1. Mississippi Queen 2. For Yasgur's Farm 3. Theme For An Imaginary Western 4. Nantucket Sleighride 5. Politician 6. Blood of the Sun 7. Never In My Life 8. Long Red 9. The Animal Trainer and the Toad 10. Blowin' In The Wind 11. Why I Sing The Blues
Mountain was formed in 1969 by guitarist Leslie West and bassist and former Cream producer Felix Pappalardi. The two met while West was a member of Long Island R&B band The Vagrants. When West left the Vagrants to record a solo album it was agreed that Felix Pappalardi would produce the said album which was entitled Mountain. The sessions for the album went so well that it was decided that the pair would form a band and the band would take its name from Leslie’s album. So it was that Mountain was born. Joining Leslie and Felix was drummer N.D. Smart who had also played on Leslie’s album and keyboard player Steve Knight. The band started to gig and whilst the response was positive no one would have dreamed how big the audience would be for the bands fourth gig. In August 1969, Mountain , along with the likes of The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby Stills Nash and Young and of course Jimi Hendrix played at the Woodstock festival in upstate New York. Following this momentous performance however the band decided on a change in personnel and Canadian drummer Corky Laing was in at the expense of ND Smart. Their debut album, 1970's Mountain Climbing, went gold, thanks in part to the hard rock classic "Mississippi Queen." There was however, other tracks such as Yasgur’s Farm, Never In My Life and a cover of the Jack Bruce song Theme For An Imaginary Western that would all form the backbone of the bands live set for the next thirty years. Despite the comings and goings of various members over the years including the tragic murder of founder member Felix Pappalardi the core of West and Laing has continued to work as Mountain and in a live situation the band have rarely been bettered. In late 2003 the band released the first in a series of “Official Bootlegs”. Up to date, the band have released sixteen titles in the series all of which have been eagerly received by the massive worldwide fan base commanded by the band. The tracks contained on this compilation are drawn from a number of sources and of course different eras with the earliest of these being the New Years Eve Concert from The Fillmore around the time of the release of perhaps their most famous album Nantucket Sleighride. From that performance we feature the key tracks For Yasgur’s Farm, Long Red and Blood Of The Sun. No Mountain compilation would be complete of course without Nantucket Sleighride and we have included a performance captured from one of the bands most recent concerts in Texas. The Texas performance really highlights just what an incredible guitarist Leslie West is and why so many of his peers hold him in such high esteem. Credit where it is due however and Leslie’s long time musical sparring partner drummer Corky Laing is featured to good effect on the song he co-wrote, Mississippi Queen. This rock standard still manages to lift audiences whenever the band plays it. The performance featured here comes from a concert recorded in Glasgow in 2005 and is no exception. All the performances contained on this compilation come from the personal archives of both Leslie West and Corky Laing.