Hack's Back Pages

How all the pros play the game: you change your name

Norma Jean Mortenson. Archibald Leach. Alphonso D’Abruzzo.

Vincent Furnier. Stefani Joanne Germanotta. Richard Starkey.

Who are these people? They aren’t names you’re likely to recognize…until you discover they’re the birth names of celebrities who went on to great fame using these stage names:

Marilyn Monroe. Cary Grant. Alan Alda.

Alice Cooper. Lady Gaga. Ringo Starr.

Since the dawn of the modern film and music business, hundreds of people in the performing arts have chosen (or been advised) to change their names. Some people do so because their birth name is considered unattractive, dull or unintentionally amusing. Perhaps it’s diificult to pronounce or spell. Maybe a performer wants to adopt a name that’s unusual or flashy or outlandish in order to attract attention.

The world of rock ‘n roll is full of famous musicians who use a different name than the one they were born with. I’ve addressed this topic before here at Hack’s Back Pages, but this time around, I thought I’d make it fun and turn it into a quiz.

Below I’ve identified 15 major recording artists by their birth names and some facts about their upbringing and their career development. From these thumbnail sketches, how many stars can you identify?

The answers, and how they came by their stage names, are featured in the second half as you scroll down. I’ve included a Spotify playlist that includes two songs for each of these artists.

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Steven Demetre Georgiou, born in London in 1948, was the youngest child of a Greek father and Swedish mother who operated a restaurant in the Soho district. Steven developed an interest in piano at a young age, eventually using the family baby grand piano to work out the chords, since no one else there played well enough to teach him. At 15, he became interested in the guitar and began playing it and writing songs. He did poorly in school in everything but art, and considered a career as a cartoonist but instead decided to pursue a musical career. He performed briefly under the name “Steve Adams” in the mid-’60s, then adopted a different stage name and became an international star throughout the 1970s. By 1980, he changed his name again in accordance with his religious beliefs and left his music career behind for 25 years before returning to it again in recent years.

Farrokh Bulsara was born in 1946 to parents from the Gujarat region of British-owned India. He was born in the African country of Zanzibar, then a British colony, and attended a boarding school in Bombay, India, where he learned piano and focused more on music than academics. After returning to Zanzibar at age 17, he and his family had to flee the 1964 revolution there, settling in Middlesex, England. He earned a degree in art and graphic design, but music was his passion, and he became a member of several bands in the late ’60s. By 1971, Farrokh had developed an astonishing four-octave vocal range and a flamboyant stage presence, and when he met a guitarist and drummer from a band called Smile, they added a bass player, and both Farrokh and the band changed their names, and by 1976, they were an international success. Farrokh died in 1991 at age 45.

Walden Robert Cassotto was born in New York City in 1936 to Nina Cassotto, who was only 18 at the time, so Walden was raised to believe his maternal grandmother was his mother and Nina was his much older sister. At age 22, he entered the music business as a songwriter for Connie Francis, then started a career as a singer of originals and covers, having several big hits in the late ’50s and early ’60s. He also earned some recognition as a film actor, and married actress Sandra Dee. In the late ’60s, when Walden learned about the deception regarding his real mother, he felt betrayed and slipped into seclusion and depression. He died in 1973 at age 37 of complications following open-heart surgery.

Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner was born in 1951 in Wallsend, England, a major shipbuilding town. Although Gordon was fascinated by ships and thought his future lay there, he became obsessed with a Spanish guitar left behind by an emigrating friend of his father. After leaving school in 1969, Gordon worked as a bus conductor, a building laborer and a tax officer before getting a teaching degree in 1974, then taught grammar school for two years. A lover of classical, rock and reggae, Gordon also followed jazz and spent time in a jazz ensemble. Eventually he became the bassist, singer and chief songwriter of a successful rock trio in the late ’70s/early ’80s and then as a hugely successful solo artist in the decades since.

