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Mississippi Queen | Mountain | 02:31 | |
For Yasgur's Farm | Mountain | 03:22 | |
Nantucket Sleighride (To Owen Coffin) | Mountain | 05:52 | |
Don't Look Around | Mountain | 03:43 | |
Theme for an Imaginary Western | Mountain | 05:07 | |
Never In My Life | Mountain | 03:52 | |
Silver Paper | Mountain | 03:17 | |
Theme for an Imaginary Western | Mountain | 05:05 | |
Nantucket Sleighride (To Owen Coffin) | Mountain | 05:51 | |
The Great Train Robbery | Mountain | 05:45 |
Mountain, one of the acknowledged
precursors to heavy metal, formed in Long Island, New York in 1969. The group began
to coalesce when producer and bassist Felix Pappalardi began to work with
guitarist Leslie West in the late 1960s. Pappalardi produced West’s solo album,
1969’s Mountain, though the band Mountain would not exist until later
that year when the duo joined forces with drummer N.D. Smart and keyboardist
Steve Knight. Mountain played the famous Woodstock festival within one of their
first five live appearances. Corky Laing replaced Smart on drums before they
went into the studio to record 1970’s Climbing!, their debut album that
featured “Mississippi Queen”, a slab of boogie-blues that became a top
40 hit and would remain the song most associated the band and West in
particular. The band’s sound, a psychedelic-tinged swath of bluesy proto heavy
metal, owed a debt to Pappalardi’s previous associates, Cream. They continued
with this sonic path for a pair of albums in 1971, Nantucket Sleighride
and Flowers of Evil, and the group became even better known for volcanic
live shows thanks to West’s outsized showmanship and skill. Pappalardi stepped
away after a 1972 live album, and while that would end the classic line-up of
the band, Mountain would reform off and on over the years, often with Mike Clark
on bass after Pappalardi’s death in 1983. That line-up would record 1985’s Go
For Your Life, the group’s last charting album, though new Mountain product
would be produced as late as 2007’s Masters of War.