Dave Mason

@ Wiki
Dave Mason (born David Thomas Mason, May 10, 1944) is a musician, singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Worcester, England, who first found fame with the rock band Traffic. In his long career, Mason has played and recorded with many of the era's most notable musicians, including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Mama Cass Elliot. Mason's best known song is "Feelin' Alright", recorded by Traffic in 1968 and covered by dozens of artists, including Joe Cocker, who had a major hit with the song in 1969. For Traffic, he also wrote "Hole in my Shoe", a kind of psychedelic satire that became a classic in its own right. "We Just Disagree", Mason's own 1977 solo hit, has become a staple of Oldies and Adult Contemporary radio playlists.

Musical career
Mason's tenure with Traffic was disjointed. He co-founded the group, but left following the recording of their debut album, Mr. Fantasy (1967), only to rejoin halfway through the sessions for their next album, Traffic (1968), after which the band broke up. Last Exit (1969), a compilation of odds and ends, features little material by Mason apart from his song "Just For You." Traffic would later reform without Mason, although he briefly toured with the band in 1971 as captured on Welcome to the Canteen.

Mason was a good friend of legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix, whose career was launched in England in 1967. Hendrix first heard the song "All Along the Watchtower", by Bob Dylan, at a party he was invited to by Mason, and promptly decided to record his own version. That night he recorded the song at Olympic Studios, South West London, with Mason playing acoustic guitar. It was released on the Electric Ladyland album in September 1968. When the song came out as a single in October, it hit #5 on the UK Singles Chart and was a Top 40 in the U.S.

After Traffic, Mason pursued a moderately successful solo career. In the mid-late 1970s, he toured and recorded with guitarist Jim Kreuger, keyboardist Mike Finnigan, bassist Gerald Johnson and drummer Rick Jaeger. He also recorded a well-played version "All Along the Watchtower" on his self-titled album, Dave Mason, in 1974. The 1976 album, Certified Live is a display of Mason's songwriting, arranging, vocal and guitar talents. In 1977, Mason had his biggest hit with "We Just Disagree", written by Jim Krueger. Reaching #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, it was later successfully covered by country singer Billy Dean.

For a brief period in the 1990s, Mason joined Fleetwood Mac and released the album Time with them in 1995.

In 2002, he released the DVD, Live At Sunrise (Dave Mason). It featured a live performance at the Sunrise Theater in southeast Florida, backed by Bobby Scumaci on keyboards; Johnne Sambataro on rhythm guitar (who rejoined Mason for the DVD, after previously touring with him in 1978); Richard Campbell on bass and Greg Babcock on drums.

At one time, Mason lived in the Ojai Valley in California. As of 2005, he is currently performing about 100 shows a year with the Dave Mason Band across the U.S. and Canada.

Philanthropy
Mason is a proponent of music education for children. In 2005, he signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock, a non-profit organization that provides free musical instruments and lessons to children in public schools throughout the U.S. He sits on the organization's board of directors as an honorary member.

Discography
Albums
* 1970 Alone Together
* 1971 Dave Mason & Cass Elliot
* 1972 Headkeeper
* 1973 It's Like You Never Left
* 1974 Dave Mason
* 1975 Split Coconut
* 1976 Certified Live
* 1977 Let It Flow
* 1978 Mariposa De Oro
* 1980 Old Crest On A New Wave
* 1987 Two Hearts
* 1987 Some Assembly Required

Singles
* 1968 "Little Woman"
* 1970 "Only You Know and I Know" US #42
* 1970 "Satin Red and Black Velvet Woman" US #97
* 1977 "So High (Rock Me Baby and Roll Me Away)" US #89
* 1977 "We Just Disagree" US #12
* 1978 "Let It Go, Let It Flow" US #45
* 1978 "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" US #39
* 1980 "Save Me" US #71
* 1988 "Dreams I Dream" (duet with Phoebe Snow) US Adult Contemporary #11 =>>>>>>>>>>>

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@ Fleetwood Mac
Dave Mason is primarily known for his work in the band Traffic. His relation to Fleetwood Mac can be traced back to the early mid-1960s, when he was a roadie for the Spencer Davis Group, which featured Stevie Winwood. (Christine (Perfect) McVie was at one time Spencer Davis's girlfriend, and a Spencer Davis groupie.) While still in Art College, Christine was in a band called Shades of Blue, which also featured Stan Webb, Andy Sylvester, and a sax player named Chris Wood. Mason was also in a band that opened for the Spencer Davis group. The drummer of the group was Jim Capaldi. After an American tour, Capaldi and Mason joined forces with Winwood and Wood to form Traffic.

