Well…damn, another one of my musical family died last night…Leslie West, founder of Mountain and other groups is gone after a heart attack that he couldn’t recover from. From the first time I heard “Mississippi Queen” and it’s cowbell intro, I knew he was something special…and I still get chills when Leslie comes in with the power and slashing guitar…I’ve always thought that the song was one of the most perfect 3:39 in rock history and Leslie’s growling vocals still takes my breath away…I could always tell when a guitar riff of his was playing…he has this choppy, power style that was raw and yet he could be subtle, too…I was fortunate enough to get to see him live three times…once with Felix Pappalardi as Mountain, and two other times with Leslie as a solo act…the last time at the intersection downtown where I could walk right up to the stage and watch him play from about 10 feet away…just frickin amazing….while they were great on studio albums, to get to the core of Leslie and Mountain, you have to hear their live recordings…I would recommend that you find a copy of their double live album “Twin Peaks” that was recorded in Japan….and listen to “Nantucket Sleighride”….thirty minutes of power where they put together bits and pieces of other songs to make an epic live jam….but it’s not the noodling kind of stuff that jam bands get into…it’s full power blast that ebbs and flows and shows you just how good Leslie was….I’m going to miss him…RIP Leslie….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well…damn, another one of my musical family died last night…Leslie West, founder of Mountain and other groups is gone after a heart attack that he couldn’t recover from. From the first time I heard “Mississippi Queen” and it’s cowbell intro, I knew he was something special…and I still get chills when Leslie comes in with … Continue reading RIP Leslie West<\/span>