Dave Mason, the British guitarist who cofounded the psychedelic band Traffic before embarking on a solo career, died Sunday at 79.
Mason wrote some classic rock staples that were bigger hits for other singers. “Feelin’ Alright?” didn’t chart for Traffic, but it was a hit for Joe Cocker. “Only You Know and I Know” missed the U.S. Top 40 when Mason released it, but reached No. 20 for Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett.
Mason was never included in the top rank of British guitarists, yet played sideman to some of the biggest names in rock. That’s him playing acoustic 12-string beneath Jimi in Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower” and rhythm guitar on George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass” album. He played alongside Harrison and Eric Clapton in Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett and Friends and joined Clapton in an early version of what became Derek and the Dominoes. But he seldom joined a band for long.
It started with Mason’s on-again, off-again role in Traffic with Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood. He wrote their highest-charting British single, “Hole in My Shoe,” but quit after their first LP was released. The rest of the group carried on without him but found they didn’t have enough material for another album, so they asked him back. Half the songs on the eponymous “Traffic” were his, including “Feelin’ Alright?”
At that point the rest of the band asked him to leave. Mason said he was shocked when Winwood told him, “I don’t like the way you write. I don’t like the way you sing. I don’t like the way you play. And we don’t want you in the band any more.” Yet they still asked him back for a short tour in 1971 that resulted in the live LP “Welcome to the Canteen.”
Mason’s highest-charting solo hit was “We Just Disagree,” written by Jim Krueger, the guitarist in his band. It made No. 12 in 1977. The next year his self-penned “Let It Go, Let It Flow” just missed the Top 40.
Despite frequent battles with his record companies, Mason scored three gold solo LPs, and continued touring until his last album was released in 2023, when he had to cut short a tour due to ill health.