It is one of the great tragedies of rock and roll that Mountain
\nis best known for one song – “Mississippi Queen”. With that sole
\nexception, the bulk of today’s fans of rock have forgotten about
\nLeslie West and company — about their appearance at the original
\nWoodstock, their anti-drug song “Flowers Of Evil,” the interplay
\nbetween guitarist West and bassist Felix Pappalardi.<\/p>\n
All people would have to do would be to invest in the re-issue
\nof
\nClimbing!<\/i>, the 1970 release from Mountain (and, technically,
\ntheir first release as a band — Mountain was really a Leslie West
\nsolo album in 1969). Yes, “Mississippi Queen” is here in all its
\nregalia, but this disc proves that Mountain was more than one song
\n— and many of the songs on this disc dwarf their hit in terms of
\nquality.<\/p>\n
Granted, the overall sound of
\nClimbing!<\/i> is a tad dated, going for the bombastic sound that
\nwas rock in the early ’70s. But in a sense, that makes the music on
\nthis album all the more enjoyable. Tracks like “Never In My Life”
\nand “Silver Paper” just wouldn’t have worked had they been toned
\ndown a notch or three, and the all-out charge the band — West,
\nPappalardi, drummer Corky Laing and keyboardist Steve Knight —
\nleads into these songs is the spark that lights the blaze.<\/p>\n
Likewise, the band knows when to tone things down a bit — and
\ntracks like “Boys In The Band” and “Theme For An Imaginary
\nWestern,” while still rich with the guitar work, display a
\ndifferent side of Mountain, one which combines muscle with
\ntenderness. A weird combination? Sure — but it works.<\/p>\n
West’s guitar skills have been all but forgotten in this day and
\nage — though one listen to the acoustic instrumental “To My
\nFriend” should re-awaken interest in his playing. (I do still
\nprefer the track “Alisan” off of
\nAvalanche<\/i> — maybe because I learned how to play a close
\nfacsimile of it.) The middle-eastern style of this work is
\nespecially noteworthy. It was one thing to do a guitar solo; it was
\nanother to try and tackle a different style musically, and West
\nnails it.<\/p>\n
The truth of the matter is that
\nClimbing!<\/i> might just be Mountain’s best album, and is one
\nwhich is desperately in need of re-discovery. Mountain is a band
\nwho have been passed over with the winds of time. Well, enough, I
\nsay. Take ten dollars out of your wallet, pick up this CD, and
\ndiscover a band who deserve a lot more attention than they ever
\nreceived.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5632],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37878","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mountain","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37878"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}