When Mountain broke up in 1972, they should have stayed
\napart.<\/p>\n
They had put together a rather impressive catalog in just two
\nyears, and had fan favorites in numbers like “Mississippi Queen,”
\n“Theme From An Imaginary Western” and “Nantucket Sleighride”. But
\nin 1974, Leslie West and Felix Pappalardi put Mountain back
\ntogether for
\nAvalanche<\/i>, an album that never should have been made, but
\nfor one song.<\/p>\n
The “classic” lineup of Mountain was only three-fourths back on
\nthis one; keyboardist Steve Knight was gone, replaced by rhythm
\nguitarist David Perry. (Drummer Corky Laing, guitarist\/vocalist
\nWest and bassist\/vocalist Pappalardi made up the remainder of the
\nband.) Not only were the keyboards sorely missing from this one,
\nbut Perry’s presence is hardly felt at all.<\/p>\n
And you know that Mountain was gasping for air when they did not
\none, but
\ntwo<\/i> covers on
\nAvalanche<\/i>. Their versions of “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”
\nand “Satisfaction” are pitiful; some songs were not meant to have
\namps turned up to 11 and vocals screamed into microphones. True,
\n“Satisfaction” is partially a slow shuffle, but even this doesn’t
\nwork.<\/p>\n
Of the original songs, many of them fail on the scale of the
\ncovers. “Back Where I Belong” is a number that sounds like it was a
\nleftover from the West-Bruce-Laing days, and is a waste of time.
\n“Swamp Boy,” featuring Pappalardi on vocals, never gets off the
\nground, and “Thumbsucker” is a poor attempt to re-capture the
\nfeeling of a group like Cream.<\/p>\n
Of the remaining songs, one stands out as being incredible:
\n“Alisan,” an instrumental performed on acoustic 12-string guitar.
\nWest’s work on this left my jaw dropping the first time I ever
\nheard it, and over a decade later, even after I’ve been able to
\nfigure out a rough translation of the song on guitar, it still is
\none of the prettiest guitar pieces I’ve ever heard.<\/p>\n
Some of the other tracks on
\nAvalanche<\/i> either work or they don’t, depending on what kind
\nof a day you’re having. “You Better Believe It,” I seem to
\nremember, was a minor hit off this release, but the last time I
\nlistened to it, I couldn’t understand why. “Sister Justice” is a
\nsurprisingly good track with Pappalardi on vocals (and the hint of
\nkeyboards in the song – wonder who supplied those). The closing
\ntrack, “Last Of The Sunshine Days,” is a poor Dr. John knockoff
\nthat is supposed to be a tribute to the good Doctor.<\/p>\n
There are many reasons why
\nAvalanche<\/i> didn’t work, but the biggest was the fact that the
\nbloom was off the rose for Mountain. After two years apart, there
\nwas a musical chasm that had formed, and they weren’t able to fill
\nit, much less jump over it. What worked in 1971 wasn’t working just
\nthree years later – and it doesn’t translate that well 24 years
\nlater.<\/p>\n
\nAvalanche<\/i> is worth searching out just for the song “Alisan”;
\nI don’t know if it was re-released on any compilation album.
\nOtherwise, this album just served to bury Mountain as people knew
\nthem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5632],"rating":[5616],"class_list":["post-39087","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mountain","rating-rating-d"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39087","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=39087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39087"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}