Mountain's "Climbing!" - Classic or Dud

The first (1970) Leslie West solo album is great too; might as well be a Mountain record.

a little disappointed in Flowers of Evil tbh

yo this album is classic as fuck

"Scenes From an Imaginary Western".....amazing.

i mean "THEME" obviously.

Nantucket Sleighride is my favourite gear from this band by a long way.

i mean, the main riff in "don't look around" totally slays.

that recent poll thread that I can't find re side- and supergroups---the ones w law firm-type names, as somebody said on there---got me thinking about Mountain again---even xgau admitted that he kinda liked this record and Best of Mountain, but refused to give 'em good grades--however, I did find this concert take, at the end of an xgau thing about jazz and rock:
A few months ago I attended a concert at the Fillmore that featured Jack Bruce and Mountain. Bruce was with Larry Coryell, who I then considered the finest guitarist in this creation (that excluded Jerry Garcia, who isn't human except when the fancy strikes him); Mitch Mitchell, Hendrix's old/new drummer; and a nondescript organist with zippy credentials named, if I remember, Mike Mandel. I was expecting quite a bit from this group, and I was brought down. Oh, Coryell got in some unbelievable licks, and Bruce was pretty fluid, but Mitchell wasn't equal to the music and Mandel was another jerk-off. They played what amounted to half a dozen rather lengthy rave-ups--much Better Than that, I suppose, but I couldn't listen. Then Mountain came on. We all know Mountain is a hype, the original Cremora, Leslie West never made up a line in his life, Pappalardi's a freak, and who are the other two anyway? Well, they were great. They were great because they were good to look at--the famous skinny/fat counterpoint of Felix and Leslie--and because they knew how to pace a set, hard ones and soft ones and originals and golden oldies, and because Pappalardi lays down a nice bass line and Corky Laing, that's the drummer, keeps a beat. He also takes a solo, but I don't feel obliged to sit through those any more. I left well-satisfied.

---Village Voice, May 21, 1970

Oh and he got all excited about the debut!

Mountain [Windfall, 1969]
With Felix Pappalardi singing and playing bass regularly this could be New York's third supergroup. (The Rascals and the Spoonful got there first.) The visual possibilities alone--with West, the enormous ex-Vagrant guitarist, set against the hyperactive Pappalardi, are fantastic. West plays good guitar and is a good roarer, and Pappalardi is not only first-rate on several instruments but has a wonderful singing voice, sweet and mellow. Unfortunately, he hadn't decided to join the group when this was recorded, and so participates only as bassist and producer. West alone can't quite carry it. More like early Cream than Blind Faith. B B-but I liked early Cream! Pappalardi's wife shot him, right? That's one reason West and Laing teamed up with Bruce.

Thanks Dow
*puts on Nantucket sleighride*

The Vagrants are pretty good too West's band before Mountain.
Their version of Respect is on Nuggets. There was a compilation of most of their work put out about 10 years ago.

Aw heck---this won't let me copy image address, but click on the link and see it I guess. If you can't, it's a Stony Brook concert poster: July 10 will bring Mountain, who seem to be the headliners---Allman Brothers in slightly smaller letters---Glory Road smallest. Two shows 7:30 and 11:00 pm. Tickets $3.50 $4.00 $4.50. A ballentine three ring thing. Doesn't give year, but July 3 was Ten Years After, MC5, and Stalk-Forrest Group (locals, pre-BOC).
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Df-LME3VQAYIwIA.jpg:large

it did show it, yay!Now it looks like the Allman letters are same size as Mountain--sure wish I'd been there. I did see the original Allmans. Anybody familiar with Glory River?

Gail Collins didn't shoot Felix until 1983. The couple of things I have gathered from interviews etc. why the original Mountain fell apart was 1.) bad deals and 2.) drugs.

Pappalardi produced Leslie West's first solo record which led to him and the guy that became their manager getting them a deal as Mountain. Situation they had was that the label was also their manager, which as you might imagine wasn't all that good a deal for everyone in the band. From what I understand Leslie West and Corky Laing really did not make that much money on the original run of the band at all. Felix being the producer, song writer and if I remember correct also partner in the label did well.