Marvin Aday was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, by a schoolteacher and policeman. Marvin showed an early interest in music and theater arts, appearing in several high school musicals. He was very close to his mother (who sang in a gospel quartet) and, following her death, he dropped out of North Texas State College and relocated to Los Angeles in 1969 to pursue a career in the arts, as was his mother’s wish. Marvin formed a band that had some notoriety warming up for the likes of Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead and the Who, and he also took on several acting roles, both on stage an in film. By 1977, he became a rock music sensation when he co-created one of the biggest selling albums of all time. He died in 2022 at age 74.

Malcolm Rebennack was born in 1941 in New Orleans, where his father ran an appliance shop fixing radios and TV and selling records. He was inspired by his many relatives who sang and played piano, and his father’s music industry connections gained him early access to recording studios of jazz and rock artists like Louis Armstrong and Little Richard. At age 14, Malcolm met Professor Longhair, the eccentric artist with flamboyant attire and musical style, and performed with him on guitar and piano, beginning a lifelong career in music. His New Orleans upbringing had spawned an interest in voodoo, which sparked the development of an on-stage persona (and on records) of a spiritual healer with props and costumes, focusing on R&B and psychedelic rock. Between 1968 and his death in 2019, Malcolm released more than four dozen albums.

David Howell Evans was born in 1961 in East London to Welsh parents and was raised in Dublin, Ireland after the family moved there when he was still a baby. David’s parents were enthusiastic supporters of music education, giving him piano and guitar lessons. He and his brother Richard both had proper guitars by age 12 and practiced relentlessly. In 1976, the boys both responded to a notice at their school seeking musicians to form a band. Both were accepted, but Richard eventually left to join a different group, leaving David as the lead guitarist. Their foursome got a record deal in 1980 and were off and running, eventually becoming one of the biggest bands in the world in the late ’80s, 1990s and beyond.

Henry Deutschendorf

Henry was the son of a decorated military man, John Deutschendorf, Sr., who earned a spot in the Air Force Hall of Fame, but the father had little time for his son. It was his mother’s mother who instilled in Henry the love of music and bought him his first guitar. As a military brat, he lived in multiple locations across the southern U.S. His uncle, a member of the ’60s group The New Christy Minstrels, encouraged Henry to write songs and work on his guitar techniques. Henry’s songs were soon recorded by acts like Peter, Paul & Mary, which won him his own record deal, kicking off a hugely successful career throughout the 1970s. He died in an accident in 1997 at age 53.

Ellen Cohen was born in 1941 in Baltimore to Jewish parents who were children of Russian immigrants, and the family struggled there and in Alexandria, Virginia. Blessed with a versatile voice and a knack for stage performance, Ellen appeared in several musicals in New York before becoming part of a successful singing trio called The Big 3 that made appearances on TV and stage. In 1965, she lobbied hard to join another vocal group she admired, and although her heavy-set appearance worked against her, Ellen’s soaring alto voice got her the job. The group was featured on leading TV variety programs and had nearly a dozen successful hits in the mid-to-late ’60s. Ellen followed that with a sporadic solo career that ended prematurely when she died in 1974 at age 33.

#10

Joachim Krauledat was born in 1944 in East Prussia (now a part of Russia), and lived with his mother in East Germany and West Germany under post-war British occupation. He was first exposed to rock and roll while listening to Little Richard on U.S. Armed Forces radio, and by the time he reached age 14, his family moved to Toronto, Canada. In 1963, Joachim moved to Buffalo, New York, where he became a U.S. citizen. He had a congenital defect that made him sensitive to light and legally blind. In 1965, he returned to Canada and reunited with friends in a band called The Sparrows. The band moved to California, changed its name and, with Joachim as lead singer, became one of the pioneer bands spearheading the hard rock/heavy metal genre, with several iconic hit singles as well.