Upon leaving Traffic several years later, Mason joined Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. After opening for Blind Faith (which featured Winwood and Eric Clapton), Clapton joined Delaney and Bonnie. After a few months and Clapton's solo album, Eric and Dave stole the Delaney and Bonnie rhythm section and piano player to form Derek and the Dominoes. Dave left shortly thereafter, and signed to Blue Thumb. His first solo album was entitled Alone Together. He followed up with a duet album with (Mama) Cass Elliot. Dave then did a short stint with Traffic, and started working on another album.

Dave's career at Columbia was rather stormy. He enjoyed only one major hit, and after seven years and seven albums, he called it quits with the Columbia record label. Oddly enough, while his record sales were extremely low, he was still selling out Madison Square Garden and other huge venues. In the eighties, Dave did beer ads for Miller as well as acoustic tours with Jim Krueger (the writer of his hit single "We Just Disagree.") Dave later stopped touring altogether and went into seclusion at his friend's guesthouse-- that friend was Mick Fleetwood.

In 1987, Dave went back into the studio and recorded Some Assembly Required and Two Hearts. The latter featured Steve Winwood and Phoebe Snow. Although not a classic, this album put Dave back in business. He continued to tour through 1993, before he joined Fleetwood Mac. Dave did a brief solo tour to bid farewell to his solo career; since then he has toured with Fleetwood Mac for the summers of 1994 and 1995, and contributed to their release, Time. He has since left the band and does occasional shows on his own. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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@ Fleetwood Mac Legacy
Dave was born David Thomas Mason in May 10, 1946 in Worcester, England. He started his career at the age of 15 when he joined an instrumental Shadows/Ventures-like band called The Jaguars. They released two singles,.one in 1963 of which only 500-1000 copies were pressed and one in 1965 (one year after the band had broken up). Both of these singles are considered extremely rare.

Dave joined a band called The Hellions in 1964. The band included a childhood friend of his -- drummer/vocalist Jim Capaldi. They released three singles on Pye Records. Then he was in a short-lived band called Deep Feeling that recorded some great music -- although unfortunately none of it ever got released. There had been a misprint on a Various Artists album called “Rock Generations Vol. 8” which claimed to contain some Deep Feeling tracks. Unfortunately it wasn't them. It was really a band named The Mark Leeman Five.

After he left Deep Feeling, he became a roadie for the Spencer Davis Group. That's where he met Steve Winwood. Soon after he and Winwood got together with Dave's childhood friend Capaldi and multi-instrumentalist Chris Wood (who was previously in Sounds of Blue, the band Christine Perfect played bass in). They soon formed the legendary band called Traffic. Although the band was highly successful, there were intense clashes between Mason and Winwood. Winwood wanted the band to write songs together whereas Mason preferred to write on his own and submit songs when he was ready. As a result of the conflict, Mason left Traffic in December 1967 and didn't rejoin the band again until May 1968. Dave wrote some of his best known songs during these times -- classics such as “Hole in My Shoe” and “Feelin’ Alright”.

Traffic finally did end up breaking up for good in 1969 due to Winwood's desire to join what was to be a short-lived supergroup called Blind Faith. Mason decided to join forces with the other Traffic members to form a band of their own. They called themselves Mason, Wood, Capaldi, & Frog. Frog, by the way, was keyboardist Mick Weaver, who went by the name Wynder K. Frog in the newly formed band. A BBC Transcription disc did surface of the band opening up a Jimi Hendrix Experience show at the Royal Albert Hall where Mason actually joined Hendrix on stage. This was documented in a film called “Experience” and its audio portions have shown up on assorted Hendrix albums of those Albert Hall recordings. But other than the aforementioned boots, there has never been any legally released material from that band.

In between Traffic stints, Mason did some very impressive session work appearing on Hendrix’s “All Along The Watchtower” & “Crosstown Traffic” from Jimi’s classic “Electric Ladyland” album. Dave was actually interviewed on the "Classic Albums: Electric Ladyland” DVD for his appearance on that album. He also played on The Stones “Street Fighting Man” from their “Beggars Banquet” album and produced and played on Family’s debut album “Music in a Dolls’s House”.

