Customer Reviews

Best of

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Now remastered with better sound and additional tracks The Best Of Mountain is the type of CD that fans who own their 4 other studio albums will buy anyway for the fine sequencing and overall straight ahead impact of assessing Mountain in one smart package..Their ist album Leslie West Mountain, then Climbing, and Nantucket Sleighride and their 1/2 studio 1/2 live Flowers Of Evil(Fillmore East NYC 1971) were all better than good affairs but this CD, with it's mixture of the raw melodic riffing power chords with tuneful balladry awash with spacey keyboards in the right moments all showcases this band that accomplished a lot as a hard rock outfit where Cream left off.. Mountain in it's short duration was a very mighty late 60's band and left an additional legacy of fine live jamming albums placing them as a group of impact..it's blend of hard rock via the guitar flash of Leslie West and thunder of drummer Corky Laing, with the interplay of Cream Producer bassist Pappalardi whose fine tuneful songs and earthy vocals as distinct from West's rasp were highly reminiscent of Cream's style..no wonder after Mountain, West and Laing joined up with Cream's bassist and songwriter,Jack Bruce...Pappalardi was unfortunately shot and killed later by his wife..

while this collection is great for the casual fan, more bonus tracks could've been added to fill up space. but for the more complete fans, i suggest the 2 disc set over the top, it has everything on here except 3 songs, the studio version of roll over beethoven, boy's in the band and king's chorale. although as of late, sony has been re-mastering the whole catalog with mountain climbing and nantucket sleighride which are probably their 2 biggest albums. with guitar driving songs, mountain climb the to the top in 1970 with the guitar drenched classic mississippi queen while nantucket sleighride was a radio hit on most FM stations. felix pappalardi, who not only played bass and shared some of the vocal spotlight, also produced the group cream. in 1983, pappalardi was shot to death by his wife gail who by the way, helped write some of the groups songs. one reviewer on her says that leslie west was over rated as a guitarist, that is hardly the case. west NEVER got the respect he rightly deserves, just like the band as a whole. if you like straight ahead guitar driven rock 'n roll, this collection is for you, or the 2 disc collection i mentioned above or STILL better, the whole catalog. what ever your pleasure, pick up something of mountain today, you won't be dissapointed.

This is hands down one of the best "Best Of" in the market . The music is free flowing and very rocking. It's a must buy if one is new to Mountain , it kind of captures all the different songs of Mountain that sound more like a live album than studio. Go out and get it , I also recommend the Live album from them.

Leslie West, all 400 pounds, on guitar and rough vocals. Felix Pappalardi on bass and smooth vocals. Corky Laing, an animalistic powerhouse, on drums. Steve Knight on keyboards.

These 4 guys put out 3 albums of bi-polar power. About half the songs were lilting, melodic Felix Pappalardi compilations, the other half were pulverizing Leslie West guitar extravaganzas.

There is a good, solid mixture on this CD, "Theme From an Imaginary Western" and "For Yasgur's Farm" are great, subtly powerful songs sung by Felix. I personally love both of them. "Never in My Life" and "Mississippi Queen" feature the huge, fat tone of West's guitar AND voice.

This band could do a lot of things well. Play slow, thoughtful songs, and also pound you over the head with awesome up-tempo rockers. A great, underrated band. Great playing as well. If one was to rate the players from 1 to 10, you'd have to go with West at an 8, Pappalardi at an 8, Laing at a 9, and Knight, well, you don't really hear featured keyboards much with this band.

To hear the band in all it's glory, buy "Flowers of Evil" and listen to the live side. The fellow above posting that West played with no emotion...well, the live side on FOE is as good a hard rock live recording as there's ever been. West just blows the place apart.

Great Band, their best songs. 5 Stars.

I've got to agree with those who praise this collection of stand-outs, and in fact, I'll take it a step further: This is the best "best of" compilation I've ever heard. The song selection is right on and the playing order is perfect. Every song sounds like it was meant to follow the previous one. I've got all of Mountain's domestic releases, but this CD has taken on a life of its own in my head, and it doesn't get old.

Additionally, this version was remastered in 2003. And while the sound is a significant improvement over the original CD release, no miracles were performed, but it's definitely worth the upgrade if you own the previous version.