#11

Ernest Evans was born in 1941 in rural South Carolina and raised in the projects of South Philadelphia. By age 11, Ernest formed a street-corner harmony group, and by the time he entered high school, he had learned the piano and entertained his classmates by performing vocal impressions of popular entertainers of the day. One of his part-time jobs was at a poultry martlet, and his boss’s friend arranged for Ernest to do a private recording for “American Bandstand” host Dick Clark, which included a spot-on impression of Fats Domino. Ernest won a record contract and became famous doing songs about various dance crazes of the early ’60s. After decades of being snubbed, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2025.

#12

Brenda Gail Webb was born the youngest of eight children in 1951 in rural Kentucky, moving to Indiana at age 4. Her mother recall Brenda sang before she talked, hearing radio hits and singing along. Her older sister became a big country music star, which inspired Brenda to pursue a career in music as well. Her break came when she sang at the Grand Ole Opry in 1967 in place of her sister who had fallen ill, and that led to a recording contract with Decca Records, who insisted she change her name from Brenda because they already had singer Brenda Lee on their label. She ended up with a string of more than 30 Top Ten singles and eight Top Ten albums in the country charts between 1975 and 1990. Now in her 70s, she continues to perform occasionally.

#13

McKinley Morganfield‘s birthdate and birthplace are not conclusively known, but he said he was told he was born in 1913 in an unincorporated community in Sharkey County, Mississippi. McKinley taught himself to play harmonica at age 8, sang in the gospel choir in his Baptist church and bought his first guitar at age 17 for $5. In the 1940s when McKinley was about 30, he began performing on tours with blues legends like Big Bill Broonzy and Memphis Minnie, and by 1948, he had been signed to a contract and had his earliest hits on R&B charts. He continued recording and performing well into the 1970s, inspiring new generations of blues guitarists. He died in 1983 at age 70.

#14

Perry Miller was born in 1941 in Queens, New York, to musical parents. His mother was a violinist and singer with perfect pitch, while his father, an accountant. played piano and had a passion for classical music. Perry won a scholarship to study classical guitar but ended up jumping among several different universities in Ohio and New York, eventually moving to Greenwich Village in Manhattan to become a full-time musician. Regarding himself as something of a rebel, Perry led a unique folk-rock band in the ’60s and then went solo in the ’70s, enjoying a modestly successful career in each case. He died in 2025 at age 84.

#15

Roberta Joan Anderson was born in 1943 and raised in the prairie province of Saskatchewan, Canada, Roberta showed an early interest in the arts, specifically painting, poetry, piano and guitar. An early bout with polio weakened her left hand, which necessitated her devising different guitar tunings she could successfully play. She embraced folk music but always showed a deep passion for the experimental nature of jazz. Roberta relocated to Toronto at age 18 and began performing and writing her own songs. Her early marriage to an American didn’t last but she remained in the US to pursue her musical dreams, eventually winning a record contract and beginning a highly respected career as a songwriter, performer and recording artist that continues to this day.

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ANSWERS:

Steven Demetre Georgiou is Cat Stevens (later Yusuf). As he began his career at age 18, he thought his birth name might be difficult to remember, so he chose the stage name Cat Stevens, partly because a girlfriend said he had eyes like a cat, but mainly because “I couldn’t imagine anyone going to the record store and asking for ‘that Steven Demetre Georgiou album’. And in England and, I was sure in America as well, they love animals.”

Farrokh Bulsara is Freddie Mercury. While attending boarding school in India, Farrakhan started calling himself “Freddie” to avoid being ostracized by his classmates. Years later, as his band Queen was developing their debut LP, he wrote lyrics to the song “My Fairy King” which included the line “Mother Mercury, look what you’ve done to me,” allegedly about his own mother. He soon decided Mercury would be a much better stage name than Bulsara, and Freddie Mercury was born.

