Artist: Mountain Genre(s):
Rock: Hard-Rock
Rock: Pop-Rock
Rock
Discography:
Go For Your Life Year: 2001
Tracks: 9
Climbing! Year: 1992
Tracks: 9
Twin Peaks Year: 1974
Tracks: 9
The Best Of (Remastered) Year: 1973
Tracks: 16
Nantucket Sleighride Year: 1971
Tracks: 9
The breakup of Cream in late 1968 had consequences that wavy crossways the rock music earth -- in its wake were formed directly such bands as Blind Faith (whose tragedy was they never had a opportunity to actually go a band) and Ginger Baker's Air Force, as easily as the rich solo careers of members Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce. And it yielded -- by way of Cream associate and manufacturer Felix Pappalardi -- something of a replacement band in 1969, in the form of Mountain.
The band's history all started with a Long Island-based psychedelic/garage banding called the Vagrants, who'd acquired a serious local following and invariably seemed poised to weaken out, without of all time actually doing so. Their lead guitarist, Leslie West, was a physically oversize figure as well as a instrumentalist extraordinaire whose playing had been entirely transformed by his feel of hearing Clapton's playing in Cream. The Vagrants and West first crossed paths with Pappalardi in 1968, when he saw their potential and got them gestural to Atlantic Records, where he was working as a producer. He had already made a name for himself producing Cream's
First Earl of Beaconsfield Gears album, and had played numerous scope instruments on their follow-up,
Wheels of Fire (and on the studio apartment tracks that would form their
Sayonara album). He did produce some of the best do work that the Vagrants e'er released, but none of it sold; and when West left the band in late 1968 to do a solo album, highborn
Slew, Pappalardi produced it for him, as well as played keyboards and bass on the record. The results were the most impressive of West's vocation up to that time, a solid, blues-based hard rock exercise, exhibit off just how profoundly he incorporated Clapton's playing into his own way --
Mass sounded a big administer like the now-disbanded Cream, and was satisfying sufficiency for the deuce to form a partnership, besides called Mountain. Their first batting order was built around the one used on the album, with N.D. Smart on drums, and Steve Knight added on keyboards, spell Pappalardi saturated on playing the bass. Following a debut performance at the Fillmore West in July 1969, the chemical group played its fourth live functioning of all time at Woodstock, in figurehead of an audience of several century k, on a measure with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, the Who, the Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and -- too getting their first base interior exposure at the same fete -- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The event was an auspicious one, fifty-fifty though it was followed by a personnel shift, as Smart was replaced by Corky Laing, West's oldest friend.
The group was gestural to the Windfall label and released their debut LP,
Mountain Climbing!, in the springiness of 1970, accompanied by their debut single, "Magnolia State Queen," which reached number 21 in June of 1970. That chart placement doesn't begin to outline the shock of that undivided, a hard rock music boogie that was a killer show window for West's guitar and an unlikely piece of Southern-fried rock & roll, orgasm from the pens of the Queens- and Brooklyn-born West and Pappalardi, and the Canadian-born Laing -- it was as unconvincing as the California-born John Fogerty authoring "Born on the Bayou" or "Viridity River," and most as abiding in popular cultivation. The unmarried may not have reached the Top 20, simply the record album it was on peaked at number 17, determined by listeners careworn to the single just lacking more from the band behind it, and the high-energy commix of hard sway and blues they generated. And the debut record album offered some surprises, such as the quartet's successful digression into reformist rock music with "Theme from an Imaginary Western" (co-authored by Cream's Jack Bruce, which only further emphasized the indirect connections and melodic debt owed the other band). The latter got slews of play on FM radio set, as did "Ne'er in My Life."
Every bit important to the band's fortunes, they were able to deliver onstage what they promised on their records -- so, their records were a surprisingly precise representation of their actual sound, leave out that Mountain was even louder live than they were in the studio. The chemical group scored some other hit at the Atlanta International Pop Festival in 1970, aboard the Allman Brothers, Cactus. and others. Mountain's second record album,
Nantucket Sleighride, was equally successful commercially and unveiled the title of respect path, which would charter on epic proportions in concert.
Flowers of Evil followed in November of 1971, just ten months subsequently its forerunner, and it began to clearly designate the strain of the gait the band had been guardianship up since July of 1969 -- half of it consisted of lustreless studio originals, patch the other half was a live medley and a concert interpretation of "Mississippi Queen." Lackluster gross sales and reviews were inevitable, and the depression of a ring running on empty was strengthened by their next release,
Mountain Live (The Road Goes Ever On) (1972), which had only four cuts on it, all of them characterized by extended solos. Hardcore fans appreciated the record as an reference of their recordings, simply many listeners and most critics launch it deficient musical cohesion.
The mathematical group broke up shortly afterward the handout of that album, due in part to Pappalardi's concerns around his hearing, which been damaged by the high volume the band generated in concert. He returned to production, patch West and Laing -- staying close to their severe rock roots, as well as the orbit whence Pappalardi had derive -- teamed up with ex-Cream bassist Jack Bruce as West, Bruce & Laing, a hard john Rock office trio that cut a brief just memorable wrapping of their own across the melodious landscape in the early/mid-'70s. Meanwhile, a
Best of Mountain LP released in the arouse of the detachment helped to sustain interest in the group. And later in 1973, Mountain was back together, West and Pappalardi reactivating the ring with Bob Mann on keyboards and guitar and Allan Schwartzberg on drums for a tour of duty of Japan. This resulted in the live two-fold LP
Counterpart Peaks (1974), a much better representation of the group's concert good, including a 32-minute version of "Nantucket Sleighride." During 1974, in the arouse of the second live album, West, Laing, and Pappalardi revived Mountain over again to record a studio LP,
Avalanche. In subsequent age, West and Laing revived the grouping for live shows, sometimes joined by Pappalardi; West besides performed with his possess Leslie West Band. Sadly, Pappalardi was shot and killed by his married woman in 1983. Two years later on, West and Laing regrouped with Mark Clarke on bass and recorded an album in front one time once more career it quits. Laing served as PolyGram's A&R vice chairwoman in Canada 'tween 1989 and 1995. In 1996, he reunited with West and Clarke for a new Mountain album,
Man's World. West and Laing teamed up over again in 2002 for some other album as Mountain,
Mystical Fire.
"Semi-Pro" (R), a comedy directed by Kent Alterman and starring Will Ferrell (with resplendent Afro) as an owner/coach/promoter/power forward of a hapless basketball team facing extinction.
"Meet the Spartans" (PG-13), a spoof of "300" with a C-list cast (including Sean Maguire, Carmen Electra and Kevin Sorbo) donning Greek wear and fake six-packs. Directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer.