This is a great compilation, but there were some overlooked songs that should have been included, like "One Last Cold Kiss" and "My Lady".
That being said, Mountain was an excellent band. I personally feel that Leslie West is a bit overrated, but he can really wail. He concentrates on the "power chord" concept too much, and he doesn't really play with any emotion. But hey, that's just my opinion. I know there are lots of people who love the guy.
"Mississippi Queen" is of course known by every diehard classic rock fanatic (like me), and it's indeed a true hard rock classic. But there are far better songs on this album, like the haunting, mystifying ballad "Nantucket Sleighride", which is still the best Mountain song that I've ever heard. Felix Pappalardi really has a marvelous voice, and here, he gives a beautiful vocal performance. It's a painfully emotional song.
"Never In My Life" is a monstrous, riff-based rocker, and one of those songs that's great to crank up VERY LOUD. "Crossroader" is equally awesome (and no, it has nothing to do with the blues classic "Crossroads"). "For Yasgur's Farm" is a wonderful tribute to Woodstock, which played an integral part in making the band superstars, and "Theme For An Imaginary Western" is something of an overlooked masterpiece.

The other songs are all good in their own right, too.

What's the secret around Mountain's sound that has allowed them to become a referential example about consistence and solidness over all these years ?

First at all the employment of all the instruments in symphonic mood. The febrile tension and committed resolution given to every piece they played conferred them that coveted indemnity since the first accords. All the instruments plus the very voice of Leslie West worked out like a watchmaker's mechanism. This capacity of integration without losing expression and always keeping West's the riffs, or Felix Pappalardi in the bass, the formidable Corky Lang in drums and Steve knight in the keyboards were simply an indestructible entity. And you can realize how even in their ballads (the mythical Theme for an imaginary West or Nantucket sleighride) or in their vibrating heavy Mississippi queen, Never in my life Don't look around or Roll over Beethoven the admirable cohesion and his dynamic rhythm were the fundamental factor that explains not only to have signed with golden letters an enviable place in the Pantheon of the Rock immortals bands, but the fact that Jack Bruce (Cream bass) had decided to make the famous trio West, Bruce and Lang, few years after. It's to say Bruce plus half Mountain.

So, for all this new generations of listeners, that just have heard about them, come on and get close to the sound of one of the most original and powerful bands the Rock has ever had.

This album just is amazing from the get-go. If you like Eric Clapton from the Cream years, you'll like Leslie West from Mountain, plus you do have Cream here, oh lets see here... yep the ex-producer of Cream Felix Pappalardi. I just love 'Nantucket Sleighride', this song is just good to air guitar to. I also like 'Theme For An Imaginary Western' which they also did at Woodstock. You also have 'Never In My Life' this one really has energy behind it just like the radio favorite from this band 'Mississippi Queen' which I also heard a live band from my town do called 'Rebel Soul', not sure if these guys are still jamming, but just as good. So I can say this album is a good compilation cd.

MOUNTAIN-THE BEST OF MOUNTAIN: From the band's name to the gargantuan axe riffs and ungodly vocal assualt of 300 pound frontman LESLIE WEST, everything about MOUNTAIN was, to say the least, "heavy". Producer/bassist/co-singer FELIX PAPPALARDI was the honey-voiced ying to WEST's unhinged, rotgut yang, (documented in the ANIMAL TRAINER & THE TOAD) while drummer CORKY LAING gamely held down the drum chair, making them a harder rockin' answer to original power trio CREAM. MISSISSIPPI QUEEN, an immortal two and a half minute slab of sonic destruction is counterbalanced by the considerably tamer beauty of THEME FROM AN IMAGINARY WESTERN and NANTUCKET SLEIGHRIDE; these radio classics will be familiar to anyone tuned into FM radio in the 70s. Other selling points on this short summary of an all too brief career include ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN, reimagined as a brontasauric brawl, and sublime WOODSTOCK era fable FOR YASGUR'S FARM. WEST would pursue a bloozey solo career and innumerable band reunions (minus the late PAPPALARDI) for decades to come, but THE BEST OF MOUNTAIN harnesses the highlights of a band too big to be contained for very long.

RATING: FIVE PEAKS

If any band could move them, it would be this band, great classic rock songs like "Mississippi Queen" "Dreams Of Milk & Honey" and "Rocky Mountain Way" are my favorites!