Over the Top

Mountain | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 11, 1995)
• Original Release Date: April 11, 1995
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000002983
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #167,282 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great anthology of this classic early metal band, February 27, 2003

By 

FairiesWearBoots8272 (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Over the Top (Audio CD)

Leslie West, Felix Pappalardi and Corky Laing were a great early 70s hard rock band that pioneered the sound that we now call heavy metal. Along with Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, Mountain was among the first rock bands to take the blues-rock structure of Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience and make it louder and more aggressive. Mountain was a big influence upon much of the hard rock/metal of the following decade, and the classic "Mississippi Queen" was a seminal FM radio hit.

Over The Top is an anthology of Mountain's musical legacy from its beginnings in Leslie West's 1969 debut, Mountain (later taken as the name of the trio) through the successful early 70s LPs to reunions in the 80s and 90s.

It begins on CD 1 with six tracks from Leslie West's Mountain LP, which sounds much the same as the group, Mountain. It's bluesy rock with West's guitar skills on full display. Tracks 7 to 13 cover most of the Climbing album. This is some of the group's best stuff including the classic Mississippi Queen and another excellent rocker, Never In My Life. Next is some live material featuring a very long Stormy Monday, and an extended five-minute guitar solo.

Disc 2 begins with songs from the Nantucket Sleighride and Flowers of Evil albums. This is still prime material from the 1971 - '72 era. Then we have two tracks from the 1974 Avalanche album, where things started to go downhill a bit, followed by two tracks from the 1985 reunion album Go For Your Life, where the group sounds like an 80s metal band. Last there are two tracks that were recorded just for this compilation in 1994 by Leslie West, Corky Laing and former Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding. These tracks are decent, but don't rank with Mountain's classic material.

Overall, Over The Top is a good anthology collection that is far more thorough than the earlier The Best of Mountain collection. I would say that Over The Top is the best purchase for something looking to get into the group's music. It contains all of the group's essential music and is just missing a few album tracks. The best choice, obviously, would be to buy the original albums, but the albums are spotty and short, so it's a much better value to just get this 2-CD set, which has 34 tracks and contains all the best of their music. I just wish they could have sacrificed some of the lesser tracks in favor of presenting the complete Mountain, Climbing and Nantucket Sleighride albums. All three would fit easily on 2 CDs. Still, this is a great compilation and should be all the Mountain that casual fans need.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great Fatsby Revisited, April 9, 2001

By 

J. E FELL "boogaloojef" (Carterville, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Over the Top (Audio CD)

I was waiting a long time for a good Mountain anthology and this 2 cd remastered release succeeded. When this compilation was released many of the band's original albums were not available domestically. Mountain was a hard blues/rock band based around the influential guitar playing of Leslie West. He began his career in the local New York band the Vagrants. West was a mountain of a man until his recent weight loss. He also was reportly rumored to have auditioned for both the Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd. The band was well known for introducing improvisational jamming elements to their songs in concert. The most stable band line-up included Felix Pappalardi on bass and vocals, Corky Laing on drums and Steve Knight on keyboards. Their music sounded like Cream, whom Felix Pappalardi used to work with in the studio, mixed with elements of Grand Funk Railroad and the Rolling Stones. Their most popular songs include the radio favorite "Mississippi Queen", "Theme From An Imaginary Western" written by Jack Bruce from Cream and "Nantucket Sleighride". The music mixes West's inventive guitar playing with Knight's keyboards. Mountain became popular enough to play at the original Woodstock festival and the Fillmores East and West, among other venues. One of the highlights of this set for me was the rare live version of "Stormy Monday". Other favorites include "Crossroader", "Don't Look Around" "For Yasgur's Farm" and "Travelin' In The Dark". Two of songs which I like "Baby I'm Down" and "The Boys In The Band" were left off this compilation though. The last disk contains two newly recorded tracks with West, Laing and Noel Redding the bass player for the Jimi Hendrix Experience replacing Felix Pappalardi who was shot and killed by his songwriting partner/wife. Fans who like hard blues/rock with great guitar playing and live jamming will enjoy this 2 cd set as much as I did.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loads of Rock and Roll, January 18, 2002

By 

mark munger (Duluth, Minnesota United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Over the Top (Audio CD)

The Great Fatsby (Leslie West) and his bandmates, including the original producing genius behind Cream (Felix Pappalardi on bass)were introduced to me by a guy in my high school art class. He had a facination with the band that went way beyond their public status. With good reason. This collection shows that, while the band was in many ways derivitive of Cream, the guitar work of West, the drumming of Corkie Laing and the improvisational bass lines of Pappalardi (embelished here and there by keyboardist Steve Knight) is original and creates a tight, rocking sound that's hard to forget. From the acoustic strains of "Because you are My Friend" to the band's electric hit, "Mississippi Queen", this is a collection that anyone interested in the minor acts of the late 1960's and early 70's will want to listen to over and over again. Mountain was featured on "Woodstock II", out-takes from the original festival album, as a subordinate act but the music West and Pappalardi crafted, as highlighted by this retroscpective, is anything but minor league.