Descrizione
PREMESSA: LA SUPERIORITA’ DELLA MUSICA SU VINILE E’ ANCOR OGGI SANCITA, NOTORIA ED EVIDENTE. NON TANTO DA UN PUNTO DI VISTA DI RESA, QUALITA’ E PULIZIA DEL SUONO, TANTOMENO DA QUELLO DEL RIMPIANTO RETROSPETTIVO E NOSTALGICO , MA SOPRATTUTTO DA QUELLO PIU’ PALPABILE ED INOPPUGNABILE DELL’ ESSENZA, DELL’ ANIMA E DELLA SUBLIMAZIONE CREATIVA. IL DISCO IN VINILE HA PULSAZIONE ARTISTICA, PASSIONE ARMONICA E SPLENDORE GRAFICO , E’ PIACEVOLE DA OSSERVARE E DA TENERE IN MANO, RISPLENDE, PROFUMA E VIBRA DI VITA, DI EMOZIONE E DI SENSIBILITA’. E’ TUTTO QUELLO CHE NON E’ E NON POTRA’ MAI ESSERE IL CD, CHE AL CONTRARIO E’ SOLO UN OGGETTO MERAMENTE COMMERCIALE, POVERO, ARIDO, CINICO, STERILE ED ORWELLIANO, UNA DEGENERAZIONE INDUSTRIALE SCHIZOFRENICA E NECROFILA, LA DESOLANTE SOLUZIONE FINALE DELL’ AVIDITA’ DEL MERCATO E DELL’ ARROGANZA DEI DISCOGRAFICI .
MOUNTAIN
twin peaks
Disco Doppio 2 LP 33 giri , winfall / columbia-cbs , PG 32818 , 1974, u.s.a.
OTTIME CONDIZIONI, both vinyls ex++ , cover ex++
Mountain is an American rock band.
The band broke up in 1972, reformed two years later, broke up soon
after that, and have since reconvened and resumed performing and
recording. Mountain remains popular in some circles despite having
fallen out of the mainstream during the seventies. They were
influential during the development of hard rock and are considered a forerunner to heavy metal music. Their hit song “Mississippi Queen” became a radio hit and is something of a rock standard. VH1 ranked Mountain number 98 on its 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.
Etichetta: COLUMBIA / WINFALL
Catalogo: PG 32818
Data di pubblicazione: 1974
Matrici: P AL 32819 – 2A / P AL 32820 – 2A / P BL 32820 – 2A / P BL 32819 – 2A
- Supporto:vinile 33 giri
- Tipo audio: stereo
- Dimensioni: 30 cm.
- Facciate: 4
- Gatefold / Copertina apribile, red label, whiter paper inner sleeves
In 1974 West and Pappalardi reformed Mountain with Allan Schwartzberg on drums and Bob Mann (of pioneering jazz rock band Dreams) on keyboards and guitar – a tour yielded the double live album Twin Peaks.
Twin Peaks is a live album by hard rock band Mountain. Their first release following their 1972 breakup and subsequent reformation, the lineup consisted of original member Leslie West and Felix Pappalardi joined by guitarist/keyboardist Bob Mann and drummer Allan Schwartzberg. The revamped Mountain toured Japan, from which the album’s material is culled. The original release was a double album
consisting of a whole second disk (31 minute, 49 second, both sides) LP
version of “Nantucket Sleighride”, the first one holding all other
tracks.