Walden Robert Cassotto is Bobby Darin. As a child, he always went by a form of his middle name (Bobby) instead of Walden. At 18, he chose to pursue an acting career on Broadway, hoping to later become a recording artist as well. As legend has it, he chose “Darin” after seeing a neon sign for a Mandarin Restaurant where the letters “MAN” were burned out.

Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner is Sting. He gained his nickname during his time with a jazz group when bandleader Gordon Solomon remarked that Sumner’s habit of wearing a black-and-yellow striped jumper made him look like a wasp.

Marvin Aday is Meat Loaf. When he formed his first band in LA, Marvin chose to name it after his mother’s favorite Saturday night dish. As the group’s beefy front man, he eventually decided to adopt the name for himself as well.

Malcolm Rebennack is Dr. John the Night Tripper. As a young man, Rebennack developed the idea of the Dr. John persona for an old friend, based on the life of a man who called himself Dr. John, who was a prince, herb doctor and spiritual healer from Senegal. When Malcolm’s friend dropped out of the music scene, Malcolm decided to take over the role (and identity) of Dr. John.

David Howell Evans is The Edge. Early in U2’s career, Evans was given the nickname “the Edge” by members of the Lypton Village street gang to which Bono belonged. The nickname was believed to be derived from the angular shape of Evans’ head, but Evans has said it had more to do with his preference for being more of an observer, not fully involved, and therefore remaining “on the edge” of things.

Henry John Deutschendorf is John Denver. When his musician uncle suggested he change his name to something easier and less ethnic, he decided to adopt the name of the capital city of his favorite state (Colorado), pairing “Denver” with his middle name.

Ellen Cohen is Cass Elliot. When she was dreaming of a career in the performing arts, she started calling herself “Cass,” a shortened version of the Greek mythological figure Cassandra. She later adopted Elliot as her last name in tribute to a friend who died young.

#10

Joachim Krauledat is John Kay. At age 14, Joachim’s family moved to Toronto, where teachers apparently had trouble pronouncing his name correctly, and he became known simply as John K. He fleshed it out from “K” to “Kay” when he turned 18 and joined his first band, The Sparrows, who later became Steppenwolf.

#11

Ernest Evans is Chubby Checker. Ernest was indeed an overweight kid, and his boss at the poultry market where he worked after school took to referring to him as “Chubby.” Ernest didn’t seem to mind, and when he started doing impressions of Fats Domino and other musicians, Domino’s wife suggested he become Chubby Checker, in reference to Domino’s obsession with the board game.

#12

Brenda Gail Webb is Crystal Gayle. When her label insisted she lose the name Brenda, she decided to use her middle name Gail instead, changing the spelling to Gayle. It became her last name when sister Loretta Lynn saw a Krystal fast-food restaurant and said to her, “That’s your name! Crystals are bright and shiny, like you.”

#13

McKinley Morganfield is Muddy Waters. His grandmother gave him the nickname “Muddy” when he was about four because he loved playing in the muddy creek that ran behind her house, and the name stuck throughout his life.

#14

Perry Miller is Jesse Colin Young. He liked the idea of an outlaw stage persona, so he shed the nondescript Perry Miller and instead combined the names of Wild West bad boys Jesse James and Cole Younger, along with iconoclastic Formula One design engineer Colin Chapman.

#15

Roberta Joan Anderson is Joni Mitchell. She never much cared for her given name and chose to call herself Joan from a very young age. At age 22, she married a man named Chuck Mitchell, who liked to call her Joanie, which soon enough morphed into Joni. The marriage dissolved in less than two years, but she’d begun performing as Joni Mitchell, so she left it alone.

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Honorable mentions:

Paul Gadd is Gary Glitter; James Osterberg is Iggy Pop; Brian Hines is Denny Laine; Chaim Witz is Gene Simmons.

