Leslie West 12/2020 – (75) West was born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City on October 22, 1945, to Jewish parents. He grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey, and in East Meadow, Forest Hills, and Lawrence, New York. His mother was a hair model, his father the vice president of a rug shampoo company. He grew up in the suburbs. When Leslie was 8, his mother bought him his first instrument, a ukulele, but he became entranced with the guitar after seeing Elvis Presley play one on television. He bought his first guitar with the money given to him for his bar mitzvah. After his parents divorced, he changed his surname to West.
His professional career began in a band he formed in the mid-1960s with his brother Larry, who played bass. The band, the Vagrants, was a blue-eyed soul group inspired by a hit act from Long Island, the Rascals, one of the few teenage garage rock acts to come out of the New York metropolitan area itself (as opposed to the Bohemian Greenwich Village scene of artists, poets, and affiliates of the Beat Generation, which produced bands like the Fugs and the Velvet Underground) The two bands played the same local clubs, as did Billy Joel’s early group, the Hassles.
Improbably, Vanguard Records, better known for folk, jazz and classical artists, signed the Vagrants. Their first single, “I Can’t Make a Friend,” a garage rocker, became a minor hit in 1966. Felix Pappalardi, who produced some of the Vagrants’ songs, helped them obtain a new contract with Atco Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic, for which they cut a cover of Otis Redding’s “Respect” that earned East Coast airplay in 1967.
But West yearned to record something heavier, so he left to make a solo album in 1969 whose title, “Mountain,” was a reference to his imposing size. Produced by Mr. Pappalardi, it featured many songs co-written by the two, including “Long Red,” which, in a later live version recorded at Woodstock with N.D. Smart on drums, featured a drum break that inspired one of the most popular samples in hip-hop history, heard on more than 700 recordings, including ones by Public Enemy, Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar.
With Felix Pappalardi, who was also working with Cream on their album Disraeli Gears, Leslie West’s career started on an upbeat note. By the time “Mountain” appeared, West had persuaded Pappalardi to form a band with him named for the album. “I said, ‘There’s never been a fat and a skinny guy onstage,’” Mr. West told Guitar World. “‘We can’t miss.’” So, in 1969, West and Pappalardi formed the pioneering hard rock act Mountain, which also became the title of West’s debut solo album. Rolling Stone identified the band as a “louder version of Cream”.
The band’s debut album was released that spring, with Steve Knight, who came aboard for the Woodstock performance, on keyboards, and Mr. Laing on drums. The addition of Mr. Knight’s surging organ added warmth to the band’s sound and differentiated Mountain from Cream’s power-trio format. The album’s lead track, “Mississippi Queen,” had what became one of the most famous cowbell intros in rock, though it was originally used by producer Pappalardi simply as a way to count the band into the song. The song reached No. 21 on the Billboard singles chart and became an FM radio staple.
One of Mountain’s first gigs was at the Woodstock festival; a booking the band received because it shared an agent with Jimi Hendrix. With Steve Knight on keyboards and original drummer N. D. Smart, the band appeared on the second day of the Woodstock Festival on Saturday, August 16, 1969, starting an 11-song set at 9 pm. Unfortunately their performance was left out off the ensuing movie “Woodstock”, due to their manager’s decision not to be included, which propelled many of the performing acts into super stardom. West carried this chip on his shoulder for the rest of his life. If only…
The band’s original incarnation saw West and Pappalardi sharing vocal duties and playing guitar and bass, respectively. New drummer Corky Laing joined the band shortly after Woodstock. When Mountain first appeared, Rolling Stone called the band “a louder version of Cream,” a comparison underscored by Pappalardi’s role as the producer of many of that British band’s best-known recordings.It was followed by “Theme For an Imaginary Western”, written by Cream bassist Jack Bruce.
