We Just Disagree – Challenge #181

Dave Mason has had a long career producing, performing, and writing songs. He was a professional musician in his teens, being a member of the instrumental group the Jaguars, and he made his recording debut on a locally released single, ‘Opus to Spring’, in 1963. While in this group he met drummer Jim Capaldi, and the two became members of the Hellions, playing together in 1964 and 1965. Mason quit the Hellions in the spring of 1965 to study music formally, but he sat in occasionally with another band Deep Feeling that featured Capaldi. In early 1966, he took a job as road manager for the Spencer Davis Group, where he encountered Steve Winwood; various reports suggest he also played with the band on-stage and he may have sung backup vocals on the hit ‘Somebody Help Me’. In March 1967, Winwood left the Spencer Davis Group and formed Traffic with Mason, Capaldi, and flautist Chris Wood.

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Dave Mason recorded ‘We Just Disagree’ on his 1977 Let It Flow album and the single went to #12 in the US becoming Mason’s biggest hit as a solo artist.  This song was written by Jim Krueger, a guitarist from Manitowoc, Wisconsin who joined Dave Mason’s band in 1974.  Krueger became Mason’s trusted musical partner at a time when he sorely needed the help and this ballad featured Krueger’s 12-string guitar prominently along with him also singing the harmony above Mason’s lead vocal.  Mason was a former member of the band Traffic one of the greatly respected bands in the late sixties, signed a deal with Columbia Records in 1973 that demanded two albums a year from him.  It was Clive Davis who signed Mason, but Davis departed the label soon after, leaving Mason in the lurch.

Mason wrote ‘Feelin’ Alright’ for Traffic and it became a big hit for…

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