Mountain- Don’t Look Back-Progressive Voyages Review PV128

Mountain are probably well know to most Rock Music fans, What this set shrews is that they are deserving of far more respect and acclaim than they generally received during the long career, Thisnset features on those early years and the sem8nal and respected alb7ms that initial flurry of activities bought to the world

The Mountain story begins in 1973cwhen a young Leslie Weinstein attended a taping at one of CBS variety shows where hoped to see Comedian Jackie Gleason, however he saw something that was very special instead, he saw the television debut of Elvis Presley a sight that set Leslie on his guitar playing career insread.

WEINSTEIN CHANGED HIS NAME TO West and started a band called The Vagrants who were popular around New Yiork City and New Jersey. THE Vagranrs were signed to the Vangua4d label where they recorded the song I Can't Make A Friend, that was produced by up and coming Producer Felix Pappalardi, the man who produced the Disbelief Gears, Wheels On Fire and Goodbye albums for Cream, West was a fan of Cream and especially ofvJack Bruce with whom he would form another power trio called West Bruce and Laing in 1973 after Mountain has broken up, nut before that West r3cided to make a solomalb7mnafter The Vagrants had split up after their version if Respect ( That predated the Areattha Franklin version was released to great success( The Vagrants version was scuppered by theirvmanager repeating their version to the B side of their then single as the manager owned the publishing, the Areatha version produced by Jerry Wexler was a huge hit in 1967, another case of right song wrong time for Leslie.

After the Vagrants split up, Leslie decided to record a solo album and liking the sounds that Pappalardi got for cream decided to get him to produce the album, Pappalardi in turn was impressed with west's play

ing and agreed also playing bass for the album which was released in 1969 as Leslie West Mountain a subtle poke at his struggles with his weight at that time.

The album was well received and West decided to join forces with Pappalardi in a new band called Mountain and they were added to the bill of the Woodstock festival in 1969 where they played to 500,000 people at the festival.

The Recordings that were made were excluded from the megaselling Woodstock album, they are however all here on disc 2 of this set. Which really cemented my interest in this great set of Recordings fr9m 1969 to 1974 when Mountain had split up with West moving onto West Bruce and Laing for their trio of albums starting in 1972.

This 7 CD set includes the 1969 Leslie West Mountain album the 1969 Woodstock performances and The Climbing, Nanucket Sleighride, Flowers Of Evil, Twin Peaks and Avalance albums along with a plethora of alternative versions and ĺive tracks, the production is crisp and clear there us also an informative bo9klet detailing Mountain's story and information on the albums in a well presented Clam shell box.

Iinfo here: Mountain: Don't Look Around - The Recordings 1969-1974, 7CD Box Set https://share.google/YTG8VdS5VJSvBo5Q8

Author John Wenlock-Smith Saturday 7th March 2026.