We Just Disagree – Challenge #181

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. 

About newepicauthor

My About Me section is meant to provide my readers with an honest picture of myself that gives a little bit of background information on who I am and I will wrap this up with a catchy image. I am a story teller and I like to use my imagination. I am interested in many things, but a few of my favorites are watching the NFL and playing golf. I do not like onions and I always make sure that my food does not contain any. I had two wonderful parents, my dad Herb Adams was a television repairman and my mother Mary Adams was mostly a stay at home mom. They are both deceased now and I miss them. I am a retired Electrical Engineer specialized in control systems. I held many different positions because I worked mostly as a consultant. I did work as a Substitute Teacher, for a while, but the kids were awful. I am happiest when I am writing, as this gives my life has a purpose. Forming a sentence with meaningful words that articulate my inner feelings is an everyday quest for me. Every writer needs to tell their story, and all writers have their own style. All stories starts off with characters, who are able to entertain the reader. Creating realistic lovable characters is the best way to tell a story. If you are able to develop characters that become real to you, then you will know exactly what they will do say and do next and this lets your story progress to the completion. Writing changes everything and having the calling to create something new through the power of words is much more than just making marks on a page. Once written, a book can be used by many people to learn and be entertained. The act of writing can be compared to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle as it contains an inherent fuzziness, because various people may derive different meanings from reading the same words. You can never know the true nature of written words and the best I can do is hope is that people will understand the meanings that I am trying to convey. There are no clear-cut laws on how to write and it is impossible for me to determine how my readers react to my books.

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