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I’m not feelin’ too good myself

Posted on 7 Days Ago by brucehhackett

If the number of times you’ve seen a musical artist in concert is any indication of how much you enjoy their body of work, then Dave Mason must rank among my Top Five. Between 1975 and 2014, I saw the guy perform nine times. Whether it was at an outdoor amphitheater, a grand music hall, a college gymnasium or a small club, Mason never failed me with his choice of material, his alternately warm/gruff voice and his assured command of the guitar, both electric and acoustic. And for a guy who never sought the spotlight and claimed to feel a bit uncomfortable as a front man, he had an affable way about him that always made for a delightful evening.

This week, sadly, I must report that Mason has died at age 79. He had a mighty colorful career, mostly as a solo artist but also as a founding member of the esoteric British band Traffic and as a collaborative side man with a bevy of other artists over the years. While many of his peers in the business focused on volume or virtuosity, Mason seemed more interested in nuance and feel, combining American blues, English folk and melodic pop into something almost fluid and much more personal.

*Here’s Dave Mason in a photo I took at a 1977 concert in Cleveland*

Born in 1946, Mason was one of those British kids who, in an attempt to find something to relieve the boredom and hardship of post-war life in England, discovered music. Like John Lennon, Keith Richards, Pete Townshend and others in the same time and environment, Mason found Elvis, Buddy Holly and early rock and roll, and the blues, all American-born genres that excited him, energized him.

Mason was only 15 when, after learning to play guitar, he joined his first band The Jaguars, and then The Hellions, playing clubs in his native Worcester as well as Birmingham and eventually the rock club mecca of Hamburg, Germany, just as The Beatles and others had done. Drummer/singer Jim Capaldi was also in The Hellions, and among the bands they performed with was The Spencer Davis Group, which featured the astounding vocals and keyboards of Steve Winwood.

*Mason and Winwood in front; Capaldi and Wood in back, 1967*

Sometimes Mason and Capaldi would jam with Winwood after shows, bringing in sax and flute player Chris Wood from another band. The foursome found that they enjoyed the music they were making, giving Winwood the reason he needed to leave Spencer Davis, and they formed their own group, which they named Traffic (after waiting to cross a busy street one day, as the story goes).

The music that resulted from the group’s retreat to a quiet cottage in the Berkshires was a fascinating amalgam of folk, jazz, rock and psychedelic pop, using everything from Mellotron and sitar to flute and fuzz guitar. The band’s early work helped redefine what a rock ensemble could be—loose yet precise, pastoral yet experimental. Mason’s simple and straightforward folk-rock songs both contrasted with and complimented the more complex, haunting rock jams the Winwood/Capaldi partnership came up with. Although that diversity was key to the band’s appeal, it also caused an internal tension that was never really resolved.

In 1967, Traffic had back-to-back hits right out of the gate in the UK. The infectious Winwood-Capaldi tune “Paper Sun” was a Top Five hit, and Mason’s quirky “Hole in My Shoe” just missed #1 there. Winwood, who preferred the give and take of jamming to produce a song, made no bones about not liking Mason’s songs much. “‘Hole in My Shoe’ was a trite little song that didn’t mean anything,” said Winwood years later. Mason said he felt like the odd man out, and shortly after the release of Traffic’s debut album “Mr. Fantasy” (a Top Ten success in England), he left the group and headed to London and then Los Angeles to explore musical possibilities there.

“I was young, and the early fame freaked me out a bit,” said Mason. “The other guys had a chemistry and a lifestyle I wasn’t really a part of, so I impulsively decided to try going solo. I hung around London for a while, then moved to the States.”

During that period, he befriended Jimi Hendrix and ended up contributing to his “Electric Ladyland” LP, playing acoustic 12-string on “All Along the Watchtower,” a song that he would eventually cover quite convincingly on a solo LP and in concert years later. Mason later described the experience as inspirational, recalling the moment of sitting across from Hendrix and laying down the track as among the most vivid of his career. “Jimi created a space where anything could happen,” Mason said. “You just had to be ready when it did.”

