Mountain - To My Friend (1970)

Before creating this band, Leslie West had been in the Long Island R&B group known as The Vagrants. In 1969, West was approached by ex-Cream collaborator Felix Pappalardi who wanted to help West put out a solo album. With the help of N. D. Smart, West’s album, titled Mountain, came out on July 1969. Soon, West, Pappalardi, and Smart decided to create their own band and named it after the solo album they had all worked on together. One of their first gigs, before having released an album as a band, was playing at Woodstock in late 1969. Unfortunately, there was no video recorded capturing the bands performance, nor was any of their set released on the Woodstock audio albums.

Shortly after their Woodstock performance, N. D. Smart was replaced with Corky Laing, a drummer previously affiliated with the band known as Energy. Filling out their lineup was the keyboardist Steve Knight. Together with West and Pappalardi, the band put out their first album Climbing!, released on March 7, 1970. The song heard below, written by Leslie West, was released as the album’s sixth track. It was entirely overshadowed by the album’s opening track and the band’s most famous hit “Mississippi Queen.”



Mountain - To My Friend (1970)

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Lyrics:

(instrumental)

Mountain - Pride and Passion (1971)

Formed in 1969 around Leslie West, this group is another good example of a band that influenced the heavy metal genre popular in the 1970s. Influenced themselves by Cream, they named themselves after a solo album put out by West, Mountain, which in turn was named after West’s enormous size. It’s a common misconception that the Mountain album was put out by this group. It was actually a solo release by West which featured future Mountain members Felix Pappalardi and N.D. Smart. The group performed at Woodstock, is primarily remembered for “Mississippi Queen,” and broke up in 1972, only to get back together (with varying members) countless times since 1973.

This song comes from the group’s third album, Flowers of Evil, released in 1971. As the fifth track on the album, it’s the last track featured to be recorded in the studio. The second side of the album, comprised of the sixth and seventh tracks, was recorded live at the Filmore East in New York, June 27th, 1971. By the time of this album, drummer N.D. Smart had been replaced by Corky Laing.

You’ll have to give this one well over a minute before it really gets started.



Mountain - Pride and Passion (1971)

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Lyrics:

One man's life passed all in needing
Words out loud that want repeating
Fathers passed to sons their craving
Woman's loved, their children saving
Kings who walk in banners waving still

I have no heart for listening to the men who talk of peace
They're putting all their nonsense in my way
Won't you please, my love, please rest your tired little hands?
We've been talking half the night and there's so much more to say

Mothers asking for just one more time before their babies come
And whistlin’ in the smells of dusty tea
Someplace there's bed of timeless loving turned to stone
But the sun is shinin’ yellow and it's turned to shine on me

Sons are breathing discontent in the circling vapor light
And frozen little soldiers guard their homeland through the night
And a million nameless candles flicker out this one last time
And the heartbeat in that aching crowd
No, it will not beat with mine

The answers were all given to the faces now in tears
And Heaven led us all into the war
The children who once laughed have disappeared behind the Sun
It's the season for re-living, but they're living here no more

Sons are breathing discontent in the circling vapor light
And frozen little soldiers guard their homeland through the night
So, a million nameless candles flicker out this one last time
And the heartbeat in that aching crowd
No, it will not beat with mine

Hearts all filled of pride and passion
Sacrificed in blood of nations
Stand, we here, in humbled pleading
Save the souls who in retreating pray for peace
And ease their needing now