CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · Arts & Letters

Dave Mason Is Alive

1973 album by Dave Mason

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ28448689
Source-derived summary

Dave Mason Is Alive is the first album of live recordings by Dave Mason. Recorded in 1971 at the Troubadour club in Los Angeles, the album was released in 1973 by Blue Thumb Records. It has been re-released by MCA Coral (MCA 713).

Background

As reported by William Ruhlmann of AllMusic, the album was released without Mason's approval. Its release by Blue Thumb was prompted by the dispute between it and Mason, a dispute that started midway during the recording of Mason's previous album. That previous album, Headkeeper, had been intended to be a double album, with one disk composed of live recordings made at the Troubador and the other of studio recordings. But after Mason ceased work and took possession of some of the studio masters, Blue Thumb released Headkeeper as a single album, one side live and one side studio recordings. As the dispute with Mason continued, Blue Thumb issued Dave Mason Is Alive, composed entirely of recordings from the same live performance that had been used for Headkeeper. Of the seven tracks on Alive, two of them, "Feelin' Alright" and "Just a Song", are repeated from Headkeeper.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Dave Mason, except where indicated.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Dave Mason Is Alive” is 1973 album by Dave Mason. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Dave, Mason and Alive, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1971, 1973—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1973. For this dossier, Dave, Mason and Alive is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1973 album by Dave Mason” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q28448689. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1971 and 1973.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Dave Mason Is Alive”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Dave Mason Is Alive primary sources, Dave Mason Is Alive archive and Dave research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Dave Mason Is Alive”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Dave Mason Is Alive” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.