Join host Pete Pardo for a ranking of the studio albums of legendary US heavy rock act Mountain. #mountain If you'd like to donate to the channel, our ko-fi page can be found at: ko-fi.com/peterpardosseaoftra...
Yes , Jack and Felix were good friends and Jack more or less took over from Felix . They dumped poor old Steve Knight and played as a trio . Felix produced the Cream albums and Jack's first solo album , " Songs For A Tailor " . One of my favourite albums of all time .
1. Climbing 2. Nantucket Sleighride 3. LW Mountain 4. Flowers of Evil 5. Avalanche If Twin Peaks was available for this list it would be high on the list. Amazing live album! Thanx for the video Pete
Saw Corky solo a couple years ago in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Fun show as he loved telling stories of the golden days. Sadly there were literally like 25 people in the tiny bar he played in.
Mr. Pardo, you have the coolest rock T-shirts of anybody! I don't know too many chaps who have Mountain, Grand Funk or James Gang T-shirts, but you, sir, have Mountain, Grand Funk, and James Gang T's, and I'm going to get my hands on some so I can be cool like you!
I'm glad a few people mention Steve Knight. Almost every history of Mountain barely gives the guy a mention, yet, he was an original member and played on arguably all their best albums. Mind you, Leslie West exhibited absolutely no respect for him, stating that he regarded Mountain as trio ! He didn't want keyboards but Knight had played before with Felix Pappalardi and Felix knew his pedigree. Having produced Cream, he could see some of the limitations of a power trio. Anyway, he was older than the rest by a few years {4 older than Felix, 10 older than Leslie, 13 older than Corky, 12 older than Norman Smart, the original Mountain drummer} and in my opinion, showed great versatility by playing in a heavy rock outfit though both his parents were artists so he had a very open mind ~ he got a degree in psychology. And he wasn't just a pretty set of keys on the side of the stage. He played an important role in the actual music of the band. After Mountain, he kind of got into local politics and did some jazzy music here and there.
One of the reasons West did not like him , (it goes something like this) ...they were at an airport in New York and were supposed to meet up at the studio , they all took separate cabs to get there , Steve said he was broke and Leslie gave him money to take a cab , everyone got there except for knight , and they were wondering "where the fuck is he " ..he finally showed up , it was found out he took the subway and walked the rest of the way , pocketing the money West gave him !! And never paid it back ..lol.😢
@@michaelkoszowski3716 Yeah, but that's no reason to diss on the guy's contribution to the band. He made Mountain's music much more attractive and inventive. Besides, who is {or was} Leslie West to be ragging on people about their behaviour ? He has long had a reputation for being near the top of the table when it comes to being obnoxious. Thinking about it, if I was broke and someone gave me money to get somewhere to meet them, I might do what Steve did ! Money to eat is money to eat......
@@grimtraveller7923 ...when I read that story , I just couldn't help but laugh ! ...lol....but , whether wrong or right , it could of rubbed L.W. the wrong way , particularly it was well known he did not like knight in that band . And I thought knights contributions were huge in mountain . When Steve left , it was not the same ! ... avalanche took a few steps backwards too me .
My Mountain Top 5 Studio Albums: 1. Climbing! 2. Nantucket Sleighride 3. Avalanche 4. Mountain (first album, technically a Leslie West solo album) 5. Flowers Of Evil
Another great one, Pete. Nantucket Sleighride is my favourite. It was the second album I ever bought, so I guess I have a soft spot for it. Piece of rock trivia. The bridge from Nantucket Sleighride was used as the theme tune for a 1970s UK current events programme called “Weekend World”.
The early albums are amazing and never grow old. The live section of Flowers of evil is one of a kind. The soft-hard dialog Leslie plays with his guitar in a dual role and after the the jam-interaction between the guitar and bass has never been equaled. Thank you so for this and all other reviews. Very much appreciated.
Never get bored listening to Mountain, or Leslie West's Solo Albums....As it happens I saw an Amazing tribute Band in japan...loads of their Stuff on You Tube keeping The memory Alive....great band.
Thanks Pete you have showed me so many amazing bands I never would have found without your channel.they don't make music like that anymore...I'm 47 and I'm stunned by how many bands I never new about...hope your channel goes for years to come
the leslie west solo album 'mountain' reminds me of the david coverdale solo album titled 'whitesnake', years before he actually formed the band....cool stuff mr. pardo...peace....
Leslie WEST/ heavy duty. He grew up a period of his youth/ close by/ in Hackensack New Jersey. Also / had a cameo in The MONEY PIT (1986). Felix PAPPALARDI/ hidden gem ( just my opinion). Killed super young by wife ( 1983). Thx again PETE/ for your time. CLIMBING (1970) would be my N0. #1 as well
Climbing! has to be my all time favorite Mountain album. The other Mountain albums I have are Flowers of Evil and Twin Peaks. You're right, Pete...Twin Peaks is a great live album.
