09. Mountain Nantucket Sleighride 1971 (Windfall)
Hard Rock
Booming vocals and warp-factor blues.
Overview
This is the first time that Mountain have actually managed to finish in a top 10 list here, after a couple of near misses. The first Leslie West album had made it to my “Albums that missed the cut” section for 1969 and their actual debut album proper
Climbing! had made the “Albums that missed the cut” section for 1970. It’s not that their second official album
Nantucket Sleighride is a better album than
Climbing! but as I stated earlier, album for album 1971 was a weaker year than 1970, so imbalances like this happen and therefore
Climbing! amazingly got left off the main list! In fact for the record,
Climbing! is usually regarded as the band’s most important work. Mountain themselves largely evolved after the break-up of the much revered Cream (a huge inspiration for the band) when Cream producer Felix Pappalardi who was also a bass player/vocalist, crossed paths with the gigantic larger than life figure of Leslie West also a guitarist/vocalist. West at the time was in the Long Island garage band the Vagrants with Pappalardi on production duties. After gelling together, both Pappalardi and West went on to form one of America’s first hard rock bands in Mountain and finally added Corky Laing on drums and Steve Knight on organ to complete the line-up. The band quickly put out a straight-forward blues rock sound at the heavier end of the spectrum and in vocalist Leslie West they had a singer of real power with that heavy throaty approach, which contrasted with the much quieter and subdued style of Felix Pappalardi, these two style really gave Mountain and
Climbing! its appeal. Just listen to Leslie West on the booming “Mississippi Queen” or “Never in My Life” and then Felix Pappalardi on “Theme For An Imaginary Western” and the stunning “The Laird” and then hear both singing on “For Yasgur’s Farm” and “Boys in the Band” to see what I mean. Mountain mixed their work up with pounding blues tracks that superbly contrasted those with more withdrawn and subtle tracks, and the band weren’t strangers to acoustics either.
Climbing! had given the band their commercial breakthrough with its rough around the edges feel, but it would be
Nantucket Sleighride with its crisper production tones, that would give the band a hard rock album with a cleaner feel. Finally anybody following this thread, should note that Leslie West features on the cover of the May Blitz album, I believe he wasn’t best pleased by this!
Leslie West- Guitar/Vocals
Felix Pappalardi- Bass/Vocals
Corky Laing- Drums
Steve Knight- Organ
Production- Felix Pappaardi
Album
Don’t Look Around- Starts off with the superb rumbling of this Mountain concert staple, its amazing riff would be expanded upon for the album’s title and showpiece track. I also think this is one of Leslie West’s best vocal displays as well.
Taunta (Sammy’s Tune)- Great 1 minute interlude before we move into the title track…..
Nantucket Sleighride (To Owen Coffin)- One of the most amazing hard rock songs ever written, which goes through various different musical sections, before engaging us in one of the most memorable guitar and drumming sections of the decade and we’re twice treated to it! Any British born person around in the 1970s and 1980s, will know that the guitar section of this song was used as the theme tune, for the current affairs programme “Weekend World” which was shown on a Sunday morning.
You Can’t Get Away- A come down after the classic title track and nothing special.
Tired Angels (To T.M.H)- A real heavy number, chocca full of proto-metal guitar and another one of the best tracks on the album.
The Animal Trainer and the Toad- A popular track, but in my mind has too many reworked section from previous Mountain songs to really be considered anything special.
My Lady- Similar to some of the songs on
Climbing! but not as good as any of those.
Travellin’ in the Dark (To E.M.P)- An anthemic sounding track, which basically re-works sections of the riff from “Natucket Sleighride” an interesting and creative track by the band.
The Great Train Robbery- A heavy and pounding closer.
Verdict
This is more of a Leslie West dominated album than the previous
Climbing! which had its fair share of Felix Pappalardi songs and in hindsight, was probably the better balanced album.
Nantucket Sleighride as a whole though, has some superb cuts in “Don’t Look Around” the unforgettable “Nantucket Sleighride” and "Tired Angels (To T.M.H)" but the balance at times, can be upset with some of the album's weaker efforts “You Can’t Get Away” and “My Lady” for example. This now leaves the listener impressed with certain elements of the album and possibly let down by the weaker elements of the album, which are more dominant on the flip side of the album. But all the elements that made Mountain a great band initially are here on this album, especially Leslie West’s big booming voice and the superb guitar interplay between West and Pappalardi. I imagine this band along with Grand Funk Railroad, would’ve been a fantastic live act to have seen back in the early 1970s, as both had so much power and energy in their blues based sound. After the release of this album, the band released the rushed
Flowers of Evil also in 1971, it was a half studio-half live effort and near enough the bands fourth effort in such a short space of time! The release of that album, proved one album too many for the band and signified a rapid decline in the bands fortunes, sadly later releases would pale in comparison to their early stuff. Their quick demise was somewhat surprising and it came rapidly, especially after the band had initially worked so hard to put out a distinctive sound, a sound that after all had evolved out of a very basic initial blues sound. Mountain like Budgie, put out some very original covers which always made their albums look attractive and the cover of
Nantucket Sleighride ranks as one of their best, as does the album title. Sadly Felix Pappalardi would be a victim of a homicide at the hand of his wife in New York 1983.