Dave Mason recorded ‘We Just Disagree’ on his 1977 Let It Flow album and the single went to #12 in the US becoming Mason’s biggest hit as a solo artist. This song was written by Jim Krueger, a guitarist from Manitowoc, Wisconsin who joined Dave Mason’s band in 1974. Krueger became Mason’s trusted musical partner at a time when he sorely needed the help and this ballad featured Krueger’s 12-string guitar prominently along with him also singing the harmony above Mason’s lead vocal. Mason was a former member of the band Traffic one of the greatly respected bands in the late sixties, signed a deal with Columbia Records in 1973 that demanded two albums a year from him. It was Clive Davis who signed Mason, but Davis departed the label soon after, leaving Mason in the lurch.
Mason wrote ‘Feelin’ Alright’ for Traffic and it became a big hit for Joe Cocker. After Traffic disbanded, Mason did some session work for George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, The Rolling Stones Beggars Banquet sessions playing the bass drum on ‘Street Fighting Man’, and he played acoustic guitar and bass on the Jimi Hendrix recording of ‘All Along the Watch Tower’. He can be heard singing on an alternate version of ‘Across the Universe’ from the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band sessions and he did a stint in Derek and the Dominos before forging a solo career in 1970. Dave played the lead guitar part with Paul McCartney on ‘Listen to What the Man Said’ from 1975 with Wings song and Harrison played slide guitar on Mason’s ‘If You’ve Got Love’. Mason released eight solo albums in the seventies and a handful of minor hit singles in America including ‘Only you Know And I Know’, ‘Satin Red and Black Velvet Woman’ and ‘To Be Free’. In the mid-nineties, Dave Mason briefly joined Fleetwood Mac. Krueger performed with Mason off and on for 18 years and he also performed with or wrote songs for Tim Weisberg, David Cassidy, Stephen Stills, Bob Dylan, Phoebe Snow, John Prine and Jennifer Warnes. Jim Krueger died from complications of pancreatitis at the age of 43 in 1993.
The song is about two friends, possibly a couple who have parted ways, and they might be divorced now. They cordially exchange subtleties, being polite in this long overdue interaction acknowledging that it has been a while. Good friends genuinely want to know how the other has been doing if they have not seen each other in a while. They look each other over to see if their hair has changed, or to see anything that looks different. There is always change involved with growing up but different people grow up at different rates. Something seems out of place and they are not reconnecting on the same level that they used to. They decide to agreed and set aside their differences and stop assigning blame. There is no need to get into an argument, even if they hold different opinions about certain issues. The person recounting the events says that he is “goin’ back to a place that’s far away”, and then he asks his old friend what that are up to, wanting to know if they have “got a place to stay”. He rethinks this, wondering why should he care when he is “just trying to get along”. Their friendship is in the past, so they decide to “leave it alone” because they don’t see eye to eye. This relationship went sour, and Mason connected with the song based on his numerous conflicts with band members, love interests and record labels. Any song about broken relationships will resonate with the public and this song is about a breakup, but now they are moving on.
Been away, haven’t seen you in a while
How’ve you been, have you changed your style?
And do you think that we’ve grown up differently?
Don’t seem the same, seems you’ve lost your feel for me
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
Ooh ooh ooh, oh oh oh
I’m goin’ back to a place that’s far away, how ‘bout you?
Have you got a place to stay?
Why should I care when I’m just trying to get along
We were friends and now it’s the end of our love song
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
Ooh ooh ooh, oh oh oh
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 challenge today is to focus on this song and use it for a short story, a piece of flash fiction, or a poem that you can share with the WordPress writing community. There is no need to stick with this song, as if you like to write about another Dave Mason song, or a song done by any of the other groups that Dave Mason played in like Traffic, Derek and the Dominos, Fleetwood Mac, Delaney & Bonnie, or Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, then go with that. You could also go with a song that is about becoming distant with someone that you have not seen in a while, or any song from the late 1970s, or early 1980s era. Maybe you could write a post about how time changes things. If you would like to write about what you think it means to compromise, or to give up something that you want to make someone else happy, that would make an interesting post. You could write about having a disagreement with someone who had a different opinion than you. You could write about whether or not people need to be polite with each other, even after they break up.
The whole point of this MM Music challenge is to get you to think, to trigger something so that you can show how creative you are and everyone is welcome to participate. This challenge is very loose, so pretty much whatever you come up with will be acceptable. I try to throw some ideas out there for you and if they seem right, then go with it. You could write about there being no good guys or bad guys when a relationship ends. You could write a post about a problem you are having in your marriage or in your relationship.
Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie brings you a dose of fetish, good friends and an incomparable muse and next Friday Dylan Hughes will be here on May 7 with her First Line Friday. I will be back on Friday, May 14 with another MM Music Challenge where we will discuss the song ‘Bloody Well Right’. You can either create a ping back to this post, or place your link in the comments section below.
Reblogged this on A Unique Title For Me and commented:
Dave Mason has had a long career producing, performing, and writing songs. He was a professional musician in his teens, being a member of the instrumental group the Jaguars, and he made his recording debut on a locally released single, ‘Opus to Spring’, in 1963. While in this group he met drummer Jim Capaldi, and the two became members of the Hellions, playing together in 1964 and 1965. Mason quit the Hellions in the spring of 1965 to study music formally, but he sat in occasionally with another band Deep Feeling that featured Capaldi. In early 1966, he took a job as road manager for the Spencer Davis Group, where he encountered Steve Winwood; various reports suggest he also played with the band on-stage and he may have sung backup vocals on the hit ‘Somebody Help Me’. In March 1967, Winwood left the Spencer Davis Group and formed Traffic with Mason, Capaldi, and flautist Chris Wood.
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Wonderful write up and tribute to Dave Mason Jim ☺️👍
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Thanks Christine, but you already knew all about this song.
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I know but your write up was so much more detailed. ☺️
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Pingback: Bittersweet Acceptance | sparksfromacombustiblemind
Here’s my contribution to this great prompt! https://sparksfromacombustiblemind.com/2021/04/30/bittersweet-acceptance/
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I’ve always enjoyed this song and I’ve liked Dave Mason. I saw Traffic in concert once, but that was after Mason left the band.
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I bet that was some show.
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It was, although I was pretty stoned through most of it.
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i love dave mason and had no idea he has such a diverse history…
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Yes he is a great musician and he played with a lot of artists.
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Pingback: Reconnecting – Word Adventures
Tried something new… seems a week for that
I don’t participate often but I’m always so thankful for this prompt because I learn/discover so much about different artists and songs that I wouldn’t necessarily know otherwise.
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Pingback: Just a Dave Mason Song - Navigating This Thing We Call Life
I am a huge Dave mason fan and a sucker for a challenge. I probably went overboard with this one and ended up using 42 Dave Mason song titles in a poem.
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42 Dave Mason song titles, very nice Ron.
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