Even after the separation and discord, it ended up that Mason did tour with Blind Faith -- just not in their band. Ironically he was on their tour but as a guitarist in Delaney & Bonnie’s band (Blind Faith's opening act) And Blind Faith's guitarist Eric Clapton was so inspired by what Delaney & Bonnie were doing that he ended up joined their band after Blind Faith broke up. This line up recorded the landmark album “Delaney & Bonnie and Friends: On tour with Eric Clapton”.

Soon after, Dave settled in the US permanently and recorded what many still believe to be his best solo album to date, “Alone Together”. One of the first friends he made when he came to the US was Cass Elliot (known as Mama Cass from the Mamas and the Papas). They joined forces on the “Dave Mason and Cass Elliot” album the following year. Cass was excited about the new duo’s future but Dave apparently only saw their collaboration as a one off project. Their whole partnership was plagued by record label red tape anyway so Dave surprised everyone at this point by rejoining his old band Traffic (which Winwood had reformed minus Mason after Blind Faith’s demise) in the summer of 1971.

This new Traffic lineup lasted just 6 gigs but that was enough to produce the impressive live album “Welcome to the Canteen”. Dave returned to the US and planned on continuing his solo career with a double album, one including live material of old favorites and a studio album of new material. Legend has it that Dave attempted to renegotiate his contract at this point with his label, Blue Thumb, and that after they refused to give him more money, he then took the master tapes he was working on with him and tried to sue the label. While the legal wrangles dragged on, Blue Thumb used their two track tapes of what Mason had recorded as their masters and released an album called “Headkeeper” (consisting of one side studio material -- one side of concert recordings). Blue Thumb then released the rest of the live material (with some overlaps) on the 1973 “Dave Mason Is Alive” album. Mason referred to these albums as “bootlegs” in the press during his battle with Blue Thumb.

The fighting continued through 1973. Due to his not being able to work during the legal battles, he then filed for bankruptcy which ironically through a loophole, got him out of his Blue Thumb contract. So, through an odd series of events he was now free to sign with major label Columbia Records who had been wanting to sign Dave for a long time. The downside in all of this was that now he felt rushed by Columbia to get records out fast. As a result he says of feeling pressured, he had to hastily record many covers and sub par songs -- the result being less than stellar releases during those years. Although he still was able to sell out large venues as Madison Square Garden in 1980, Columbia Records dropped him after the “Old Crest On A New Wave” album ran its course.

Dave spent the early to mid 80’s battling drug addiction. He found refuge hibernating in the guest house of his neighbor and friend, Mick Fleetwood. Save for an unplugged style video concert release in 1981 and the odd TV appearance, Dave didn’t return to recording until 1987 when the Canadian label Maze had Dave record an album called “Some Assembly Required”. Though the record didn't sell well, it did seem to get him a deal later that year with Voyager Records, an MCA affiliate. As a result came the more high profile “Two Hearts” album which included guest appearances from prominent artists like Phoebe Snow (whom Dave had worked with before on her standout 1974 self titled album). The album also featured a collaboration with Dave's ex-bandmate Steve Winwood, who by then had become a well known solo artist in his own right. Unfortunately, their musical reunion was short-lived.

Dave continued his hard touring schedule. His tireless efforts paid off with some exposure in Japan with a few TV specials. But then he was deflated to hear the news of the passing of his long time friend and musical collaborator Jim Krueger. Dave had worked with Jim quite often since they first met in 1974. Jim also wrote Dave’s biggest solo hit to date, “We Just Disagree” (from his smash 1977 album “Let It Flow”).

At this point Dave felt he needed a change to escape the lifestyle that reminded him of his lost friend. And it was also at this time that Dave’s pal Mick Fleetwood was having trouble finding a replacement for Rick Vito who had just left Fleetwood Mac. After talking with Dave one day, Mick joked about how poorly the auditions were going to find Vito's replacement..."If things get any worse, I might have to ask you to join!”-- to which Dave shocked Mick by responding...“Oh I’d love to be in your band Mick!” Mick was thrilled to learn that he was actually serious. In 1993 Dave Mason became a member of Fleetwood Mac.

This new Fleetwood Mac lineup started touring Europe and the States -- but all before they had a new album in stores to promote. The release of "Time" was delayed for so long that by the time the album finally got released 1995 the tour was over. Dave contributed two songs to "Time", "Blow By Blow" and "I Wonder Why".An entirely different version of "Blow by Blow" had appeared on the album “Soccer Rocks the Globe” one year before. Unfortunately for this hard-working hard-touring lineup of Fleetwood Mac, the new album didn't sell well. The hardcore Rumours-era fans didn't take to their new interpretations of the old Mac classics like "Gold Dust Woman", "Don't Stop", "Say You Love Me" and some others.