Hi pete. Great show as always. You have really inspired me to check out new music. P.s. my cd collection has tripled in size since watching your channel.
Hey man I am Robert born in Florida I have lived in Asheville NC For the last 25 years I'm 35 and I love the album on top totally kicked ass and my old man showed me them when I was around ten
I grew up right in the middle of this music scene and thanks to my 6 yrs older Brother heard all the Great Rock and Prog music !! If your younger of lets say a "Yout" !! Lol You really need to listen to "Mountain" they were unique and a great Rock Band, Loud quiet and in between , great musicians all and more than the radio hits that most know ! Mountain was fantastic and often forgotten sadly.
great band, i wished they had put out a double live album with the original group. i always felt they lost a lot when steve knight left, even with felix still in the band.
My favorite hard rockin' sound of all time. Never in my life! That for me is the best heavy sounding song from top to bottom. Mississippi was overplayed, this one is even better!
I really only listen to the top three here. Four through seven have some good stuff, but nothing essential. And the cover album (Masters Of War) is terrible. 8) Masters of War 7) Man's World 6) Mystic Fire 5) Avalanche 4) Go for Your Life 3) Nantucket Sleighride 2) Flowers of Evil 1) Climbing! If we're including Leslie West "Mountain", that's number two for me. Great record! Also, I need to give a shout out to Twin Peaks - an amazing live album. Thanks, Pete!
Leslie West along with Paul Kossoff the greatest vibrato ever nobody else is even close. Twin Peaks awesome live album. All the studio albums rule. 👍👍👍
I gotta put sleigh ride number 1, first real Rock concert I saw, it was the sleigh ride tour, freaking awesome, to this day one of the best I ever saw. they were smokin !! Climbing is killer just got the CD from FYE for 45 cents you probably don't believe it but it's true and it's a new CD.
...thanks for this Pete, and thanks for the shout-out for Twin Peaks, which only suffers from Leslie's occasional over-exhuberance and the lack of the "Theme from Twin Peaks"...seriously, how good would that have been ? Imaginary Western has always been one of my top 5, top 3 ? tunes...and so right about LW's tone, and texture, and sustain and taste...and his solo album...and Felix...not always a fan of LW's ballstothewall classic r&r raves...
Played at my High School Senior year Ramapo in Rockland.Peter Baron at 17played on the wild wiid west album. also joe venti on bass were both a big part of that band till today. Not to forget Richie Scarlet.Check it out.
I've got to agree with Pete, the band suffered quite a bit with the absence of Felix Pappalardi; he is missed. He brought good lyrics and a good flavor of his own that made those early songs great.
One of those bands I first heard on the Woodstock Two album in 1971. 1. Leslie West Mountain 2. Climbing 3. Nantucket Sleight Ride 4. Flowers of Evil 5. Avalanche 6. Masters of War 7. Over the Top 8. Man's World 9. Mystic Fire (aka Mountain High) 10. Go For Your Life
Hi, greetings from Spain. I'm a huge fan of hard/heavy but I did not know Mountain. I have already got one vinyl - Go for your life- and I'm enjoying a lot. I'm waiting for 7 more albums to arrive. I discovered them because of you. Thanks a lot. I found out your channel recently and I'm enjoying a lot with the ranking the albums videos. Most of them are from my favourites bands: Nazareth, Humble PIe, Thin Lizzy, Budgie, ... alaso Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and my top one: Black Sabbath. Regards
Those first few mountain albums are classic. The West, Bruce and Laing (sp) were awesome too. From the 80s on the material didnt really grab me but Mountain's first run was brilliant.
Thanks for this review love me some Mountain.....saw them in 2007. Blood of the Sun one of my favorites always considered them also instrumental to starting heavy metal.
My list is pretty much the same Pete. I would put Twin Peaks either right before or after Nantucket Sleighride depending on my mood. They were great at Woodstock.
West, Bruce & Laing "Why Dontcha?" (1973) I do not have though. The original label Windfall was a distribution for Bell Records until 1973 when Mountain signed for Columbia Records.
Were you aware that Pete Townsend contacted Leslie to ask him to play on what was to become "Who's Next" When Leslie got the word he stated: "why does he want me, he already is more than competent." (They apparently were friends). Townsend came back that Leslie was one of his favorite players and he simply wanted a more spontaneous feel and little to no overdubbing. Anyway, it happened. But then the record executives stepped in and said: "this cannot be for legal label related reasons." Who's Next was completed with Leslie's contributions erased. Until the release of the Deluxe Edition CD of album of same name. There are just a few tracks that remain where the two of them are wailing such as "Baby Don't You Do It." Oh the things that could have been.