Mason earned a reputation as a sought-after collaborator and sideman, working with all kinds of artists across genres and generations. His adaptability allowed him to move between projects with ease, whether contributing guitar lines, songwriting or production insight. He was invited to add sitar to The Rolling Stones’ “Street Fighting Man” in 1968 and was in on some of the star-studded sessions for George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass” LP in 1970. Five years later, he guested on guitar for Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Listen What the Man Said.” (In his 2024 memoir, Mason good-naturedly referred to himself as “the Forrest Gump of rock.”)

*“Traffic” album (1968)* *with Mason pictured upper right*

Back in 1968, Traffic was touring the U.S. as a trio, ending up in a New York studio afterwards to work on their follow-up album, entitled simply “Traffic.” The band didn’t have enough material for a whole album, so Winwood reluctantly agreed to ask Mason to return, and Mason came to the conclusion that he may have been rash in leaving. Among the songs he brought to the recording sessions was “Feelin’ Alright?,” which would end up a bonafide rock classic. Some said the song expressed Mason’s ambivalence about his time with Traffic (“Seems I’ve got to have a change in scene…“), but he denied this. “It’s just a song about a girl. It’s just another relationship gone bad.” Traffic’s version is sublime, but it was Joe Cocker’s compelling rendition that got most of the airplay, then and now. Three Dog Night, Grand Funk and Mason himself also recorded it.

Still, the uneasy vibes between Mason and the others remained. Winwood felt Traffic was his band and bristled when Mason’s songs upstaged his. Recalled Mason in his 2024 memoir, “He told me, ‘I don’t like the way you write. I don’t like the way you sing. I don’t like the way you play. And we don’t want you in the band any more.'” He got the message and left again, although it turns out it didn’t much matter, because Winwood put Traffic on hiatus for a spell, choosing to collaborate with Eric Clapton in the short-lived supergroup Blind Faith in 1969.

Mason returned to L.A., where he’d been making friends with many in the red-hot music climate there. He found himself hanging out with the likes of Stephen Stills, Leon Russell, Gram Parsons, Mama Cass Elliot, Delaney and Bonnie and others, and often performed on their albums (credited and uncredited). He and Elliot recorded a fairly decent album together in 1969, with Mason writing the majority of material and Elliot offering up her fine harmonies, but it would be another two years before it was released to a lukewarm reception. (You’d be well advised to listen to “Walk to the Point,” “Too Much Truth, Too Much Love” and “Pleasing You” to hear the best moments.)

By early 1970, Mason had written and recorded demos of a group of eight songs, and pitched them to a few companies. Bob Krasnow and Tommy LiPuma, who would become industry moguls running Warners and Elektra years later, were just starting out their label, Blue Thumb Records, and when they heard the demos, they were eager to sign Mason. “The songs were so strong, you had to be deaf not to hear it,” said LiPuma. “He was such a great player and songwriter.”

They offered the budget to bring in a stellar cast of players for the sessions: Jim Gordon and Carl Radle from Delaney and Bonnie’s band, Leon Russell on keyboards, singers Bonnie Bramlett and Rita Coolidge, and LiPuma himself co-producing with Mason. The result was the aptly titled “Alone Together” (solo but with plenty of help), easily Mason’s best and most consistent LP. Critics loved it and fans flocked to it, and it peaked at an impressive #22 on the US charts.

The songs were deeply melodic, and Mason’s distinctive 12-string guitar and husky, soulful vocals shone particularly brightly on “World in Changes” and “Sad and Deep as You.” The infectious leadoff track, “Only You and I Know,” had a disappointing showing as the single, stalling at #42 in the US (although Delaney and Bonnie’s cover version the next year reached #22 and turned a lot of heads). Mason was a minstrel at heart, but he also played a mean electric guitar, demonstrated most clearly on “Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave” and especially “Look at You, Look at Me,” where his solo in the final minutes will have you picking your jaw up off the floor.

