The 2010 BBC profile of Steve Winwood, English Soul, was enlivened by the appearance of his former Traffic bandmate Dave Mason as a black-hatted bad fairy. Winwood, according to Mason's account, was jealous of his success as a songwriter and threw him out of the band as a result.
Fourteen years on, he is no more reconciled to those events. Today's Guardian has a interview with Dave Mason by Jim Farber about his memoirs Only You Know & I Know, and he's still complaining about them. Not just for that reason, he doesn't come over as particularly likeable.
My impression is that the roots of the clash between Winwood and Mason lay in a different approach to songwriting. Winwood wanted to jam with the band and allow songs to emerge, while Mason wanted to write the words, write the music and tell the others how it was to be played.
The problem with the Winwood approach, particularly if you add in the consumption of waccy baccy, is that it wasn't calculated to produce an album's worth of new songs to a deadline. Hence the band's need for Mason's more direct approach.
It also has to be said that Mason really didn't get psychedelia, but was determined to write it. It's a shame that Traffic are best remembered in Britain for Hole in My Shoe, but at least it has better words than Mason's House for Everyone:
My bed is made of candy floss, the house is made of cheese;
It's lit by lots of glow-worms, if I'm wrong correct me please.
I've chosen the video above because it shows Traffic in the days when everyone was talking and because I suspect it's the nearest thing we have to the band jamming at their cottage while they got it together in the country.
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