I'll show my age by saying I first heart Climbing upon its release when a friend of mine came home from the record store with that album as well as Santana's first album and the second Chicago album. Three great albums and some great times with a friend. Climbing remains my favorite for that reason alone but I love all of them. I met Leslie West once on a commuter flight in the northeast - and this was many, many years ago. A great, friendly person who seemed to enjoy chatting with a fanboy.
Leslie West is criminally underrated. I'll take Leslie in his prime over all the others People idolize. Also The Leslie West Band "What you gonna do with my Money" and "The Twister" from that album. Fucking smokes!
I agree with most of the list, except I would put Nantucket Sleighride in #1 and everything else falls the same. First time I heard Corky's drums at the beginning of 'Dont Look around', I was taken with this album. The title track is my favorite Mountain song, even though I do prefer the heavier material.
Hey Pete, I am going to give a request for a video. Could you possibly do a video on your top 20 favourite prog rock songs of all time. I would be interested to see how you compared crimson and yes and ELP.
Interesting outlook. I personally never thought that heavy side is the strong point of Mountain, always liked their proggier or psychedelic part better. Really it is like there are two band inside Mountain, one is raw and bluesy West one, and another, graceful and rather intricate, is represented by Felix (and I like this one much more). Their heavy rockers are just a tad generic in my opinion. If to talk about Climbing! - Mississippi Queen or Never In My Life were always outshined for me by Theme For Imaginary Western, Boys In The Band or For Yasgur's Farm. And that is why I like more organic approach of Nantucket Sleighride more and consider this album to be their best - apart of Animal Trainer and the Toad everything clicks there, what an amazing CD. Studio part of Flowers of Evil is very good too (Pride and Passion, One Last Cold Kiss and Flowers of Evil are simply great). I have Avalance and Twin Peaks in the boxed set as well. Avalanche is mostly just heavy blues and some country, sound is just bad (sorry) and I do not get it, seems boring. Twin Peaks is interesting, 30 minutes jammy version of Nantauket Sleighride is surely something, and for what it worth guitar sound and Leslie signing is much better here than on Avalanche.
One of the GREAT ONES all there album's with FELIX PAPPALARDI are greats hits as far as I'm concerned ONE LAST COLD KISS would be the one if I had to pick. It's almost like picking your favorite child. I wish I could have seen them with FELIX but being born in 63 just to young BLACK SABBATH LED ZEPPLEN AND MOUNTAIN are my big three. They are so underrated. Thanks PETE you are doing a great job. Keep up the good work.
I got into Mountain comparatively late in my music buying life. Seen them twice live at The Lyceum in London and they were superb on both times. Personally I do prefer their 70s albums, but the later albums, though I find them inconsistent, have some good songs. 1 Climbing 2 Flowers of Evil 3 Avalaunche 4 Nantucket Sleighride 5 Mystic Fire 6 Man's World 7 Go For Your Life.
I've had both *Climbing!* and *Go For Your Life* and while the former is one of the greatest albums ever made - Top 50, easily - the latter is actually very good. *Go For Your Life* starts-out great with 3 great songs in a row - the incredible, HEAVY "Hard Times," the surprising synth-metal "Spark" as and the bruising, boisterous "She Loves Her Rock (And She Loves It Hard)" - and, while the rest of the album isn't that great, it's still pretty decent. Worth it for the first 3 songs alone. 🤘🏻
Climbing is outstanding... He had stories going to Pawn Shops buying Les paul jrs... ( leslie w ) interview he said picked about 100 or so sometimes $85 each!
Mountains debut is in the same league for me as wheels of fire / truth / axis / second winter etc its full of great songs -its truly underrated - the rest are really strong also
Hey Pete, are you a fan of The Tea Party from Canada? Absolutely killer band, a trio with a tremendous sound, and one of the world's great rock outfits in my humble opinion even if they're not the best-known in the US. Elements of heavy rock, metal, prog rock, indie rock, world music, folk, they employ various ethnic/exotic instruments etc. Richly poetic, mystical, spiritual, literary, sometimes slightly dark lyrics. (Indeed I think their name was Jack Kerouac/ William Burroughs inspired.) Some bottom-heavy, driving Middle Eastern sounding rhythms a la Led Zeppelin. Jeff Martin hates Doors comparisons but let's face it, he does sound a little like Mr. Mojo Risin'. But ultimately I think they sound like themselves; they put their own stamp on things. If you do listen to them I'd really appreciate a ranking of their albums, some reviews, etc. If you don't, well, check them out, as I think you'll be impressed. I got into Tea Party back in 1994 after I read a couple of "new talent" articles about them in the now defunct RIP and Livewire magazines; bought their then-new Edges of Twilight album at Sam Goody solely based on what I read--had never heard them at all before that--and was hooked. Love to know your opinion!! Thanks for all the videos, especially during Plague Times when we all need diversions and escapism. Keep up the good work.