It was at this point that Mason made a fateful decision to play hardball with his record company. He insisted on making a double album, half studio and half live, and he wanted a better contract too, but the label balked at both demands. He went so far as to abscond with master tapes of the sessions in progress, and that move didn’t work out well. “Mason wanted out because Columbia was offering him a deal,” said LiPuma. “‘Alone Together’ sold well, and he was becoming an arena-rock draw on the road. But instead of negotiating, he took our tapes, which we saw as blackmail.” What Mason didn’t know is LiPuma had a back-up set of masters, and with them, he cobbled together “Headkeeper,” an album made without Mason’s approval that included four new but demo-like studio tracks and five live songs performed at L.A.’s Troubadour in 1972.

Because Mason was unhappy with the unfinished tracks, and he hadn’t approved the album’s song selection, mixing or cover art, he declared it “little more than a bootleg” and urged fans to avoid it. It wasn’t bad, but it could’ve been much better (it could only muster #50 on U.S. charts). It was an ill-advised turn of events that hurt his career momentum. He couldn’t record elsewhere until the business mess could be resolved, so he went out on the road, touring relentlessly, which made him a lot of money and became a way of life for him.

Columbia ended up signing him a year later and bought out the Blue Thumb contract, and their mostly amicable relationship lasted throughout the 1970s. The Columbia debut, 1973’s “It’s Like You Never Left,” sold reasonably well and was a favorite with Mason fans. Among its high points were a reworked, superior version of “Headkeeper,” a great little instrumental jam called “Sidetracked,” and a lovely ballad, “The Lonely One,” that features Stevie Wonder’s incomparable harmonica.

Mason’s solid covers of “Watchtower” and Sam Cooke’s “Bring It On Home to Me” highlight his 1974 album, simply titled “Dave Mason,” which also included excellent originals like “Show Me Some Affection” and “Every Woman.” His 1975 LP “Split Coconut” showed a growing sameness about his songs, but there were still a few tracks that showed he hadn’t lost his touch (“Give Me a Reason Why” and “You Can Lose It”). As Peter Frampton’s juggernaut “Frampton Comes Alive!” soared up the charts in 1976, Columbia rushed out a lookalike package for Mason’s “Certified Live” double album, which was pretty damn good, but sales were flat.

Mason needed the one thing he’d never had yet — a hit single. That came with his guitar compatriot Jim Krueger’s great song “We Just Disagree.” Its lyrics seemed to hit a nerve with the music-listening public; whether you’re married or just dating, when you feel you’re no longer compatible, you throw in the towel, hopefully amicably: “So let’s leave it alone, ’cause we can’t see eye to eye, /There ain’t no good guy, there ain’t no bad guy, /There’s only you and me, and we just disagree…“. The recording was crisp and polished, as was the excellent “Let It Flow” album it came from. FM radio was good to Mason in 1977, putting “So High,” “Mystic Traveler” and “Let It Go, Let It Flow” in heavy rotation, and “We Just Disagree” reached #12 on the Top 40 charts. One more gold album came in 1978, “Mariposa de Oro,” which sounded like a slightly inferior sequel to “Let It Flow” — gorgeous production but only a few strong songs (“So Good to Be Home,” “Warm Desire” and a cover of “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”).

The pop music scene changed as the Seventies became the Eighties, and Mason found it no longer suited him. His last LP for Columbia, “Old Crest on a New Wave,” alludes to the invasion of new-wave bands (and pop/dance artists) that would dominate the proceedings for the next decade or so. Said Mason in the ’90s, “The latest flavor was something I didn’t want to be any part of. I didn’t fit into the business at that point.” Embroiled in a contractual dispute with Columbia Records, Mason toured with Krueger as a duet act, then released “Two Hearts” on MCA Records in 1987, which turned out to be his last LP on a major label.

