Mountain | Artist

Mountain was an American heavy rock band formed 1969 in Long Island, New York by Leslie West (guitar, vocals), Felix Pappalardi (bass, vocals), Steve Knight (keyboards) and N.D. Smart (drums). Corky Laing soon took over from Smart as permanent drummer. Leslie West was formerly leader of the garage-psych band The Vagrants, and Pappalardi was record producer and sometimes collaborator of supergroup Cream, who were a strong influence on Mountain's sound. The self-titled debut album (credited to Leslie West) released in 1969 gained solid reviews and catapulted the band onto the bill at Woodstock, although they weren't included on the album or film. Mountain's following two albums Climbing! (1970) and Nantucket Sleighride (1971) are both excellent and regarded as their best works. Other outstanding albums include Flowers of Evil (1971) and two superb live albums: The Road Goes Ever On (1972) and Twin Peaks (1974). During the band's frequent down periods, Leslie West and Corky Laing teamed up with Cream's Jack Bruce to form the side project West, Bruce & Laing. Leslie West issued a number of solo albums plus two albums with his own Leslie West Band, which included Mick Jones, who was formerly with Spooky Tooth and later went on to lead the hugely successful AOR band Foreigner. Mountain is one of many bands to be commonly credited as having influenced the development of heavy metal music in the 1970s, with their heavy blues-rock musical style. Mountain disbanded in February 1972 after a tour of the UK. West has since cited a combination of drug abuse within the band and Pappalardi's road weariness and burgeoning hearing impairment as primary factors. On April 17, 1983, Felix Pappalardi's wife and songwriting partner Gail, who also designed many of the band's album covers and wrote many of their lyrics, shot Pappalardi in the neck in their fifth-floor East-Side Manhattan apartment, and he died as a result. Mountain continued to perform occasionally with Leslie West, Corky Laing and Rev Jones. On June 20, 2011, West had his lower right leg amputated as a result of complications from diabetes. Following the surgery, he performed and recorded under his own name. Leslie West, who was a superb heavy rock guotaris, and the mainstay of Mountain, died on December 22, 2020, after suffering a heart attack. He was 75.

Artist Website: mountainrockband.com

Featured Albums: Mountain

Related Artists: Cream, Leslie West, West Bruce & Laing