But the music?
The music remains.
The Boy From Worcester Who Found the Guitar
Dave Mason was born David Thomas Mason on May 10, 1946, in Worcester, England.
Long before the recording studios, legendary collaborations, and sold-out concerts, there was simply a young boy fascinated by the guitar.
He listened to artists who helped shape his musical imagination, including blues musicians and guitarists whose playing carried emotion without needing excessive decoration.
The guitar became more than an instrument.
It became his language.
By his teenage years, Mason was already playing in bands.
He wasn’t waiting for adulthood to begin his musical life.
He was already building it.
And in the rapidly changing British music scene of the 1960s, opportunity was everywhere.
A new generation of musicians was experimenting with rock, blues, psychedelia, folk, soul, and other influences.
The boundaries were disappearing.
Mason found himself in the middle of that transformation.
And then came Traffic.
Traffic and the Beginning of Something Extraordinary
In 1967, Mason helped form Traffic with Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, and Chris Wood.
The band would become one of the defining groups of the British psychedelic-rock era.
Traffic’s music wasn’t easy to put into one box.
There were elements of rock.
Blues.
Folk.
Jazz.
Psychedelia.
And an adventurous spirit that reflected the musical freedom of the era.
Mason’s relationship with Traffic was complicated.
He left and returned to the band more than once.
But his influence on its early music was undeniable.
Among the songs associated with his work was “Hole in My Shoe,” which became an early Traffic hit.
Then came the song that would eventually become one of his most enduring gifts to popular music.
“Feelin’ Alright?”
Mason wrote the song when he was still remarkably young.
It would go on to be recorded and performed by numerous artists.
Joe Cocker’s version became particularly famous.
Other artists, including the Jackson 5 and Gladys Knight & the Pips, also recorded it.
That is one of the clearest signs of a great songwriter.
A song can leave the hands of its creator and somehow become everyone else’s.
