Exhaustive retrospective on the career of influential New York rockers, Mountain.  Don’t Look Around features every surviving recording by the band’s classic lineup – including that legendary Woodstock performance, in full.  “Massive slabs of quivering, quaking hard-rocking riffs…”

IT ALL STARTED WITH A CHANCE ENCOUNTER…

For Mountain, it all started in a New York television theatre in February 1956.  Young Leslie Weinstein had been taken along by his uncle to watch a recording of the Jackie Gleeson Stage Show.  For one reason or another, Gleeson (Leslie’s favourite comedian of the day) didn’t show up and the assembled audience were, instead, entertained by an emerging talent who went by the unlikely name of Elvis Presley.  For Leslie Weinstein, the evening was a life-changer.

Leslie Weinstein became Leslie West, founder and frontman of Mountain, one of the most influential and hardest rocking ensembles of the 1970s.  By modern standards, Mountain weren’t together for very long.  They came together in 1969 – just in time to take the world by storm at that year’s seminal Woodstock Festival – and, by December 1974, it was all over.  But, during the five years of their existence, Mountain produced some wonderful, memorable, music.  It’s all captured here – on Don’t Look Around, Esoteric/ Cherry Red’s 7-CD exhaustive retrospective of the band’s golden years.

I guess that Mountain were regarded as Cream copyists in some quarters, but I don’t buy that theory at all.  Cream – and Jack Bruce in particular – were certainly a huge influence but, with talents as massive as Leslie West, Felix Pappalardi and Corky Laing within their ranks, Mountain were always going to be a band that did things their own way.

ONWARD TO WOODSTOCK

The ball started to roll in 1964 when the Elvis-smitten Leslie teamed up with his brother, bassist Larry West to form The Vagrants.  The five-piece R&B/ Garage outfit were spotted by producer Felix Pappalardi, who engineered a recording contract for the band with the Atco label.  The Vagrants didn’t last, but Pappalardi was impressed by Leslie’s abilities and spurred him on to record a solo album.  The solo album was given the title Mountain – an allusion to West’s 5XL stature – and the legend began to form.  The musicians that played on the album – Pappalardi on bass, ND Smart on drums and Norman Landsberg on keyboards – joined West on his live performances of the album’s material and, unsurprisingly, the collective soon came to known as Mountain.

A PORTENT OF THINGS TO COME

Mountain, the album – Disc One to this collection – was a clear portent of things to come.  The album features songs – Blood Of The Sun, Long Red, Southbound Train and Dreams of Milk and Honey in particular – that would become Mountain live staples and it set the template for the music to come.  Felix Pappalardi’s basslines are particularly notable, as are Leslie’s gritty vocals and smooth, bluesy, guitar.  The early band’s live shows attracted significant levels of attention – so much so, that they were invited along to perform at the massive Woodstock Festival on 16^th July 1969.  It would be the fourth live performance; they hit the stage at the magical hour of 9:00pm.

For so many years, Mountain were one of Woodstock’s overlooked acts.  They didn’t feature on the original movie soundtrack, although a couple of their songs did pop up on some of the later festival recordings.  I’ve always considered that to be an omission of huge proportions, because every recording and every clip that eventually made it into the public arena always told the same story.  Mountain were on fire that evening.

CLIMBING!

For me, the recording of Mountain’s full Woodstock set is the undisputed centrepiece of this boxset and the nine songs that the band performed that day occupy the entirety of Disc Two.  The performances of Blood Of The Sun, Long Red, Theme From An Imaginary Western and Who Am I But You And The Sun (later to be retitled For Yasgur’s Farm in honour of the farmer that owned the land on which the festival took place) are truly legendary.  And the band’s stage announcements have, themselves, become the stuff of legend.

Immediately after the Woodstock performance, Mountain headed for The Record Plant in New York to commence work on the band’s first album proper.  ND Smart had occupied the drum stool for the Woodstock show, but for the new album – to be called Climbing! – Canadian drummer Corky Laing was drafted into the ranks, alongside new keyboardist Steve Knight.  Climbing! (Disc Three to this collection) represents Mountain’s commercial breakthrough.  The album reached #17 on the Billboard Album Chart and opening track, Mississippi Queen reached #21 on the singles chart, becoming the band’s signature tune in the process. 

There are more great moments on Climbing!  The version of Jack Bruce’s Theme From An Imaginary Western (previewed during the band’s Woodstock set) is a turbo-charged classic, as is the mighty Never in My Life and the honed version of For Yasgur’s Farm.  A live recording of For Yasgur’s Farm, together with an epic version of T-Bone Walker’s Stormy Monday Blues complete Disc Two, and both tracks are well worth a deep listen.

NANTUCKET SLEIGHRIDE

Climbing! brought Mountain widespread attention in North America but it was the band’s follow-up, 1971’s Nantucket Sleighride (Disc Four to this set) that brought worldwide fame to the band. 

The album’s title track – named after the term for a whaling boat being dragged by a harpooned whale – gained its long-term place in UK consciousness when it was adopted as the theme for BBC’s Weekend World series.  Elsewhere, the album is awash with tributes to friends and associates of the band.  Tired Angels (to J.M.H.) is Mountain’s tribute to the then recently-deceased Jimi Hendrix, Travelin’ in the Dark is dedicated to Pappalardi’s mother and Taunta (Sammy’s Tune) was written for his pet poodle.  Even Ronnie Biggs & Co get a nod with the honky-tonk-flavoured The Great Train Robbery.

