Dave Mason: Only You Know And I Know

Only You Know And I Know
Dave Mason with Chris Epting
272 Pages
ISBN: #979-8218380175
DTM Entertainment
2024

To declare Dave Mason the Zelig of contemporary rock and roll might be accurate, but only to a certain degree. His many and varied associations with figures of note—Traffic, Eric Clapton's Derek and the Dominos, Jimi Hendrix and Fleetwood Mac, not to mention the woefully under-appreciated Delaney & Bonnie and Friends—understates the man's own considerable talents as a musician and a songwriter. Mason never innovated, but then he never overreached his grasp as a musician and songwriter.

Fortunately, he maintains a comparably modest approach to his memoir. Along with co-author Chris Epter, Mason adopts a suitably restrained and matter-of-fact tone in recounting his colorful life and times. As with the 16-page insert of photos (plus those that otherwise pepper the 240-some pages), he allows the people and places to virtually speak for themselves, without effusive verbiage that might otherwise obscure the meaning and relevance of what's going on.

Constituting a capsule resume of sorts, a page and two-thirds oddly placed at the end of the prose proper barely scratches the surface of Mason's impressive resume. But inclusion of such iconic names as the late George Harrison, as well as the The Rolling Stones, precludes any notion the guitarist/vocalist/songwriter was/is a mere hanger-on.

By the same token, however, Mason can't reasonably claim to be a catalyst. He clearly displayed a restless and self-sustaining creative impulse evident throughout his career, not just in his solo endeavors. And while that independence is testament to the Brit's seemingly healthy ego as much as the versatile talents he has brought to bear in collaborative settings, it also begs the question of why Mason maintained few long-standing artistic alliances over the course of his 50-plus year career.

When discussing his recordings and live performances, Mason exhibits a justifiable pride in his work. Still, the breezy and casual air of the writing in Only You Know And I Know has its drawbacks. The man's distance from the events he speaks of, whether business, artistic or personal, precludes much detail in how they happened. Some insight into the recording sessions, for instance, such as a later one involving Michael Jackson, would serve to deepen the weight of his words more than the testimonials from various friends and acquaintances sprinkled throughout the book. More often than not, such segments, like recording engineer/producer Ron Nevison's, merely interrupt the flow of the narrative.

As the tome winds down and Mason talks about the epiphany that led to reclaiming his good health after years of self-indulgence—the similar likes of which material extravagances no doubt led to his (recurring) dire financial straits—he returns to the subject of his son on the occasion of his passing. Here, as in the previous fleeting references to the boy (and some winning images), Mason rationalizes his prolonged absence from the role of fatherhood.

In those instances, the British native's devotion to the road sounds like an excuse rather than an explanation. As with the fractures in Traffic, little if any insight arises from the writing nor is there much reflective conjecture when it comes to being rebuffed in his final pleas to tour with former comrade in the band, keyboardist/guitarist/vocalist Steve Winwood. The purpose for writing this autobiography may have been cathartic or mercenary—it is after all, a self-published work of relatively plain graphic design—but regardless, questions do remain about the essential nature of Mason's personality when it comes to his musicianly and private affairs.

In the end, he comes across as something of a gadfly on both fronts. The ephemeral nature of such postures gives way to later photos of him where, with his bald pate and dark glasses above a healthy mustache, adorned with an overcoat reaching to his ankles, he is an intimidating figure indeed. He is the embodiment, in fact, of what is arguably his best-known single famous composition; initially recorded by Traffic in 1968 and subsequently made popular by the late Joe Cocker: "Feelin' Alright?" might well serve as an appropriate caption for the image on page 219.

Accordingly, contemplation of the contents within these hardcovers leads to the conclusion that, at long last, Dave Mason has become the man, artist and intimate partner he has always wanted to be. If that seems an unlikely interpretation, consider his history: his initial album under his own name, Alone Together (Blue Thumb, 1970) was comprised of all original material, while his sole mainstream hit of seven years later, "We Just Disagree," was written not by by Mason himself, but a long-time band mate, the late Jim Kreuger.

Contradictions abound, then, based on the timeline of his output, so maybe the account of a kerfuffle with Ringo Starr is more than just a mere hint of exactly who Dave Mason is. By the end of reading Only You Know And I Know, that is a notion only a little less mysterious than the shadowy figure the author sees in his youthful days and presumes to be a guardian angel of sorts.

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