FEELIN' ALRIGHT

Dave Mason - 2017:Songwriting

"So I took off for Greece (after leaving Traffic) with a bag and a guitar. I went to a little island called Hydra, which is where I wrote Feelin’ Alright? Musically, it was a kind of exercise in trying to write the simplest thing I could come up with. I’d been playing sitar for a while, which I used for Hole In My Shoe and Paper Sun, and that got me thinking about writing something very simple. There are only two chords in Feelin’ Alright? anyway. Basically it’s an unrequited love song. It’s ‘feeling alright’ with a question mark; the song’s really about not feeling too good about myself – I wasn’t feeling alright! That was what it was about.

I don’t remember the specifics of how it happened, but it probably just all came together a period of a week or so. At the time it was just another song that I wrote. ..... If I remember correctly, I went to the US and they were at a studio in New York and I went by the session. They were working on that album and they only had five songs, so I said, ‘Well, I’ve got five songs here,’ and that’s how it started. That’s how I remember it. Frankly, there was no concept of Feelin’ Alright? being a hit or anything; I was just trying to write good songs. "

Dave Mason - 2014:Songfacts

"It's just a song about a girl. It's just another relationship gone bad. I was trying to write the simplest thing I could come up with. Two chords was it...... (favorite version) It has to be Cocker."

Dave Mason - 2015:Let It Rock

"Well, the song’s about not feeling too good myself. But I didn’t drop the question mark; I guess it just got dropped after Joe Cocker did it and turned it into “Feelin’ Alright”. (Laughs.)"