In 1997, it had been reported that Dave was going to join Ringo Starr’s All Star Band but by all accounts, he pulled out of the project at the last minute.

It’s hard to know how Dave would’ve been able to manage it anyway due to his commitments to Fleetwood Mac in 1994, but he was very hurt about not being asked to rejoin Traffic for their 1994 “Far From Home” album. But nonetheless, he did get together again with Jim Capaldi and went out on tour in 1998. In 1999, a live album chronicling that tour was released called “Live - The 40,000 Headmen Tour”. In 2000 a CD was sold on-line and at shows which included further Mason solo concert recordings and a new studio version of the old Traffic song “(Roamin’ thro’ the gloamin with) 40,000 Headmen” featuring Capaldi.

Dave’s non-stop solo touring continues to this day. He has released most of his 1981 unplugged concert (previously titled “Dave Mason in Concert” -- this time called “Live at Perkins Palace”) on DVD and CD as well as a powerful 2002 Florida show on CD and DVD called “Live at Sunrise”. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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DAVE MASON: "Rock And Roll is an Attitude... Not an Age"

By Bob Ruggiero @ The Dave Mason [March 2006]
Dave Mason is one of classic rock’s most underrated artists. The versatile singer, composer, and guitarist has never really gotten his due, and he’s often overshadowed by more famous contemporaries.

Born on May 10, 1946 in Worchester, England, the teenaged Mason gigged in bands like The Jaguars, The Hellions, and Deep Feeling. Caught up in the creative music and social vortex that was the English rock scene of the day, he co-founded the seminal jazz/jam rock group Traffic in 1967. Later, there was a successful solo career through the ’70s and early ’80s that also saw him playing with other artists both in the studio and on stage.

In 2004, Dave Mason was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Traffic with bandmates Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, and (posthumously) Chris Wood. Although the ceremony wasn’t free of controversy, it was an overdue honor.

As he turns 60 this year, Mason continues to perform regularly around the country and recently co-founded RKS Guitars. The company aims to produce affordable axes for the masses. Then there’s the new studio record - nearly 20 years after the last one - that he hopes to put out which he promises will be worth the wait.

Classic Rock Revisited recently spoke with the affable Dave Mason at his home in California, in between a string of live dates.

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Ruggiero: There’s a saying at the top of your web site: “Rock and Roll is an attitude…not an age!” With the exception of mega-stars like the Stones, Clapton, and McCartney, some people seem to think that rock artists of a certain age should be retired or banished to the oldies circuit.

Dave Mason: I don’t know about that. When I was younger, I liked a lot of artists who were older. The issue isn’t age, it’s authenticity.

Ruggiero: Rolling Stone just ran a story about a trend that is seeing a lot of teenagers today turn on to classic rock because they’re looking for something more substantive than the fluffy pop, sampled rap, and whiny “punk” bands. Do you see this at your live shows?

Mason: Yeah! I have a lot of kids whose parents bring them. And a lot of 14-17 year old kids are just looking for something different. It’s like if you leave a suit in the closet long enough, pretty soon it will become fashionable again.

Ruggiero: Another way the music of classic rock artists is out there today is on satellite radio. I have a Sirius, and there are literally six different channels that play your songs. I heard one of yours today that you would never hear on a terrestrial classic rock station.

Mason: That’s how it was in the beginning of FM radio, you’d hear all kinds of stuff, and there was a personality behind the microphone. Satellite radio is great, because there’s a big disconnect with [terrestrial] radio today. The music has become a backdrop to sell things by. And why don’t they play any new music by classic rock artists? I don’t understand that.

Ruggiero: I’ve got to ask up front about the Hall of Fame ceremony. After Traffic’s induction, Steve, Jim, and a Paul Schaffer’s house band started playing “Dear Mr. Fantasy” - but you weren’t onstage with them. What happened?

Mason: Well, Winwood said “We’re going to play this song and we’re going to play it exactly like the record,” which I played bass on. And I said “Wait a second…I’m 58 years old and I haven’t played bass since I was 19!” It wouldn’t be the same song, it wouldn’t have to be the same song. I mean, [Traffic] was a band that improvised and jammed!

Ruggiero: But who is “they?” You’re the inductee.

