Why has Mountain been all but forgotten

To each their own I guess. Their first three albums have songs that are heavy, melodic and brilliant. I am a huge Mountain and I can say that every song on "Climbing!" and "Nantucket Sleighride" are great and it's disgusting that only one song gets airplay on the radio.

 

true but how often do you hear his name now? without younger generations of guitar players citing you as an influence you lose the name recognition unless you also have a ton of hits. in the last 10 years leslie west has had zakk wylde, slash, marc tremonti, jonny lang and joe bonamassa play on his studio albums. joe satriani also had mountain open up for him recently. eddie van halen, jeff beck, pete townshend, billy gibbons and even jimi hendrix have praised west. howard stern who is hugely popular name drops west.

 

In an August 2006 interview on VH1 Classic, Ted Nugent remarked "I'm the only guy in rock'n'roll that plays that hollow body jazz guitar and it's because in 1960 I saw Jimmy McCarty creating those big fat full chords like I do on "Stranglehold"; I learned that from Jimmy McCarty. Remember the name Jimmy McCarty. He is as important as Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry and Les Paul...a god on guitar."
Rusty Day was in the Amboy Dukes no? that was the reason I first listened to Cactus....I like that first LP, the only one I'd never heard,
but still very middle of the road to me....here's a band that's middle of the road as well, from Germany, where somehow middle
of the road bands are WAY better:

 

If anyone listens to Cactus yes Jim McCarty stands out but the issue is that a lot of people never gave Cactus a bother and the reason is the songs are not great but the talent is there. Mountain had the talent and had better songs than Cactus which keeps the listener engaged while discovering the sound and uniqueness of each player. When Cactus first emerged in 1970 they were cited as "America's Led Zeppelin" but even that tagline didn't help because the songs didn't spark any interest.

 

I love Cactus.... Maybe belong in another thread.

 

Great band !

I have several, if not all of the early Mountain...including Leslie West's debut simply titled Mountain. Felix is on that but Ned Smart was the drummer, before Corky took over.

Only slight downside about their material is....

Mississippi Queen needed more cowbell !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I didn't mean to single out Cactus for excoriation; I just meant other mid-level touring boogie merchants generally (vs. Mountain, whose records still resonate with me.)

 

Another reason that Mountain is less well known now, is that their albums were not released on CD in the US, until late in the game.

 

Speaking of Mountain Corky Laing was a awesome drummer and a real treat to see live as was West and Papalardi! Both West and Laing moved on to form West Bruce & Laing which were a great band also. I had the pleasure to see West Bruce & Laing three times live and they put on one hell of a show. To me both bands were A-list in my opinion with some outstanding songs and very talented musicians.

 

I was too young to see Felix with Mountain or even West, Bruce & Laing. My buddy's dad is a huge Mountain fan who seen them and WB&L in the 70's and got us hooked on them. He also is good friends with Leslie's former road manager and Richie Scarlett (bass player for Mountain in the late 90's to mid 2000's) which was beneficial to us because we got to see Leslie and Corky a bunch of times.

Corky Laing is one of my all-time favorite drummers (Don't Look Around, Sittin' on a Rainbow and The Great Train Robbery are my favorite Corky tracks). I had the pleasure of meeting him in early 2000 in Michigan after a show when we were hanging in Richie Scarlett's hotel room and got to smoke a joint with him. I was totally starstruck when he walked into the hotel room so I didn't speak the whole time.

 

Great story I'm a drummer and was awestruck by Corky such a talented drummer and a great showman. When I saw Mountain in 1970 & 71 Corky would hit his ride cymbal and let his stick fly into the crowd one after the other and sometimes Leslie would catch them. But Corky could really play on the live side of Flowers of Evil on Dreams of Milk and Honey he just kills it!

 

Yes my favorite part of Dream Sequence. I love when Leslie breaks out the Dreams of Milk and Honey riff, Corky follows and BOOM! I'm getting excited and need to listen to my Mountain vinyl immediately.

 

I remember seeing the posters advertising "FEATURING A PERFORMANCE BY MOUNTAIN!!!!" And it ended up being about 10 seconds of "Mississippi Queen" coming out of a transistor radio. I remember feeling quite ripped off by this. Great movie though! Remember the nekkid chick on the motorcycle?

 

I'd say it's partly because Leslie West is more known as Cream's producer than as an actual singer/songwriter, and partly because their sound is so similar to both Cream and Grand Funk Railroad.

The Simpsons even made a joke about this while Homer was driving his kids to school, where he mistook Mississippi Queen for a Grand Funk song.

 

Felix Pappalardi was Cream's producer.

 

my bad. he was the common element.

 

Forgotten?!!! Never In My Life!!!
(especially after seeing them in their short-lived line-up with Noel Redding on bass)

 

Actually, it was Felix Pappalardi who was Cream's producer, not Leslie West. I never understood why they didn't get a better reputation as time passed, as I think they (Mountain) did have the songs on the first three records.

As for Cactus, well, they are indeed basically a boogie band, but for my money (which isn't anywhere near enough to retire on) they're the best of the breed. McCarty is a fantastic player, and the Appice/Bogert rhythm section was tremendous. As for Rusty, well, he wasn't much of a lyricist or a strong singer , but when I listened to the Cactus cd released a few years ago, I missed his voice more than anything else. I think their first record had some good songs, as did the second, but they did lose me with the third. I think a lot of bands from that era had mediocre writing skills, but I still enjoy going back and listening to a lot of that stuff. Admittedly, it makes a tough sell to someone who wasn't there at the time.

 

Love Mountain, great live band. My second concert 1973, Capitol theater NJ.

 

If you like heavy blues Rock from the early seventies, you gotta love Cactus. There were a great band.

 

Huh? That was a Grand Funk song in that scene.

 

Some of the best and heaviest slide guitar on "Great Train Robbery".

 

I would think at least Esoteric records could do a boxset for Leslie the way they did for jack bruce

 

Really? I thought Homer was talking over Mississippi Queen? I'll have to watch "Homerpalooza" again.

 

No its GFR I believe. He talks about each member