Track listing
Side 1
- “Never In My Life” – (West, Pappalardi, Collins, Laing) – 4:15
- “Theme For An Imaginary Western” – (Bruce, Brown) – 4:59
- “Blood Of The Sun” – (West, Pappalardi, Collins) – 3:05
- “Guitar Solo” – (West) – 5:43
Side 2
- “Nantucket Sleigh Ride” part I – (Pappalardi, Collins) – 16:19
Side 3
- “Nantucket Sleigh Ride” conclusion – (Pappalardi, Collins) – 16:14
Side 4
- “Crossroader” – (Pappalardi, Collins) – 5:58
- “Mississippi Queen” – (West, Laing, Pappalardi, Rea) – 4:15
- “Silver Paper” – (West, Pappalardi, Collins, Gardos, Knight, Laing) – 6:15
- “Roll Over Beethoven” – (Berry) – 2:25
Recorded live at Osaka Koseinenkin Hall, Japan, August 30, 1973
Record 1 has side 1 and side 4 on, record 2 has side 2 & side 3 on, So “Nantucket Sleigh Ride is on all one record
Personnel
- Leslie West – guitar, vocals
- Felix Pappalardi – bass, vocals
- Allan Schwartzberg – drums
- Bob Mann – guitar, organ
Recorded in Osaka, Japan, in 1973, Twin Peaks was Mountain‘s second consecutive live album (with The Best of Mountain compilation between them), albeit featuring the re-formed, somewhat reconfigured version of the group, consisting of Leslie West (guitar, vocals), Felix Pappalardi (bass, vocals), Bob Mann (guitar, keyboards), and Allan Schwartzberg (drums). It overlaps with its predecessor, Mountain Live (The Road Goes Ever On)
on only two cuts, “Crossroader” and “Nantucket Sleighride,” and the
latter is stretched out even further here than it was on the earlier
album, to 32 minutes. The content ends up showing off the best and the
worst attributes of Mountain
— the best being such staples as “Theme from an Imaginary Western,”
“Mississippi Queen,” “Never in My Life,” and “Roll Over Beethoven,”
while the worst is “Nantucket Sleighride.” But even the latter, at over
half-an-hour, was precisely what audiences of the period were paying to
see and hear, and captures the band’s music in all of its excessive
glory. Additionally, “Nantucket Sleighride” doesn’t seem that long in
the actual listening, mostly because it’s difficult not to be impressed
with the playing, especially the guitar dialogue between West and Mann.
After Mountain split up in 1972, it
sporadically reunited in one form or another, even after bassist Felix
Pappalardi’s death in the early ’80s. The first such reunion took place
less than a year after its first split, resulting in a new studio album,
AVALANCHE, and a live set, TWIN PEAKS.
Issued in 1974, TWIN
PEAKS finds Pappalardi and guitarist Leslie West joined by new drummer
Allan Schwartzberg as they bash and wail their way through nine songs.
This was the era of jamming, in which Mountain indulged mightily, as
evidenced here by a 33-minute, two-part reading of “Nantucket
Sleighride.” Also featured are high octane versions of “Never in My
Life,” “Crossroader,” “Mississippi Queen,” and “Roll Over Beethoven.”
Gruppo forse troppo sottovalutato, la breve
carriera de i Mountain è durata dal 1969 al 1971 seguita poi dalla reunion del 1973 da cui è scaturito questo live registrato appunto in quel Reunion tour, in Giappone ad Osaka.
Il disco inizia con uno dei loro primi successi. ovvero ” Never In My
Life”, resa molto piu’ veloce e violente dal ciccione West. Al termine
dell’esecuzione il comando passa a Pappalardi, che ci canta la ballata ”
Theme for an imaginary Western”, che devo dire è una delle piu’
riuscite del disco. La parte blues si interrompe e torniamo cosi al rock
duro con ” Blood on the Sun” che è da segnalare per un magistrale
assolo di Leslie West durante il secondo minuto, E a proposito di
chitarra, la traccia successiva proprio “Guitar Solo”e tra le note
confusionarie si intuisce l’inno giapponese accolto con un boato,che fa
partire a razzo la spettacolare “Crossroader” che fa da intermedio tra
l’assolo di chitarra e l’immortale “Mississippi Queen” che però è un po’
deludente come versione dal vivo a mio parere. A seguire troviamo
“Silver Paper” brano piu’ sperimentale del gruppo con dei tratti di
flauto a centro brano. Essi introducono una cover famosissima quale ”
Roll Over Beethoven” in una versione di poco piu di due minuti. Le
ultime due tracce sarebbero la stessa canzone divisa in due parti per
l’eccessiva durata: sto parlando della grandissima ” Nantucket
Sleighride” che complessivamente dura la bellezza di quasi 35 minuti e al suo
interno si trova di tutto di piu’, assoli di basso, di chitarra
ovviamente e un mini-assolo di batteria. Proprio per la sua eccessiva
improvvisazione è forse il miglior brano dell’album.
