Mountain – Live In The UK (6 CD Boxset)

Mountain – Live In The UK (6 CD Boxset)

When Mountain first appeared on the scene in 1969, guitarist Leslie West had already begun to make a name for himself as part of New York area band The Vagrants. The newly formed Mountain even managed to secure a spot on the second night of the 1969 Woodstock Festival. With producer/bassist Felix Pappalardi holding the reins, what could have been a mere Cream copycat act matured into a sophisticated early heavy metal band. Pappalardi was a huge part of the band’s early years, balancing West’s gruff vocals and kitchen sink approach to guitar playing with a more nuanced process that emphasized melody, dynamics and clarity in the midst of the band’s sonic assault. The other key ingredient to West’s career was drummer Corky Laing, with whom he would continue to tour and record throughout his career.

By the time of the Mountain tours chronicled in the Live In The UK box set (2002 and 2005), West and Laing were joined by bassist Richie Scarlet. The sound quality of these recordings varies wildly, but the set is fairly static from one night to the next. There are a couple song switcheroos, but the attraction of this set has to be West’s improvisations and interpretations of tunes recorded by his own heroes, such as Cream, BB King and Dylan.

The first five discs are a chronological journey through the 2005 tour; raw, uninhibited, and full of West’s expletive-filled between song banter. Blood Of The Sun (from the first West solo album Mountain, which then morphed into the titular band) opened the show most nights. It sets the tone perfectly, with West and Laing locking into a tight, blues-based groove. Scarlet gives it his all, but the drum and guitar onslaught largely renders him an afterthought. From night to night you can hear West’s approach differ, sometimes playful, other times reveling in the power, always attempting to sound as heavy as one can with just the guitar as a lead instrument. B.B. King’s Why I Sing The Blues is, oddly, more a testament to hard rock and metal than the blues; Freddie King’s Going Down, which appears on Disc Six, fares much better, but the sound quality is just so awful, it’s a difficult listen.


NB: Above footage is from the 2002 tour but recorded at Mystic Theatre, CA

West – have no illusions that this is anything but HIS show – most nights improvised a solo based around the five note pattern made famous in the film ‘Close Encounters Of The Third Kind’. It does nothing to burnish his reputation. Nor does the interminable Immortal/Mutant X which is a thin pretence for showcasing guitar and drum solos. Cream were West’s heroes, so most nights he pays tribute with covers of Sunshine Of Your Love, Politician and Crossroads. Of the three, Politician comes across best, the others not so much. Too frequently, the band just doesn’t know when too much is just, well, too much. Case in point, Mountain’s cover of Dylan’s Blowin’ In The Wind. The heartbreak and hopefulness of the original are supplanted with bombast and raw energy, sapping the song of any of its natural power.

Theme From An Imaginary Western and Nantucket Sleighride, on record two of Mountain’s finest moments, are rendered sludge in these recordings. Without the delicacy and nuance brought to those recordings by Pappilardi’s vocals and arrangements and Steve Knight’s keys, all that’s left is overwrought guitar and nearly unintelligible, equally overwrought vocals. Only marginally better is Mississippi Queen, largely because the original version was all musical abandon to begin with.

Bottom line, I can’t imagine anyone other than Mountain/West obsessives getting much out of this box set. Live, the band tossed all sense of dynamics and passion and replaced it with an aggressive wall of broken glass and desperation. It’s mildly interesting to hear West interpolate bits of Michael Jackson and the Rolling Stones into his improvisations, but these live recordings only served to make me yearn for the original Mountain albums, where power sat alongside grace, and where bloody throats harmonized with choir boys. Leslie West live back in the day could be an exemplar of all that was great about rock and roll. Here, he seems to be screaming to hold back the twilight of his career and failing miserably. File under: Just Because You Can Does Not Mean You Should.

TRACK LISTING
Disc One:
The Academy, Manchester, 16th February 2005
01. Intro/Guitar Solo (3:39)
02. Blood Of The Sun (7:45)
03. Never In My Life (6:07)
04. Theme From An Imaginary Western (7:25)
05. Close Encounters (2:20)
06. Sunshine Of Your Love (4:42)
07. Politician (3:54)
08. Crossroads (6:25)
09. Blowin’ In The Wind (6:34)
10. Drum Solo/Mutant X (12:57)
11. Mississippi Queen (5:09)
12. Nantucket Sleighride (8:27)

Time – 75:24

Disc Two: Robin R’n’B Club, Wolverhampton, 17th February 2005
01. Blood Of The Sun (10:07)
02. Why I Sing The Blues (8:18)
03. Theme From An Imaginary Western (5:57)
04. Close Encounters (3:03)
05. Sunshine Of Your Love (3:57)
06. Politician (3:52)
07. Crossroads (6:33)
08. Blowin’ In The Wind (6:26)
09. Drum Solo/Mutant X (12:14)
10. Mississippi Queen (5:30)
11. Nantucket Sleighride (9:35)

Time – 75:32

Disc Three: The Boardwalk, Sheffield, 20th February 2005
01. Blood Of The Sun (11:07)
02. Why I Sing The Blues (7:42)
03. Theme From An Imaginary Western (7:26)
04. Close Encounters (2:14)
05. Blowin’ In The Wind (8:07)
06. Immortal/Mutant X (14:15)
07. Sunshine Of Your Love (3:26)
08. Politician (3:58)
09. Crossroads (5:54)
10. Mississippi Queen (5:21)
11. Nantucket Sleighride (8:10)

Time – 77:40

Disc Four: The Patti Pavilion, Swansea, 24th February, 2005
01. Why I Sing The Blues (08:18)
02. Blood Of The Sun (09:33)
03. Long Red (05:13)
04. Blowin’ In The Wind (07:57)
05. The Cell (07:05)
06. Immortal/Mutant X (15:01)
07. Sunshine Of Your Love (03:39)
08. Politician (03:15)
09. Crossroads (06:12)
10. Mississippi Queen (05:02)
11. Nantucket Sleighride (08:23)

Time – 79:38

Disc Five: The ‘Y’ Theatre, Leicester, 25th February, 2005
01. Intro/Blood Of The Sun (10:24)
02. Why I Sing The Blues (9:44)
03. Theme From An Imaginary Western (6:25)
04. Close Encounters (1:57)
05. Blowin’ In The Wind (8:43)
06. The Cell (7:54)
07. Can’t Find My Way Home (featuring Del Bronham) (5:20)
08. Immortal/Mutant X (13:49)
09. Mississippi Queen (6:16)
10. Going Down (6:36)

Time – 77:08

Disc Six: The Point, Cardiff, 31st October, 2002
01. Blood Of The Sun (9:08)
02. Dreams Of Milk And Honey (7:38)
03. The Sea (10:19)
04. Never In My Life (6:21)
05. Theme From An Imaginary Western (7:17)
06. Close Encounters (4:45)
07. Going Down (5:05)
08. It’s A Man’s World (7:40)
09. Nantucket Sleighride (16:35)
10. Mississippi Queen (4:47)

Time – 79:35

Total Time – 7:44:57

MUSICIANS
Leslie West – Guitar, Vocals
Corky Laing – Drums, Percussion
Richie Scarlet – Bass

ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Cherry Red Records
Country of Origin: USA
Date of Release: 25th October 2024