to Mason not to draw attention to himself, towards the end of the concert the guitarist asked Winwood to come onstage and play with him. Winwood complied, but was clearly not pleased. When asked if he was being deliberately provocative in inviting Winwood onstage, Mason replied: “Of course! I didn't mind. It's my show, my stage. You're not allowed to move!”
Things got worse when Traffic was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003. During the performance segment, Mason proposed a guitar duel between him and Winwood on Dear Mister Fantasy to highlight their role as music's first jam band. But Winwood insisted on playing guitar alone, demoting Mason to bass, which he flatly refused. “It was like a Steve Winwood show,” Mason said.
The animosity between the two continued posthumously. In 2017, long after Capaldi's death, Mason felt he had made amends enough and proposed touring with Winwood under the name Traffic. Winwood rejected the proposal, saying that on his deathbed Capaldi had made him promise never to tour under the name Traffic again. “It's really bizarre that someone would extract a promise like that on their deathbed,” Mason said of Capaldi's request. “It's Machiavellian.”
Either way, the guitarist found his own way back to his old band earlier this year. He's currently on the road with the Traffic Jam tour, which sees him perform arranged versions of the band's older material. He hasn't heard anything about Winwood being on the road.
Mason wrote in his book that airing these grievances made him vulnerable, but it also gave him peace of mind. “In a way I could have hated them all,” he said of the other members of Traffic, “but without that opportunity I would never have had the platform to do what I did later on.”
“I'm not one to hold a grudge,” he said, “but I'm also not one to forget.”