Mason: That would be Mr. Winwood. Mr. Winwood through his manager. I never spoke to him once about the whole thing. And it’s unfortunate, because the three of us should have gone on tour right after that for the last time. And now it’s too late. [Jim Capaldi was diagnosed with cancer a few months after the ceremony and died in January 2005].

Ruggiero: So Jim came down on Steve’s side when it came to the induction performance?

Mason: Evidently!…And it wasn‘t a question that there was no input from anybody else, but that‘s the way it was going to be. It was, OK, in my mind if [Winwood] wants to turn it into the Steve Winwood show, that’s fine, whatever…Frankly, I thought if we were going to do it, what would have been great is if Steve and I played lead guitar and got up there and just blazed away and had a little guitar battle. Made it fun! Then I said I’d play rhythm guitar, and they said that wasn’t gonna happen.

[Note: In a letter on his web site after the ceremony, Mason wrote “It seems that we’ve all become sidemen for Steve Winwood, which he seems to reinforce in all his interviews.“ Mason did get to lead the massive show-closing all-star jam on his most recognizable tune “Feelin’ Alright.”]

Ruggiero: Going back to the beginning, at what point in your life did you realize that music was going to be your career and not just a hobby or a weekend thing?

Mason: I kind of made up my mind about that very early on. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I knew that I would. I wasn’t going to go work 9 to 5 in an office somewhere. Actually, the thing I really wanted to do was join the Royal Air Force! But I just have no head for math - I couldn’t wrap my head around that. So my guitar became my plane. Actually, it was kind of like my magic carpet! I just had to put my mind to it. And then there was all these other bands at the time: The Shadows, The Ventures. Bands were coming out of everywhere.

Ruggiero: I know in England, musicians Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies are often credited with really starting that British jazz and blues boom that morphed into a more rock sound. And they mentored a lot of players.

Mason: Yes, them and Georgie Fame, Chris Farlowe, John Mayall. Jazz in particular for the most part was still very popular in Europe, much more so than in America. It’s America’s own music, and it’s a shame that it’s not more popular and there aren’t more jazz clubs around.

Ruggiero: You started off, I believe, as the road manager for the Spencer Davis Group…

Mason: Not really started off. That was after I had been playing with Deep Feeling. We had done a record for Pye that didn’t go anywhere. Then I worked with Jackie DeShannon and Don Covay. [The members of Traffic] had all been hanging out together for a few years anyway and Steve said “I’m going to leave Spencer Davis.” I even had to step in for him at one show.

Ruggiero: You had an on-again, off-again participation Traffic, though, quitting and then rejoining a few times over a number of years. [Mason appeared on the debut Mr. Fantasy, follow-up Traffic, loose-ends compilation Last Exit, and later, the live Welcome to the Canteen]. What predicated this?

Mason: The stuff I was writing was more accessible and pop (i.e. “Hole in My Shoe,” “Feelin’ Alright,” “You Can All Join In.”), and most of my stuff was getting [rejected]. And of course, that was a problem. And there was a parting. They said “We don’t really want to go in that direction.” But those [varying musical differences] was what made that band great. I thought to have a song that was popular would draw people to the whole record to see what else was going on. So it wasn’t a question of whether I wanted to leave, but I was asked to leave.

Then Winwood left and me, Jim, and Chris Wood tried to put something together and even did a few shows. There some footage of us playing at the Royal Albert Hall with Hendrix. I did some recording with him, picked up some work on [The Rolling Stones’] Beggar’s Banquet, sang on the Beatles’ “Across the Universe. I also produced a band called Family. But then I’d decided “to heck with this,” and in 1969 [at age 23] I put my guitar in a bag and got on a plane and came to America.

Ruggiero: Your first solo record, Alone Together, is one of your strongest releases and a lot of people’s favorite. Had all those songs been pent-up for awhile?

Mason: No. They were songs written about over a two-year period. I didn’t fall off the plane with them!

Ruggiero: The next record was an unlikely collaboration that had you co-billed with Cass Elliot of the Mama and Papas. How did that come about?

Mason: When I got to America, one of the only people I knew was Gram Parsons of the Flying Burrito Brothers. So I slept on his couch for awhile and we went up to Cass’ house one day and there was another couple living there that I knew from England. So I was there a lot and Cass and I ended up hanging out together, and we said “Let’s do a record together. Why not?”

Ruggiero: You had some legal problems with your first label [Blue Thumb] after awhile and ended up signing with Columbia for It’s Like You Never Left. It ended up being another really strong record. Did you feel like you had to start all over yet again?

