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Mountain
Posted by Laila Hanson on 23-May-08 @ 03:17 PM|
YEARS OF EXISTENCE: 1969 to present, with stretches of time off to create supergroups, solo records and at least one coroner's report. YEARS OF DECENT EXISTENCE: 1970-1971 BEST RECORDS: Climbing! (1970), Nantucket Sleighride (1971), Twin Peaks (1974) WORST RECORDS: Mountain Live: The Road Goes Ever On (1972), Avalanche (1974), Man's World (1996) GO DOWNLOAD: "Mississippi Queen," "Theme From An Imaginary Western," "Nantucket Sleighride" FILE UNDER: Born To Boogie, Live To Tell SIMILAR SOUNDING DINOSAURS: Cream, Grand Funk Railroad, Foghat. I bet Every Time I Die's heard of 'em, as well... THE MUSIC: In addition to playing a mean bass guitar, Felix Pappalardi was responsible for production chores on some of Cream's memorable recordings. He met up with blues-guitar savant Leslie West when he was hired to producer West's Yardbirds-fixated outfit, the Vagrants. When that band broke up, West and Pappalardi enlisted drummer Norman Smart and keyboardist Steve Knight to help throw down the good ol' boogie that Eric Clapton's pasty British ass couldn't shake loose. Soon afterward, monster drummer Corky Laing replaced Smart, throwing some octane booster on the proceedings. But sadly, Mountain fell into the 5,000-minute jam chasm (a double-disc live album with only four songs? WTF?) and broke up soon after. West and Laing joined with Cream singer Jack Bruce for two albums under the name West, Bruce & Laing in the mid-'70s. (Shades of Blind Faith, anyone?) WHAT THEY SAY: "Mountain pioneered the bottom-heavy sludge that would become heavy metal." -Rough Guide To Rock WHAT I SAY: Mountain certainly achieved benchmark standards for American rock music as we know it, even if their digital sound files seemingly smell like stale beer and pot fumes. WHY YOUR (GRAND)PARENTS LIKE THEM: The fact that such glorious riffage came from a decidedly non-pretty dude whose jams were second only in length to his belt size. This is not a cheap shot: West has always maintained a self-deprecating attitude toward his waistline, from the cartoon of him eating a pile of cheeseburgers on the cover of West, Bruce And Laing's Whatever Turns You On, to the title of his 1975 solo album, The Great Fatsby. CURRENT WHEREABOUTS: Sadly, Pappalardi was killed by his wife in 1983. After spending the past two decades forming bands, releasing solo albums, going cold turkey and running one multi-national record company, West and Laing recorded Masters Of War last year, a collection of interpretations of songs by Bob Dylan. How utterly necessary. -Jason Pettigrew |
