![]() ![]() Pappalardi returned to studio work, while West and Laing formed West, Bruce and Laing with former Cream bassist Jack Bruce. A live album, Mountain Live: The Road Goes Ever On, was issued in April 1972. West has since cited a combination of drug abuse within the band and Pappalardi's road weariness and burgeoning hearing impairment as primary factors. Mountain disbanded in February 1972 after a tour of the UK. Īfter Nantucket Sleighride, the band produced Flowers of Evil (November 1971) consisting of one side of studio material and one live side, culled from a concert at New York's Fillmore East. After these early releases the band continued to receive a certain measure of critical acclaim but never again achieved great commercial success. The title track was used in the UK as the theme to ITV's Sunday political program Weekend World. Mountain began a hectic touring schedule in the middle of which they recorded a follow-up album, Nantucket Sleighride, released in January 1971. 21 in the Billboard Hot 100, and was featured in the 1971 cult film Vanishing Point, while the album reached No. It led off with what became the band's signature song, " Mississippi Queen", which reached No. Soon after Woodstock, Smart was replaced by Canadian Laurence "Corky" Laing, who was the drummer on Climbing!, which was released in March 1970. Their performances of "Blood of the Sun" (from West's album) and "Theme for an Imaginary Western" (a song they planned to record for Climbing and written by former Cream bassist Jack Bruce) did appear on the second volume of Woodstock performances called "Woodstock II" (Neither of those "live" songs were recorded at Woodstock, however.) The 40th Anniversary Edition of Woodstock on DVD and Blu-ray features filmed performances of "Beside The Sea" and "Southbound Train". Mountain was received enthusiastically by the festival audience but the band did not appear in the film of the event, nor was their performance included on volume 1 of the festival's live album. Naming themselves "Mountain", after West's 1969 solo album, West, Pappalardi, Smart, and Knight played shows on the west coast before getting to play their third concert as a working band at the 1969 Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York. Keyboardist Steve Knight (from Devil's Anvil, another of Pappalardi's productions) was added after Landsberg left to form another group, Hammer, with Janick. ![]() The group was heavily influenced by Cream. According to West, when Pappalardi asked what would be next, West suggested the pair go on the road. The album spotlighted West's raw vocals and melodic, bluesy guitar style, and Pappalardi's bass lines were prominent. The album also featured Landsberg and former Remains drummer N.D. Pappalardi rejected the demos by the West-Landsberg-Janick trio, but took a suggestion that he play bass on West's solo album, Mountain. He envisioned a project that would take on a rawer and much harder style which he had begun to favor, with his newly-developed guitar style inspired by hearing Cream's Eric Clapton. He began to feel disillusioned with the R&B and blues scenes of the 1960s in which he had played. West, previously disgruntled and unsatisfied with the lack of success in his first project, found Cream to be a great inspiration. Right around this time, former Cream collaborator/producer Felix Pappalardi, who had previously produced the Vagrants, expressed an interest in producing West's work. In early 1969 Leslie West, formerly of the Long Island R&B band The Vagrants, put together a band, Leslie West Mountain, with Norman Landsberg (keyboards, bass) and Ken Janick (drums) and began playing gigs and recording demos. The group's musical style primarily consisted of hard rock, blues rock, and heavy metal. Best known for their cowbell-tinged song " Mississippi Queen", as well as the heavily sampled song " Long Red" and their performance at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, Mountain is one of many bands to be commonly credited as having influenced the development of heavy metal music in the 1970s. Smart (soon replaced by Corky Laing), the band broke up in 1972, but reunited on several occasions prior to West's death in 2020. Originally comprising vocalist and guitarist Leslie West, bassist and vocalist Felix Pappalardi, keyboardist Steve Knight, and drummer N. Mountain was an American hard rock band formed in Long Island, New York, in 1969.
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