Mason: Well I know a lot about starting over again.

Ruggiero: When the single “We Just Disagree” [written by late longtime backup guitarist Jim Krueger] off Let It Flow became a big hit in 1977, it seemed to peg you to the first-time listener as a soft rocker, a sound you continued with Mariposa de Oro. Do you have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with that song?

Mason: Not at all. It’s a great song. But if people just want to pay attention to one thing, that’s up to them. It’s more a question about what a song says to them, and that song [must have] said a lot to people…or they used in their divorces!

Ruggiero: When my wife and I were dating as teenagers, she once broke up with me in my car…and that goddamn song was playing on the radio!

Mason: (Laughs) Oh no! Well, what can I say?

Ruggiero: You’ve put out several live releases in the past few years, but the last actual studio record was 1987’s Two Hearts. For me, as a diehard fan, it’s the one big black mark on your discography because the heavy, heavy synthesizers make it sound cheesy, and the kind of weak songs don’t sound at all like you.

Mason: Yeah.

Ruggiero: Once you put out a record, do you every go over in your head what you’d do differently?

Mason: Sure, but it’s out. There’s a bunch of things I’d do differently on my records. Everything but the new album I’ve got.

Ruggiero: What are your plans to release it?

Mason: I’ve got to try and put it out the right way so it’s just not another record coming out. I’ve got to get my head above the crowd and find a way to market it. I don’t want to just sell it on the web site…and I really thinks it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.

Ruggiero: You’ve played on a lot of other artist’s records. What was it like doing George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass?

Mason: Well, I’d known George for awhile and we hung out. He gave me my first sitar and played Sgt. Pepper for me before it came out. So it was just an [extension] of our friendship.

Ruggiero: The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Electric Ladyland?

Mason: I had met him at a club. And when Traffic was done, there was talk of me joining the Experience on bass because he was having problems with Noel Redding at the time. So I played on “All Along the Watchtower” and sang on “Crosstown Traffic.” And there’s some other tracks that I played bass on. Someone’s got them somewhere!

Ruggiero: You’ve also had a lot of guests on your records. Stevie Wonder played a memorable harmonica break on “The Lonely One” from It’s Like You Never Left.

Mason: I’d met him before, and he even played drums on an unreleased version of “Headkeeper.” He was doing Songs in the Key of Life at the time and I went down to where he was recording and asked him. I only played it a couple of times for him, and then he [nailed] it!

Ruggiero: And last but not least…how did Michael Jackson end up singing the chorus on “Save Me” [from 1980’s Old Crest on a New Wave]???

Mason: (Laughs) Well, I was in one studio and he was across the hall recording Thriller! I had that song and thought it would be cool of someone could sing that really high part, so I thought I’d just go over there and ask him. I thought he’d just do this harmony part and he ended up doing this whole great thing and putting his own [spin] on it. He also told me that when he was 12, he did “Feelin’ Alright” on a Diana Ross special!

Ruggiero: And of course, that is your most famous and best known song, written when you were just a lad of 19! It’s been covered so many times over the years. Do you have a favorite version?

Mason: Well, it would have to be Joe Cocker’s. The only other person I would have loved to hear do it was Ray Charles.

Ruggiero: In concert, you often call it your “Energizer Bunny” of songs, and it’s been in a lot of movie trailers and soundtracks. Now, it’s even on a TV cat food commercial!

Mason: That’s right. It just keeps going!

Ruggiero: Has their ever been a request to use it that you’ve turned down?

Mason: More by acquiescence. I actually don’t own the publishing on that song.

Ruggiero: One last question. Before Jim Capaldi passed away, the two of you co-wrote an as-yet unreleased song called “How Do I Get to Heaven?” It was featured late last year during the end credits of a Barbara Walters ABC special about heaven. How did that happen?

Mason: I was at home in California and one of my sisters came in and told me about the special, which was airing the next week. We tried to call the production people in New York, but couldn’t get through. So I called another woman I knew who worked at NBC for a long time, and she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Next thing I know, my assistant is on the phone with the woman and she’s got Barbara Walters’ producer on the line!

He told me to call him back in five minutes. So I did and played the song over the phone for him, and he liked it a lot. Then he said “Guess what music I happen to be playing in my office right now?” And I said “What?” And he turned it up…it was “We Just Disagree!” =>>>>>>>>>>>

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Dave Mason

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