He produced the first solo album by Cream’s bassist and singer, Jack Bruce, “Theme for an Imaginary Western,” which became far better known in the version cut by Mountain for its debut album, “Climbing!,” released in 1970. “I idolized Cream,” West told Guitar World magazine in 1987, “and here was a chance to play with one of the best musicians in rock ‘n roll and one of the best writers, too,” referring to Pappalardi. Mountain is one of the bands considered to be forerunners of heavy metal.
But then Mountain got heavier and heavier, more bombastic, and when that avenue ran out of steam there was a supergroup with drummer Laing and Jack Bruce and that was the height of bombasticity and corporate rock came in and then disco and Leslie West was a gunslinger with no saloon within which to show his chops.
After Pappalardi, tired of touring, left Mountain to concentrate on production projects, West and Laing produced two studio albums and a live release with Jack Bruce under the name West, Bruce and Laing. West, along with keyboard player Al Kooper of Blood, Sweat & Tears, recorded with the Who during the March 1971 Who’s Next New York sessions. Tracks from the sessions included a cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Baby Don’t You Do It,” and early versions of “Love Ain’t For Keepin'” and the Who’s signature track “Won’t Get Fooled Again”.
The final studio album by the original Mountain, “Flowers of Evil,” was released in late 1971. One side had material, recorded in the studio, fashioned around an anti-drug theme; the other side had music recorded live at the Fillmore East.
The next year the group split, a result of various band members’ drug abuse and Pappalardi’s decision to quit touring. While he continued to work as a producer, Leslie West, Jack Bruce and Corky Laing recorded two studio albums and a live set before Bruce bowed out in 1973. That same year, West and Pappalardi reformed Mountain with a new drummer and keyboardist for a double live album, “Twin Peaks,” and a studio album, “Avalanche,” both issued in 1974. But months later, the group imploded.
In 1983, Pappalardi was fatally shot in a bout of jealousy, by his wife, Gail Collins, who had co-written songs for Mountain and designed their famous album covers.
Leslie West struggled with his weight for most of his life, used his ample size to his advantage onstage. In an era ruled by rail-thin rock stars, his physique stood out. His guitar tone matched it in girth: It was uncommonly thick, with a vibrato that could shake with earthquake force.
“I didn’t play fast — I only used the first and the third finger on the fingering hand,” Mr. West told the website Best Classic Bands in 2011. “So I worked on my tone all the time. I wanted to have the greatest, biggest tone, and I wanted vibrato like somebody who plays violin in a hundred-piece orchestra.”
His singing style mirrored his guitar playing, marked by barking declarations that at their most stentorian could pin a listener to the wall. The weight of his sound has been cited as an early example of heavy metal, though Mountain offered a striking contrast to its more forceful songs with other numbers that displayed the prettier vocals and more elegant melodies of the band’s bassist, co-lead singer and producer, Felix Pappalardi.
West continued to record and perform, billed either under his own name or as leader of Mountain, sometimes with Corky Laing. He collaborated on albums with star guitarists like Joe Bonamassa and Peter Frampton and recorded with top metal singers like Ian Gillan of Deep Purple and Ozzy Osbourne.
His last album with Mountain, “Masters of War,” released in 2007, featured covers of Bob Dylan songs. In 2009, he toured with a band billed as West, Bruce Jr. and Laing, with Jack Bruce’s son, Malcolm, on bass. (Jack Bruce died in 2014.) He appeared with Mountain at an all-star concert for the 40th anniversary of Woodstock in 2009, where he also married his second wife, Jenni Maurer, on stage. His last solo release, “Soundcheck,” reached No. 2 on Billboard’s blues chart in 2015.
Throughout his career, Mr. West remained committed to his uniquely punchy guitar style.
“I’m not a great guitarist, technically,” he told Guitar World in 1987. “But you know why people remember me? If you take a hundred players and put them in a room, 98 or 99 of ’em are gonna sound the same.“The one who plays different,” he said, “that’s the one you’re going to remember.”
Leslie West, guitarist and vocalist with Mountain (Mississippi Queen) died on December 23, 2020 from cardiac arrest.
