Mountain - Climbing

Year of Release: 2003
Label: Sony/Legacy
Catalog Number: CK-47361
Format: CD
Total Time: 37:31:00

My oh my does this music sound gooood! If you think about it, ?Mississippi Queen? always did sound great, all cranked up full blast blaring out of your speakers. It is about time that the Mountain catalog got the remaster treatment. Not only is their music classic, so are the album covers. I am sure that you would find this and other covers from this band's catalog in any good book dedicated to LP art.

Although Climbing is the first album that people associate with the band Mountain (with Felix Pappalardi), it is actually the second album, which was released in 1970 (Windfall, 4501). With a mountain of a man named Leslie West on guitar (he was in a band previously called the Vagrants with his brother) the band played blues influenced power chords and West sang like a hungry lion, man could he growl to answer that big fat loud sound of his guitar. Before the band got together he saw Cream and Eric Clapton at the Fillmore in NYC, he was changed forever. It came as no surprise that the comparisons to Clapton's group began right from the start for this band.

In the liner notes, West mentions that he got a chance to jam with Jimi Hendrix on one opportune afternoon, and Hendrix played bass while the amazed star struck West played lead. I can only imagine what an experience that must have been for him, not to mention inspirational. Corky Laing also adds some informative liner notes recalling what happened behind the music.

West and his cohorts, established producer Felix Pappalardi (Bass, Guitars, Piano, Vocals) Corky Laing (Percussion, Drums) and Steve Knight (Organ, Handbells) were a good fit for the stout West and his heavy metal sound. In case you did not know, West was to find out later in life that he had diabetes and then lost a lot of weight. When Pappalardi sang lead, he sounded like Jack Bruce and there was no coincidence that they covered ?Theme From An Imaginary Western? on their first release. As fate would have it, Bruce would later join what was left of the group, Laing and West, to form a power trio super group West, Bruce & Laing for three albums then they disbanded.

?Never In My Life? seemed to pick up where ?Mississippi Queen? left off with rowdy guitar and powerful strident vocals provided by West. ?To My Friend? would show a softer side of the group featuring delicate acoustic guitar, making it known to their audience that they could do more than just rock. ?For Yasgur's Farm? (which is also included as a bonus live track) was another classic with the multi-talented Felix on lead vocals. I think what made this band so engaging is the fact that they could switch back and forth effectively with the lead vocal position, offering a variety of more tasteful music that many hard rock bands could not afford their listeners. You could enjoy hard rockin' with Leslie or hear Felix's smooth voice accompanied by the more textured organ oriented sound. It worked well both ways. This music sounds fantastic remastered and I am sure anyone that has collected the band's catalog will want to have these discs now. Just as it says on the back of this CD??THIS RECORD WAS MEANT TO BE PLAYED LOUD.? What more can I say, this was killer rock music in 33 years ago and it still is.

Recently reissued in 2007 by Repertoire (1094) and in 2008 by Sony Japan (SICP1779)

Tracklisting:
Mississippi Queen (2:32) / Theme From An Imaginary Western (5:07) / Never In My Life (3:53) / Silver Paper (3:18) / For Yasgur's Farm (3:23) / To My Friend (3:38) / The Laird (4:39) / Sittin' On A Rainbow (2:22) / Boys In The Band (3:43) / Bonus Track: For Yagur's Farm (live) (4:18)

Musicians:
Corky Laing - percussion, drums
Steve Knight - organ, handbells
Felix Pappalardi - bass, rhythm guitar, piano, vocals
Leslie West - guitar, vocals

Discography:
Climbing (1970/2003*)
Nantucket Sleighride (1971/2003*)
Flowers Of Evil (1971)
Mountain Live (Road Goes On Forever) (1972)
The Best Of Mountain (1973/2003*)
Twin Peaks (1974)
Avalanche (1974)
On Top (1974)
Go For Your Life (1985)
Over The Top (1995)
Man's World (1996)
Mystic Fire (2002)
King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents: Mountain (2003)
From The Front Row Live (2003)
Roll Over Beethoven (2003)
Eruption (2004)

Sea Of Fire (2003) (DVD)

Genre: Rock

Origin US

Added: June 15th 2003
Reviewer: Keith "Muzikman" Hannaleck
Score:
Artist website: www.mountaintheband.com
Hits: 2100
Language: english