hypersongs

Climbing!

Their debut as a band: nine songs, with "Mississippi Queen" opening and "For Yasgur's Farm" closing side one.
Mountain, 1970

Climbing! was produced by Pappalardi, engineered by Bob d'Orleans and executive produced by Bud Prager, with a cover painted by Gail Collins. West played guitars and sang, Pappalardi bass, piano, guitars and vocals, Laing drums, percussion and cowbell, and Knight organ, mellotron and handbells. It debuted at 186 on the Billboard 200, peaked at 17 over 39 weeks, reached 19 in Canada and went gold on August 28, 1970. AllMusic's Matthew Greenwald gave it 4.5 stars, Christgau gave it a C-plus, and Classic Rock said its blues rock owed a major debt to Cream. West recalled Jimi Hendrix hearing "Never in My Life" at the Record Plant: that's some riff, man.

Track listing

  1. Mississippi Queen2:31
  2. Theme for an Imaginary Western5:06
  3. Never in My Life3:51
  4. Silver Paper3:19
  5. For Yasgur's Farm3:23
  6. To My Friend3:38
  7. The Laird4:39
  8. Sittin' on a Rainbow2:23
  9. Boys in the Band3:33

More from Mountain

Flowers Of Evil (1971), Nantucket Sleighride (1971), Twin Peaks (1974), Avalanche (1974), Go For Your Life (1985), Man's World (1995), Mystic Fire (2002), Capitol Theatre, Passaic, New Jersey, 1973 (2004), Eruption (2004), Capitol Theater, Passaic, New Jersey, 1974 (2005), Woodstock Festival/New Canaan H.S. 1969 (2005), Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA 1970 (2005), Masters Of War (2007)

Sources

  1. Climbing!, Wikipedia
  2. Leslie West interview, Best Classic Bands