Heavy Metal Australopithecus

By Vernon Felton

The liner notes to this best of collection proudly proclaims that the album contains “Rock and roll’s all-time greatest cow-bell solo!” The world's best cow-bell solo? That did it. I had to buy it.

In truth, I’d been looking for a decent Best Of Mountain-type album for some time. I imagine this strikes some of you as odd since most of you are probably scratching your heads wondering who the hell Mountain is. If the record industry gave out plaques for “Band that had the greatest impact on rock music in the least amount of time”, Mountain would have one hanging on the wall.

Though you can still catch the band at various county fairs around the country, the best-selling line-up of Leslie West (vocals and guitar), Felix Pappalardi (bass), Corky Laing ( drums) and Steve Knight (keyboards), was only around for a few years. Mountain debuted at the Fillmore in 1969, blew minds at Woodstock, and then imploded in 1972.

In three short years, the band produced four albums (two of which went gold), gained the admiration of musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and The Who, and then finally succumbed to the drugs, nagging wives and competing egos that sink most great bands. Though you may not recall the band’s name, you’ve probably heard at least one of their songs if you’ve ever spent more than 30 minutes listening to a classic rock radio station—Mississippi Queen, Nantucket Sleighride, Theme From an Imaginary Western, Yasgur's Farm, Never In My Life and Blood of the Sun are all mainstays of geriatric radio.

What made them influential? If you simply listen to Mountain On Top without considering the musical landscape in which the music was created, it probably doesn’t sound terribly innovative.

Mountain, in fact, probably sounds like a bar band, with a decent bluesy singer, a few powerful, but short, lead guitar solos and a really smooth bass player—sort of like early Black Sabbath sung by Bad Company. Lots of power, lots of distortion, typical white-boy blues…and, yes, plenty of cow bells. Sweet.

Again, by today’s standards, Mountain’s music comes across as catchy, but not amazing. During the late sixties, though, Mountain was a bit of a revelation. They had the distortion of the Kinks, the proto-bluesy feel (and at times vocals) of Cream and a dash of Iggy Pop energy sprinkled here and there.

It was a novel combination at the time that made Mountain a hard sell for a country full of The Monkees fans. This probably explains why the band didn’t gain the mass popularity of say, Mott the Hoople or Joan Baez, before expiring. I’d argue that the band’s greatest impact is that they paved the way for other power-distortion bands like Black Sabbath and Judas Priest—bands that don’t require six or seven paragraphs of introduction. In short, Mountain is a sort of heavy metal Australopithecus.

So, finally stumbling my way into this damn review, here goes: I saw the cow-bell advertising pitch, I noticed the $7.99 price tag (for a compact disc, no less) and off to the register I went. Mountain On Top contains most of the big hits and squeezes in a few covers and a couple of meandering originals. The worthwhile tracks include: Mississippi Queen (cow-bell solo, front and center); For Yasgur’s Farm; Theme From an Imaginary Western; and Never in My Life. Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On and Roll Over Beethoven round out the covers.

In short, this album actually gives you 70 percent of the bands greatest hits, which means that at $8 it’s a good deal, but at eleven bucks or more, you’re kinda screwed and certainly much better off with one of Mountain’s many more comprehensive Best Of compilations. But consider yourself warned—most of the more complete compilations also feature a good deal of late sixties, self-indulgent musical noodling…which is dandy if you’re a Dead Head who loves to hear musicians warm up for hours on end, but really sucks if you prefer your songs with a start, an end, and some sort of point.