Nick Mason’s five favourite albums
The sound of Pink Floyd is a wavering swirl. Nick Mason was the drummer charged with the difficult task of keeping that swirl on track.
In many ways, this made him the linchpin of the band. He brought an identifiable rhythm to their noted experimentation, ensuring that the weirdness also brought about hits. One of the reasons he was so adept at this wasn’t just because of his clear skill as a drummer, but also his sense of the importance of songs.
Far from a blundering percussionist simply obsessed with drum solos, cymbal sounds, and so on, like Ringo Starr before him, Mason had an acute sense of music’s wider appeals and how he could play into them from behind his kit. This was apparent when he spoke to Classic Albums Sundays and listed his five favourite albums of all time.
Mason, who himself is a source of inspiration to many artists, including his contemporaries, has proven his capabilities as a deft writer as well as a drummer on numerous occasions. Memorable Floyd tracks such as ‘Time’, ‘One of these Days’, ‘Echoes’ and ‘Careful with that Axe, Eugene’ were co-written by Mason.
Growing up in a cultural household, films and music were part and parcel of his everyday life. Performing arts was his natural calling, and as soon as he entered the University, Mason formed a band called Stigma 6, an antecedent of Pink Floyd, with Richard Wright, Bob Klose and Roger Waters in 1964.
Although Mason sincerely stood by Pink Floyd until the very end, he never took them too seriously. During an interview with the Telegraph, he said, “I still don’t quite understand how we got to that point of such free experimentation. We thought of ourselves as an R&B band, playing hits. It was just a bit of fun. We were floundering around. And we wanted to be a pop group.”
The strong influence of R&B, jazz and big bands can be noticed in Mason’s music and his choice of instruments. He used single and double-headed acoustic drums, rototoms, tuned percussion and electronic drums. It is only natural, then, that an album by the American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis would make it to Mason’s top five list.
The album in question here is Jack Johnson, which, according to Mason, is “probably the greatest groove album of all time…” featuring quite a few super-talented musicians. Above all, this “groove” seems most indicative of Mason’s own approach: finding rhythm within a swirling mire.
Mason’s list contains a couple more albums belonging to the jazz genre. The 1959 vinyl, The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall is one of them, the other one being Halcyon Days by Bruce Hornsby. Mason confessed the influence of these two master pianists on him, declaring Thelonious Monk’s piano playing “a lesson in timing and percussion, as well as the music”.
Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan give a variety of genres in the list. Dylan’s album contained eleven brilliantly written songs, including ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ and ‘a Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall’. I think we’ll all agree with Mason when he says that Dylan is “still the greatest songwriter in rock music history”. On the other hand, Hendrix’s psychedelic and pop-rock album is close to Mason as it featured his favourite drummer, Mitch Mitchell.
See the full list below.
Nick Mason’s five favourite albums of all time:
- Bob Dylan- The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
- Jimi Hendrix- Axis: Bold As Love
- Thelonious Monk- The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall
- Miles Davis – Jack Johnson
- Bruce Hornby and The Rage– Halcyon Days
