Certified LiveBack in the mid-seventies Dave Mason had a really nice run. In 1976 he had a nice hit record with this release, Certified Live, and then he followed that up a year later with one of, if not the most popular album of his solo career, Let it Flow.
Certified Live was another double live album. They were the rage in the mid-70s. You can thank Frampton Come Alive for that. If you were a decent selling artist in that period that did OK but needed a little kick to break out, you released a double live album. It not only worked for Frampton, but it also was the formula that triggered hits for Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Outlaws, REO Speedwagon, Rush, UFO, Thin Lizzy, Pat Travers, Ted Nugent and even Genesis. It really worked. I should know, I bought all of those and a few more as well.
When I went back and listened to Certified Live the first thing that jumped out at me was how damn good his drummer was! The opening track is “Feelin’ Alright,; You know the song, think Joe Cocker. His name is Rick Jaeger. I’m not familiar with him but he’s really good. He’s got the Bernard Purdie high hat riff down!!
Dave runs through quite a bit of his best stuff here. Besides ‘Feelin’ Alright” you also get great versions of “Show Me Some Affection”, “World in Changes”, “Look at You and Look at Me” and of course, “Only You Know and I Know.”
Dave also takes on some interesting cover tunes here as well. He tackles The Eagles “Take it to the Limit”, Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” and the Spencer Davis Band’s “Gimme Some Lovin.” You may not know this but Dave’s entry into the big time music scene was as the road manager in his early 20s for the Spencer Davis Band. There he met “Stevie” Winwood and would eventually join with him and form Traffic.
This album did OK on the charts. I was not another Frampton Comes Alive by any means. It peaked at #78 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. It did however, give him time to work on that Let it Flow album that did quite well.
by Larry Carta
Let it FlowYet when Mason takes writing into his own hands, the fine blend of romantic melody and rolling gait is often squandered. "Mystic Traveller" is not simply a lyric embarrassment -- its glossy, ad-agency arrangement suggests that Mason has either lost his sense of proportion or simply is aiming lower than ever before.
Glitzy orchestral touches abound on Let It Flow, but they're not enough to do in the LP entirely. The title cut, which Mason did write, his the kind of fine, charging refrain and classic chorus that Mason can still spin out un-self-consciously. Mason has not changed much this decade -- and when he has, it's generally been for the worse -- but he's still eminently capable of surprising us, as he does on Let It Flow, with melodic roll of the first order.
by Peter Herbst, Rolling Stone, 6/16/1977
TracksCertified Live
1. Feelin’ Alright (D. Mason) - 6:21
2. Pearly Queen (S. Winwood, J. Capaldi) - 3:41
3. Show Me Some Affection (D. Mason) - 4:36
4. All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan) - 4:46
5. Take It to the Limit (R. Meisner, D. Henley, G. Frey) - 3:34
6. Give Me a Reason Why (D. Mason) - 4:12
7. Sad and Deep as You (D. Mason) - 3:12
8. Every Woman (D. Mason) - 2:36
9. World in Changes (D. Mason) - 5:25
10.Goin’ Down Slow (St. Louis Jimmy Oden) - 6:43
11.Look at You, Look at Me (D. Mason, J. Capaldi) - 12:50
12.Only You Know and I Know (D. Mason) - 4:45
12.Bring It on Home to Me (Sam Cooke) - 5:05
14.Gimme Some Lovin’ (S. Davis, S. Winwood, M. Winwood) - 8:14
Let It Flow
1. So High (Rock Me Baby And Roll Me Away) (Mentor Williams, Jack Conrad) - 4:07
2. We Just Disagree (Jim Krueger) - 3:00
3. Mystic Traveler (Dave Mason) - 5:00
4. Spend Your Life With Me (Angeleen Gagliano) - 3:22
5. Takin' The Time To Find (Dave Mason) - 4:31
6. Let It Go, Let It Flow (Dave Mason) - 3:15
7. Then It's Alright (Dave Mason) - 4:14
8. Seasons (Angeleen Gagliano) - 4:50
9. You Just Have To Wait Now (Dave Mason) - 3:09
10.What Do We Got Here? (Jim Krueger) - 4:21
Musicians
*Mike Finnigan - Keyboards, Vocals
*Dr. Rick Jaeger - Drums
*Gerald Johnson - Bass
*Jim Kruegar - Guitar
*Dave Mason - Guitar, Vocals
*Stephen Stills - Vocals (Let It Flow)
*Yvonne Elliman - Vocals (Let It Flow)
*Ernie Watts - Saxophone (Let It Flow)
More Dave Mason releases, here:
1970 - Alone Together (1st solo recording)
[ Rip and Scans by MARIOS ]
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