There are some pretty crazy stories about West out there about him and drugs.

I got to see Mountain as a teenager in the mid-80s reunion tour open for Triumph in old Market Square Arena. They were really good and I became a big fan.

mid-80s, so different bass player?

Yeah. This guy Mark Clarke was the bassist. Did not know his name, but I bet he has some stories to tell as he played in some interesting bands.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Clarke

This was the record at the time. I remember liking it and listening to it a bunch on cassette. It is kind of hard to find on CD or LP at this point.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/00/Mountain_Go_For.jpg

I kind of think of these guys as the essence of 70s heavy riff rock, not the best, not the originators, not the most creative, but a perfectly distilled example of it.

Yeah, that seems likely. Just been reading about several of these guys (the cover of that reunion album is the view from Pappalardi's grave, according to Leslie West). No idea that they, incl. Clarke, did so much; he and West are still at it, though not together (currently). Would like to hear the expanded Who's Next for the early tracks incl. West and Kooper (would like to hear it for other reasons as well).

Better than Cream imo

Leslie West on a ventilator and in critical so thinking of him today and rocking this album

Went through a big thing with this record (and West's solo lp "Mountain") this summer and realized that every time I was listening to Cream in my life and being bored to tears I should have been listening to Mountain, I would have been much happier.

Big ups to LW

...and now he's dead.

Mountain > Cream without question.

This is a story

Saw Mountain after a minor league baseball game in 1996 with Iron Butterfly and Foghat. The ticket price was one bottle of A1 steak sauce. Leslie West stormed off mid-set for some reason. RIP

— Sarah Hennies (@hhhhhennies) December 23, 2020

I know it's cliche but goddamn Mississippi Queen is such a fucking monster riff. You could retired after that. RIP Big Man

The Mississippi Queen in the middling 'Twin Peaks' live record is a speaker shredder. RIP Leslie.

an aside:

here's my mom and felix pappalardi sometime around 1960 pic.twitter.com/IPY57NRAuk

— Juliana Hatfield (@julianahatfield) December 15, 2020

Apparently he grew up partly in Forest Hills, where I lived until recently, and also I think spent some of his adult life there (people in my neighborhood mentioned that he lived in a building very close to mine, but not sure what years that was.

I've yet to hear a whole album by Mountain, but I was always impressed by how politely he begged our pardon for getting his kicks.

First two Mountain albums are top notch early hard rock. Leslie West lived pretty hard. I've loved Mountain and his music since I saw them open up for Triumph as a teenager in the 80s. Never played it live, but "Never in my Life" is one of the few covers I ever worked up and sang with a band. I've always been curious about some of those records he did post 2000, as he made quite a few. Perhaps by economic need, he did seems to keep the fire to keep playing and seemingly enjoyed music late into his career from interviews I had read.

I heard an interview with Jack Douglas and his first studio gig was emptying West's puke bucket because he was going cold turkey and trying to record

Better than Cream imo

Mountain > Cream without question.

Mississippi Cream (@ 0:18)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsFux_71fVQ

West sat in on the initial Who’s Next sessions in New York, but the band wasn’t happy with how they turned out (generally, not because of West), and started over a couple months later back in London. Most of the NYC sessions dribbled out on a few Who releases in the late ‘90s/early ‘00s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqP3hiMdZpQ

I think I have several of the tracks on 's Next 2cd Deluxe thing yeah. Not dug that out in a while though.

Not paid much attention to Mountain. Think the one thing I have by them is one of the official live sets that came out over the last decade. But have seen there is an official album series with several of their lps in. So may have more next week.
Also seeing that BGO have several lps paired.

They played a set at Cincinatti Pop the festival that begat the infamous iggy in crowd and on crowd footage with the stooges. I can't cut and paste very easily on a phone or I'd include the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ9Jh2HDUHY