Dave Mason (born 10 May 1946) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist from Worcester, who first found fame with the rock band Traffic. Over the course of his career, Mason has played and recorded with many notable pop and rock musicians, including Paul McCartney, George Harrison, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Steve Winwood, Fleetwood Mac, Delaney & Bonnie, and Cass Elliot. One of Mason’s best known songs is “Feelin’ Alright”, recorded by Traffic in 1968 and later by many other performers, including Joe Cocker, whose version of the song was a hit in 1969. For Traffic, he also wrote “Hole in My Shoe”, a psychedelic pop song that became a hit in its own right. “We Just Disagree”, Mason’s 1977 solo US hit, written by Jim Krueger, has become a staple of US Classic Hits and Adult Contemporary radio playlists. (More from Wikipedia)
Shortly after Blind Faith broke up, Eric Clapton began playing as a sideman with a completely different group, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, a rock/soul collaboration of Delaney Bramlett and his wife Bonnie Bramlett with a whole parade of musicians: Besides Clapton, Wikipedia lists Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, George Harrison, Leon Russell, Bobby Whitlock, Dave Mason, Rita Coolidge, and King Curtis.
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Eric Clapton continued to keep a relatively low profile in order to counter the star worship that he was attracting. In 1970, Eric Clapton assembled another band consisting of the rhythm section from Delaney & Bonnie and Friends – Bobby Whitlock (keyboardist and vocals), Carl Radle (bass) and Jim Gordon (drums) – plus Dave Mason on guitar. This quintet backed George Harrison on his monumental solo album, All Things Must Pass.
Eric Clapton was then interested in turning them into a proper band; he first suggested the name Eric Clapton and Friends, but that seemed too much like Delaney & Bonnie and Friends to suit others in the group. There are several stories as to how they took the name Derek and the Dominos, but “Derek” seems clearly derived from “Eric”, and Fats Domino might have inspired the band name. As it happened, Dave Mason was present only at their first concert in June 1970, before they even took that name.
(May 2014)
