Mountain - Climbing!(1970)
Audio CD - Repertoire REPUK 1094 (LC 08065)
Original Recording Remastered plus bonus tracks
CD realease date: March 13, 2007
Original release date: March 7, 1970
Total time: 45:49
Track listing:
1. Mississippi Queen
2. Theme for an Imaginary Western
3. Never in My Life
4. Silver Paper
5. For Yasgur's Farm
6. To My Friend
7. Laird
8. Sittin' on a Rainbow
9. Boys in the Band
10. Mississippi [Single Version] (bonus)
11. Laird [Single Version] (bonus)
12. Sittin' on a Rainbow [Single Version] (bonus)
13. To My Friend [Single Version] (bonus)
Personnel:
Leslie West - guitars, vocals
Felix pappalardi, guitars, vocals
Corky Lang - drums, percussion
Steve Knight - organ, Mellotron
Review from All Music Guide:
(4 1/2 STARS)
Mountain was the combined forces of Leslie West, a gigantic guitarist/vocalist who had played with New York garage-psych rockers the Vagrants, and Felix Pappalardi. Pappalardi had a slightly more impressive track record, coming from the modern East Coast folk-rock movement (the Youngbloods), before he applied his production skills to Cream. Through this, Felix never really stopped playing and eventually formed Mountain. Often billed as a junior-league version of Cream, Climbing!, Mountain's debut, had a lot of things going for it as well. Indeed, West was a changed man from the moment he saw Clapton play, and Pappalardi was able to help him achieve the exact same tone Clapton employed on Disraeli Gears. The hit off Climbing!, "Mississippi Queen" is a boogie classic, and it paved the way for countless imitators such as J. Geils Band, Foghat, and others. There are a lot of other great tracks here, such as "Never in My Life," which was an FM radio staple at the time.
~ Matthew Greenwald, All Music Guide
Mountain is an American rock band. The band broke up in 1972, reformed two years later, broke up soon after that, and have since reconvened and resuming touring. Mountain remains popular in some circles despite having fallen out of the mainstream during the seventies. They were influential during the development of hard rock and are considered a forerunner to heavy metal music. Their hit song "Mississippi Queen" became a radio hit and is something of a rock standard. VH1 ranked Mountain number 98 on its 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.
History
The band formed shortly after Leslie West, having left the Long Island R&B band the Vagrants, recorded a solo album titled Mountain with bassist and former Cream collaborator Felix Pappalardi producing. The album also featured former Remains drummer N.D. Smart. West's raw vocals and melodic, bluesy guitar style, and Pappalardi's heavy and elegant bass lines were the elements of Mountain's distinctive sound. Though heavily inspired by seminal British blues-rock band Cream (with which Pappalardi had been a frequent collaborator: he produced Disraeli Gears, Goodbye and Wheels of Fire, also contributing viola, brass, bells and organ to the latter), a keyboardist in Steve Knight was added to avoid Mountain being perceived as a simple imitation.
They played their fourth live concert at the 1969 Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York (later chronicling the experience in their song "For Yasgur's Farm), but the band did not appear in the film of the event nor was their performance included on the first live album of the festival. Soon after, Smart was replaced by Laurence "Corky" Laing. Their debut, Climbing!, was released in 1970 and featured the band's signature song, "Mississippi Queen", which reached the middle of the top 40 charts. The album itself reached the top 20 on the US album charts.
The follow-up album Nantucket Sleighride, released in 1971 also reached the top 20 but failed to yield a hit single. The title track was used as the theme to ITV's Sunday political program Weekend World. After these early releases the band continued to receive a certain measure of critical acclaim but never again achieved great commercial success.
After Nantucket Sleighride, the band produced Flowers of Evil consisting of one side of studio material and one live side, culled from a concert at New York City's legendary Fillmore East. The following year, Mountain broke up. Shortly after West and Laing formed West, Bruce and Laing with former Cream bassist Jack Bruce, producing two studio albums and a live release over the next two years
In 1974 West and Pappalardi reformed Mountain with Allan Schwartzberg on drums and Bob Mann (of pioneering jazz rock band Dreams) on keyboards and guitar – a tour yielded the double live album Twin Peaks. The studio work Avalanche, with Laing once again on drums and rhythm guitarist David Perry, was the last heard from the band until the March 1985 release of Go For Your Life.
On April 17, 1983, Gail Collins Pappalardi, Felix's wife and songwriting partner who had designed many of the band's album covers, shot Pappalardi in the neck in their fifth-floor East Side Manhattan apartment. He was pronounced dead at the scene and Collins was charged with second-degree murder. Later cleared of that charge, she convicted of the lesser criminally negligent homicide and sentenced to 16 months to four years in prison. After her release from jail, she vanished into private life.
In 1985 Mountain reformed, releasing Go For Your Life. They have continued to record and tour, with bassist Richie Scarlet (known for his work with Ace Frehley, Sebastian Bach and his multiple solo records) rounding out the lineup. Their most recent album is 2007's Masters of War, featuring 12 Bob Dylan covers and a guest appearance from Ozzy Osbourne.
In 2003 West and Laing authored a book of recollections entitled "Nantucket Sleighride and Other Mountain on-the-Road Stories" detailing their time with the band at its peak and their subsequent careers.
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