Dave Mason - Dave Mason

All I really knew about Dave Mason was that he’d been a member of Traffic, rode that association into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Class of 2004), and had a hit in ’77 with “We Just Disagree” - a song I liked, and still like.

News about Dave's death showed up on various sites back in April, and honestly, I realized I’d had him confused for years. Never having been much of a Traffic fan - beyond the songs I’d heard on the radio - and only really knowing that one hit, Dave Mason was mostly just a name to me. Somewhere along the way I’d gotten my internal wires crossed and convinced myself he was Graham Parker ... and to make things worse, I’d somehow also thought Graham Parker was actually Gram Parsons. I'd like to say this is an example of The Mandela Effect, but honestly, it’s just kind of par for how my brain works.

Over the years, I've been able to craft and populate whole histories based on a simple misconception that, over time, becomes a foundational support to an opinion I am certain is immutable. A good example for me would be Led Zeppelin sucks. I think this started with my dislike of "D'yer Mak'er" and from there all things were tainted. Of course, I have mostly recanted and have been trying to make amends, but it's still a tall order not to taste bile when I hear, "Oh oh oh oh oh oooo-oooh."

Anyway, what any of this has to do with Mister Dave Mason is absolutely nothing, but considering I was only eleven when this came out, anything older than this was well outside my limited exposure. It’s my meanderambling way of trying to say that Dave Mason is new to me.

I found this in the dollar bin (along with several other records) at Redrum recently, and I correctly recalled that Dave Mason was the guy who did the disagree song. I scanned the back cover and didn’t see it, but I kept the record because I recognized "All Along The Watchtower," and to me it was worth the buck to hear.

There was no insert and no credits, which to me is always a little sad. However, the jacket, aside from a bit of ring wear, was decent, and the record itself, after a bath, was practically pristine. The music, though - the music is really good. This is a good sounding record, and given that it was released in 1974, it sounds remarkably current at times. It’s not a stretch to attribute the sonic clarity to engineer Al Schmitt.

Dave Mason had been on a treadmill, cranking out an album a year since 1970 (I'm counting the Cass Elliot collaboration), and when he dropped his self-titled album, it was his fifth album and first solo gold record in the States.

Keeping with the theme of odd associations, listening to this Dave reminded me of another Dave: Dave Loggins and his 1974 album Apprentice (In a Musical Workshop) and "Please Come to Boston." Not that they really sound alike - it was just a passing thought.

Hearing Dave Mason with today's ears, I'm amazed at how some of the songs resonate. While there are no duds on the album, there are some standout tracks. "Get Ahold On Love" is a song that just put a grin on my face. The biggest giveaway to the era is the fade-out; otherwise, this, at least to me, is simply a good song.

I'd called out "All Along The Watchtower" as the song I recognized when I first saw the record - it’s an interesting cover. It’s more of a laid-back groove than what Jimi Hendrix laid down back in '68, and I like it for what it is. The other cover, Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home To Me," feels like a mini gospel church service.

"Relation Ships" is anchored by an acoustic arrangement accompanied by the band and features some great organ work. It gets a little trippy and ends with a slow fade as the band eases into an impromptu feeling jam-band coda, which I suppose is forgivable considering it was released in '74.

The album's closer is a slow burn that gets better with each play: "You Can't Take It When You Go."

This was a decent discovery. I've played it a few times and have enjoyed it. The standout for me is "Get Ahold On Love." It remains to be seen how long this will stay with me after I put it away. I do know, however, that my gut will remember I liked it, even if I have trouble naming any of the songs.

If there's a negative here, it's that the record is too short. Not that the songs are the issue. They are what they are ... I'm sure there was a 10th song somewhere to be had - apparently not. So we're left with a decent 9 song album that hardly crests a half hour.

Oh well, leave 'em wanting more.

Styx - Paradise Theater

Styx was hands down one of my favourite bands as a kid. They were a strange band, even back then. They were a hard rock band, almost progressive at times, who had a penchant for sucky ballads. I know there's a tendency for people to zero in on "Babe" as the song that killed the band's credibility. The roots go way back to almost the beginning when Styx released "Lady" on their second album. It showed a side to the band that needed to be kept in check, and for the most part the band kept things on a pretty tight leash. The band had been setting a gruelling pace, releasing an album a year (two in 1972) and by the time they released Paradise Theater (if I end up writing theatre later it's because that's how we spell it here) in 1981 they'd dropped ten albums in less than a decade. I snapped this up as soon as I saw it, and it became a fixture on my turntable. Like the band had announced on "Borrowed Time" from 1979's Cornerstone , ...

Billy Rankin - Growin' Up Too Fast

Growin' Up Too Fast was never widely released on CD (if at all), and it was one of the albums I really wanted to get back after a basement flood wiped out my vinyl collection in the '90s (when no one really gave a shit about records, and my insurance gave me a couple hundred bucks for an appraised $10,000 collection). Way back in 1984, my (dearly departed and greatly missed) buddy Dave let me borrow his cassette copy, which included a bonus track of "Get It On (Bang A Gong)." When I eventually bought the album, I didn't know it was a bonus track, or even what a bonus track was. If that sentence was hard to read, just go back and skim it. I'm sure you'll get the gist. I'd find out later Billy was an off-and-on-again member of Nazareth and wrote some absolutely killer songs for them. At the time, though, all I knew was this guy laid it out cold with the opening cut, "Baby Come Back," then proceeded to lay down one killer tune after another bef...

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTO's Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) - so who knows, maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust. It seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight-ahead pop or rock. It was leaning toward the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough, the vocals rem...

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