History
The band formed shortly after Leslie West, having left the Long Island R&B band the Vagrants, recorded a solo album titled Mountain with bassist and former Cream collaborator Felix Pappalardi producing. The album also featured former Remains drummer N.D. Smart.
West’s raw vocals and melodic, bluesy guitar style, and Pappalardi’s
heavy and elegant bass lines were the elements of Mountain’s
distinctive sound. Though heavily inspired by seminal British blues-rock band Cream (with which Pappalardi had been a frequent collaborator: he produced Disraeli Gears, Goodbye and Wheels of Fire, also contributing viola, brass, bells and organ to the latter), keyboardist Steve Knight was added to avoid Mountain being perceived as a simple imitation.
They played their fourth live concert at the 1969 Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York (later chronicling the experience in their song “For Yasgur’s Farm”), but the band did not appear in the film of the event nor was their performance included on the festival’s first live album. Soon after, Smart was replaced by Laurence “Corky” Laing. Their debut, Climbing!, was released in 1970 and featured the band’s signature song, “Mississippi Queen“, which reached the middle of the top 40 charts. The album itself reached the top 20 on the US album charts.
The follow-up album Nantucket Sleighride, released in 1971, also reached the top 20 but failed to yield a hit single. The title track was used as the theme to ITV‘s Sunday political program Weekend World.
After these early releases the band continued to receive a certain
measure of critical acclaim but never again achieved great commercial
success.
After Nantucket Sleighride, the band produced Flowers of Evil consisting of one side of studio material and one live side, culled from a concert at New York City‘s legendary Fillmore East. The following year, Mountain broke up. Shortly after, West and Laing formed West, Bruce and Laing with former Cream bassist Jack Bruce, producing two studio albums and a live release over the next two years.
In 1974 West and Pappalardi reformed Mountain with Allan Schwartzberg on drums and Bob Mann (of pioneering jazz rock band Dreams) on keyboards and guitar – a tour yielded the double live album Twin Peaks.
The studio work Avalanche, with rhythm guitarist David Perry and Corky Laing once again on drums, was the last heard from the band for over a decade.
On April 17, 1983, Gail Collins Pappalardi,
Felix’s wife and songwriting partner who had designed many of the
band’s album covers, shot Pappalardi in the neck in their fifth-floor East Side Manhattan apartment. He was pronounced dead at the scene and Collins was charged with second-degree murder. Later cleared of that charge, she convicted of the lesser criminally negligent homicide and sentenced to 16 months to four years in prison. After her release from jail, she vanished into private life.
Mountain reformed in 1985, releasing Go For Your Life. They have continued to record and tour, with bassist Richie Scarlet (known for his work with Ace Frehley, Sebastian Bach and his multiple solo records) rounding out the lineup. Their most recent album is 2007‘s Masters of War, featuring 12 Bob Dylan covers and a guest appearance from Ozzy Osbourne.
In 2003 West and Laing authored a book of recollections entitled “Nantucket Sleighride and Other Mountain on-the-Road Stories” detailing their time with the band at its peak and their subsequent careers.
Trivia
- Among others, “Mississippi Queen” has been covered by WASP, Zakk Wylde, Burnout on their 2003 album ‘Armour Of The Gods’ and Ozzy Osbourne on his 2005 album Under Cover (with Leslie West providing guitar). It also appeared in the 1971 film Vanishing Point and the video games Rock Band and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.