The mere mentiion of Mountain..... "Nantucket Sleighride" is No1. Nothing else comes close. And, as mentioned by someone above, try to find the Jagger/Richards tracks on Leslies hard to find "The Great Fatsby" album. It rips!
Love the original lineup of Mountain and wouldn't really differ on the ranking.I feel like West,Bruce and Laing,Why Don'tcha' album is as much or more a Mountain album than any album without Felix.That would rank #4 for me if it was under the Mountain name.
hey Pete, when you mentioned how that Mountain album was ruined by crappy drum machine programming, I've been putting together playlists of a lot of my favorite artists to pass the time and this holds true for so many albums made in the mid-80s. drum machines work for dance music, some 80s alternative and industrial music but not for hard rock, jazz-fusion, metal or blues. some notable examples I found are as follows: Al Dimeola/Senario, some mid-80s Roy Buchanan albums, Jeff Beck/Flash, Joe Walsh/The Confessor, Neil Young/Trans & Reactor and believe it or not even some mid-80s Tony Williams albums incorporate drum programming, very sad indeed. the only artist in my opinion who utilized drum machines to good effect was Prince, I think it totally fit what he was doing, and he was very creative with his use of them. anybody have any thoughts on this ?
Masters Of War is a covers album but still a Mountain album. This is your channel, so your rules goes, and it's just my two cents. I saw Mountain perform Blowing In The Wind live in Toronto, starting acoustic and finishing as a rocker. Corky was entertaining--launching sticks into the crowd and balancing cymbal stands...all done while playing! Leslie only tossed one pick at the end of the show, and I grabbed it. It was a triple bill with April Wine had Deep Purple--excellent show all around!!!!
The old Forum, AND with Crowbar?! Wow!!!! Although I'm a 74 kid, Hamilton was just up the highway, so I really got into Crowbar and Richard "King Biscuit Boy" Newell solo records. ((RIP both KBB and Kelly Jay)) If you're on vinyl or tape from that time, I might have a copy (or want to find it, as name sez I love to crate-dig). Helluva great-sounding music scene then!!!!
...i played there twice in 1971...first with a group called "SummerSounds '71", with Lisa Dalbello and about twenty others, sponsored by provincial gov...then later, possibly that fall with Barry Whitcroft, a friend i played with and had also played in ss71...prob saw Crowbar and possibly other forgotten shows around that same time...there is only a limited-edition double-album from ss71 , recorded live, prob at National Art Gallery, Ottawa, that was as far as i know only given to band/support-crew...
They never equaled Climbing! "Never In My Life" deserved as much attention as "Mississippi Queen"...the riff is that great. But West's solo spot "To My Friend: showed his versatility.
Theme for an Imaginary Western and Taunta/Nantucket Sleighride are personal favorites, but it seems to me that the mix is a little muddy. Have these albums ever been remastered?
Does anyone know who made that 3-foot whammy bar for Leslie West? (Maybe it was only 2-feet long, not sure, but it was VERY long.) I understand that he needed it because his arms couldn't reach a normal one since his belly was on the larger size. I just always wondered if he made it himself.
Have you added up how much you have invested in teeshirts alone??? lol I'm just jealous, pay me no mind...! Mountain is one of my favorite bands of that era (or any era actually) Thanks!
Mountain is one of the best bands in the 70s. they were known for thunderous shows. i wished i wooda seen them live. .69 to 74 is the best yrs of Mountain .without Felix its not mountain leslie west Mountain avalanche climbing nantucket sleighride twin peaks
West did Nantucket sleigh ride redux on mystic fire still as beautiful as ever but his voice wasn't up to par for that song. You were right very heavy album
Keyboard player Steve Knight STILL getting no respect!! Bummer! He wasn't a side man, he was in the band for their best albums. The list is good though.
Jammin' on some Leslie West! My top three are same as yours and the only ones I own. What about some Tommy Bolin? Sure he only had two solo albums but you could throw in his stuff with Zephyr, James Gang, Deep Purple, Billy Cobham, and Alphonse Mouzon? Thoughts.
Can't stand the people who are like Mountain oh it's Cream part3 because of Papaldardi or the just heavy blues type thing or Blind Faith 2!! Shheesh!! They had their own thing. A hell of a lot more then Missippi Queen!!
