Leslie West (1945 - 2020)

[1finemrg]

Leslie West, legendary guitarist and co-founder of Mountain passed away December 23 at the age of 75. He went into cardiac arrest on Monday, but never regained consciousness.

Born Leslie Weinstein, Leslie found regional success with the Vagrants in the mid-sixties. They were beginning to made inroads with their cover of Otis Redding's "Respect". Then Aretha Franklin's version came along and the Vagrants' cover was relegated to local success in the northeast and a garage rock classic.

After leaving the Vagrants, Leslie released a solo album "Mountain" produced by Vagrants' producer Felix Pappalardi. The pair eventually formed the band Mountain and scored a high profile and memorable performance at Woodstock. Included in the band were keyboardist Steve Knight and drummer N D Smart.

Smart left soon after Woodstock replaced by Corky Laing who memorably provided the cowbell intro to their Top 40 single "Mississippi Queen" circa 1970. It was from the album "Climbing!". That album and the follow-up "Nantucket Sleighride" are considered early metal classics. Both albums reached the Top 20.

The commercially successful version of Mountain only lasted until 1972, breaking up after a tour of the United Kingdom. There were countless reunions of the band in one form or another through the years.

Complications from diabetes caused Leslie to have his right leg amputated in 2011. His 2015 album "Soundcheck" peaked at #2 on the blues chart.

Obituary

Tributes

[trekkielo]

May Leslie West rest in peace. 

"Comin' up, the group with the heaviest guitar player on the charts, he weighs over 300 pounds, the hits from Coast-to-Coast, American Top 40, 31 hits to go on our way to #1 and the countdown goes on, well here's the group with the heaviest guitar player on the charts today, heaviest on the scales that is, lead guitarist, Leslie West, steps in at about 300 pounds, that's a pretty good chunk of the group called, Mountain, and in position #31, this is, the 16th week on the charts for them, Mississippi Queen..." - Casey Kasem's American Top 40 from July 25th, 1970-August 1st, 1970

[mrjukebox]

"Mississippi Queen" is an awesome song.