I almost don’t want to mention his short stint in Fleetwood Mac in 1994-95 for the largely forgettable “Time” album, mentioned on a few “Worst Albums of the 1990s” lists. Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were gone, and Christine McVie, who had quit touring, was on the sessions only as a favor to the label, so it was a radically different lineup with Mason, rockabilly guitarist Billy Burnette and Southern soul singer Bekka Bramlett, daughter of Delaney and Bonnie. A good time was not had by all.

It wouldn’t be until 2008 when Mason added to his catalog with “26 Letters, 12 Notes” on a Sony subsidiary label. No one noticed (I admit it went under my radar too), but when I first heard it a few years ago, I was thrilled by the quality of songs and production. The blues groove of “Good 2 U,” the inventive melodic lines of “How Do I Get to Heaven” and “Passing Thru the Flame,” the pretty acoustic/electric instrumental “El Toro” — these rank up there with Mason’s better work, I’m pleased to say.

Mason was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 as part of Traffic. Chris Wood had died in 1983, but Mason, Winwood and Capaldi all attended and seemed to get along reasonably well, participating in the end-of-evening jam of “Feelin’ Alright” with Keith Richards, Jackson Browne, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, The Temptations and ZZ Top.

Over the past 15-20 years, Mason had remained active, performing periodically. During the COVID shutdown, just for fun, he convened a virtual band online called Dave Mason and The Quarantines that included Sammy Hagar, Michael McDonald, Mick Fleetwood, and Patrick Simmons, Tom Johnston and John McFee of The Doobie Brothers to cut a new version of “Feelin’ Alright” that’s well worth a viewing on YouTube. A recording is on my Spotify playlist at the end

Mason was significantly active in philanthropies, including Little Kids Rock, a non-profit that promotes music education for disadvantaged children; YogaBlue, which promotes yoga as a therapy for those in substance abuse recovery; and Rock Our Vets, which provides food and clothing and access to computers for homeless veterans.

I last saw Mason in 2014 at a members-only private show at the Grammy Museum in L.A., and while he played only 40 minutes, he didn’t disappoint. His voice and guitar skills were still mighty impressive.

Two more Mason LPs came out in recent years that escaped my attention until this week. In 2020, he recorded “Alone Together Again,” on which he revisited the songs from his 1970 LP, most of which were merely serviceable, but his new take on “Look at You, Look at Me” is incredible, so I included it on the playlist below. Then in 2023, he collaborated with guitar wizard Joe Bonamassa and singer Michael McDonald, among others, on a captivating set of songs called “A Shade of Blues” that really impressed me.

In 2024, Mason announced the cancellation of all of his 2025 tour dates due to “ongoing health challenges,” one of which my wife and her friends had been planning to attend. Though he originally planned to reschedule these dates, he ended up retiring from touring while saying he would continue to occasionally release new material.

In light of the public disdain Winwood held toward Mason over the years, it was somewhat surprising (but comforting) that he released a complimentary statement this week in the wake of Mason’s death: “Dave was part of Traffic during its earliest chapter, and played an important role in shaping the band’s sound and identity during that time. Those years remain a special part of the band’s story, and Dave’s contribution to them is not forgotten. His place in that history will always be remembered. His songwriting, musicianship, and distinctive spirit helped create music that has lasted far beyond its era, and continues to mean so much to listeners around the world.”

I like the way a Facebook page called Sunset Blvd. Records summarized Mason: “In songs that explored love, separation and the passage of time, he offered listeners something both intimate and universal. As his voice fades from the stage, it remains preserved in recordings that continue to speak with clarity and grace. His songs never shouted for attention, but they stayed with you, and in the long arc of popular music, that quiet persistence may be the most enduring legacy of all.”

Mason may have put it best himself in a 2020 interview: “I’m not a rock star, let’s put it that way. I never wanted to be. I just wanted to write great music, make some money and have fun.”

Rest in peace, Dave. Your songs, your performances and your inherently good nature will remain a vital part of my musical memories from my formative years and beyond.

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