Don’t Buy My Record

We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…

The solo career of fromer Traffic member Dave Mason took a slight detour in 1971 when he recorded an LP with pal Cass Eliott. He was prepared to make a big splash in 1972 with what he envisioned as a double LP with one record of new studio songs and one record of live performances with his new band. It didn’t work out that way.

He had done a few studio tracks but then became embroiled in a feud with his record company, Blue Thumb. He took some of his masters and left the studio. The label then released a single album called ‘Headkeeper” which included 5 studio songs on side 1, including reworked versions of a couple of songs that appeared on the Elliot LP, and Side 2 had five live tracks from an appearance at the Troubadour in LA. Mason was pissed. He called the LP a ”bootleg” and told people not to buy it.

It also led to him leaving Blue Thumb for Columbia Records.

So how is the LP? It’s not bad. The studio stuff is classic Mason pop-rock with his signature guitar-vocal sound augmented by a good band. The keyboard work of Mark Jordan is particularly tasty. The title track stands out for me.

The live stuff is good too, showing the talent of his new band, Pearly Queen and Feelin Alright are the most recognizable.

Mason did do better work before and after this…but if you’re a Mason fan, you’ll want to hear this.