AfterNantucket Sleighride things began to slide.  The album’s single, The Animal Trainer And The Toad, failed to trouble the charts and fissures were starting to appear between band members and their various camps.  In particular, Leslie West was starting to believe that Pappalardi’s partner, Gail Collins Pappalardi was exerting too much influence over the band, its repertoire and its public image.

THE SLIDE BEGINS

Fissures or not, though, Mountain ploughed onward and the band’s next album, Flowers Of Evil appeared at the end of 1971.  Included as Disc Five of this compilation, the album was two-part affair, with five new studio recordings on Side 1 and a pair of live recordings from Mountain’s June 1971 show at New York’s Fillmore East on Side Tow.  Critically dismissed at the time of its release, the album isn’t without its charms.  The title track is a biting discourse on drug misuse by troops fighting in Vietnam, whilst the pulsing Crossroader set an example that would be taken up by the others – not least ZZ Top – in the not-too-distant future.

The live side of Flowers Of Evil is, if I’m being honest, something of an endurance test.  The 24-minute Dream Sequence combines over-long periods of guitar-led noodling with a blast of Roll Over Beethoven and the version of Mississippi Queen, whilst chunky and a reminder of what Mountain were capable of, could also be considered as a tad redundant.

Mountain toured Europe in early 1972, before deciding to call it a day.  Drug issues had started to affect the band and Felix Pappalardi was suffering from hearing problems.  The band’s record company filled the gap left by the band’s absence with a live album: Live: The Road Goes Ever On (the title was taken from one of the poems in Tolkien’s The Hobbit.)  Half of the album was recorded at Woodstock and those tracks are included on Disc Two of this set.  The other half of the album comprised versions of Crossroader and Nantucket Sleighride and they’ve been extracted as bonus tracks to complete Disc Five.

TWIN PEAKS – AND AN AVALANCHE…

A hiatus followed, during which West and Laing pooled their resources with Jack Bruce to tour and release three albums – two studio recordings and one live album – as West, Bruce and Laing, a project that occupied their attention until mid-1973.  Then, perhaps surprisingly, West and Pappalardi regrouped in August 1973 to reform Mountain.  Corky Laing had declined to take part, so his place was offered to noted session man Allan Schwartzberg.  Ex-Dreams keyboardist Bob Mann was also recruited and Mountain hit the road once more.

During that trek, the re-formed Mountain played a show at the Koseinenkin Hall in Osaka, Japan and the show was captured for posterity and released as the double-disc, aptly-titled Twin Peaks in February 1974.  The album is included here as Disc Six.  Like many live albums of the era, Twin Peaks isn’t short on self-indulgence, most notably on the marathon rendering of Nantucket Sleighride and, despite a number of undoubted highlights – Never In My Life and Silver Paper spring to mind – Twin Peaks was Mountain’s poorest-selling album up until that point.

AFTER THE COMEBACK

After the ‘comeback’ tour, Corky Laing rejoined Mountain and the band decided that there was enough fuel in the tank for another album.  Released in July 1974, Avalanche (Disc Seven of this collection) also featured second guitarist David Perry and, once again, the album was received with indifference and sold poorly.  The track listing includes covers of Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On – a rollicking version and an album highlight – and a curious take on The Stones’ Satisfaction.  Other album highlights include You’d Better Believe It and Sister Justice but the overwhelming impression to be gained from the album is that of a band on its last legs.  Mountain went their separate ways after a final gig at New York’s Felt Forum on the last day of 1974.

A SAD ENDING

And it’s a real shame that things ended that way for Mountain because, in their pomp, they were one of the best, most innovative and most influential bands on the planet.  Jethro Tull’s Martin Barre cites Leslie West as a formative influence and artists as diverse as Randy Rhoads, John McLaughlan, Johnny Ramone and John Frusciante have all expressed their admiration for Mountain’s work. 

Sadly, Corky Laing is the last remaining member of Mountains classic lineup to remain with us.  Leslie West died, aged 75, in December 2022 after suffering a heart attack; Felix was murdered by his partner, Gail, in their New York apartment in April 1983 and keyboardist Steve Knight passed away in January 2013 after suffering complications from Parkinson’s Disease. 

…AND A FINE LEGACY

But Mountain left a fine legacy and it’s good to know that that legacy has finally been given the recognition it deserves.  Esoteric/ Cherry Red have done their usual sterling job in presenting this boxset.  Packaged in the usual clamshell box, each disc comes in a slipcase featuring the original album artwork.  The 36-page illustrated booklet that accompanies the set includes a deeply informative band history that includes accounts of first-hand encounters with band members, by rock journalist and band associate Mike Mettler.  Mettler describes Mountain’s stock-in-trade as: “…massive slabs of quivering, quaking hard-rocking riffs…”  He’s got a point…

Don’t Look Around is a package that any fan of the band – or anyone wishing to understand how a Mountain was made from a molehill – should cherish.

Watch Mountain perform their ‘signature’ number, Mississippi Queen, Live on The Show – 24th February 1970 – below:

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