Mountain was the combined forces of
Leslie West, a gigantic guitarist/vocalist who had played with New York garage-psych rockers
the Vagrants, and
Felix Pappalardi.
Pappalardi had a slightly more impressive track record, coming from the modern East Coast folk-rock movement (
the Youngbloods), before he applied his production skills to
Cream. Through this,
Felix never really stopped playing and eventually formed
Mountain. Often billed as a junior-league version of
Cream,
Climbing!,
Mountain's debut, had a lot of things going for it as well. Indeed,
West was a changed man from the moment he saw
Clapton play, and
Pappalardi was able to help him achieve the exact same tone
Clapton employed on
Disraeli Gears. The hit off
Climbing!, "Mississippi Queen" is a boogie classic, and it paved the way for countless imitators such as
J. Geils Band,
Foghat, and others. There are a lot of other great tracks here, such as "Never in My Life," which was an FM radio staple at the time. [The 2003 reissue on Columbia/Legacy adds a live version of "For Yasgur's Farm" as a bonus track.] ~ Matthew Greenwald