Mountain: New York, Felt Forum
December 31, 1974 (late show)

Lineage: CD trade (1st gen. off master)>EAC>FALC(level8)>Dime>lucky you!

Sound quality: 5-6 (out of 6)/ex-

Tracks:
1.Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
2.Theme For An Imaginary Western
3.Thumbsucker
4.You Better Believe It
5.Nantucket Sleighride I
6.Nantucket Sleighride Ii
7.Medley:
- Leslie West Solo
- Roll Over Beethoven /
- Corky Laing Solo /
- Going Home Jam
8.Mississippi Queen
-----------------------------
TOTAL c. 72:00 min

Lineup:
Leslie West - guitar, vocals
Felix Pappalardi - bass, vocals
Corky Laing - drums

This was most likely "original" Mountain's very last show, recorded on New Year's Eve 1974 at the NYC Felt Forum within the Madison Square Garden complex.

Formed in 1969, Mountain first disbanded in February 1972 after a tour of the UK. After side-projects West, Bruce & Laing from early 1972 to April 1973, and Leslie West's Wild West Show in June and July 1973, Felix Pappalardi and Leslie West reunited for a Japanese tour in August 1973, with Bob Mann and Alan Schwartzberg as hired hands. Alas, neither the Japanese shows nor the resulting "Twin Peaks" double album (originally planned as a Japanese-only release but issued worldwide in 1974) represented Mountain by any means.

At first, this might have been regarded as a one-off undertaking. After that tour though, West insisted that Corky Laing be part of the band if they were to continue. Pappalardi agreed but demanded in return - much to West's dismay - that the band took on David Perry as an additional rhythm guitarist in order to avoid Mountain look and not sound too much like Cream (Pappalardi had produced three albums for that group). It seemed Steve Knight, the band's original organ player, was unfortunately not considered.

In a nutshell, this four-piece toured from late 1973 to September 1974, and recorded the band's last album, "Avalanche" in January 1974 (released in Juli 1974). The few existing recordings from this period showed a revitalized band with some refreshing new and up-to-the-mark material.

After their September 1974 tour, it seemed West finally succeeded in convincing Pappalardi to condense the band to his favourite trio format. Pappalardi obviously gave in and it was left to West to phone Perry to give him the bad news. Perhaps it was already decided at this point that their autumn/winter 1974 tour would be the band's farewell which may have made it easier for Pappalardi to finally concede.

The band kicked off their last tour on October 3, 1974 with a phenomenal show at NYC's Radio City Music Hall. Fortunately, there is a pretty good audience recording of this in circulation and it's worth getting hold of (I seeded that to Dime already, torrent #274842). On this tour, Mountain were the main act when they played mid-sized venues and, for larger venues, supported up-and-coming stars J. Geils Band on a few occasions.

One can only hope that West was indeed happy on this tour. At least, this recording demonstrates a still extra-tight band. They even came up with otherwise not-to-be-found bits and pieces of Ten Years After's "I'm Going Home", perhaps a nod to their colleagues of many a festival who at that time were also on the verge of splitting.

The sound quality of this recording is superb, it's a first generation off-the-master copy, and a complete recording of the show to boot. Close listening reveals that it must be an audience recording but it is indeed so well recorded that one may mistake it for a soundboard tape. My #1 Mountain mate, the late Rich Demartino, a long-time friend of West and close to the band from the very beginning (hope you are having a good time up there with Felix, Rich!) was in possession of this show. As Rich told me in 1996, he regarded this recording so highly that he was trying to sell it to Sony as an official release as they own Mountain's Windfall Records catalogue; however, that did not materialize. All the better for you Dimers, right?

Enjoy Mountain at their last and "creamy" peak!

Enjoy - and share!
Th:-)mas

Uploaded to Dime in February 2010 by Docdondy
NEVER FOR SALE - trade & sharing only. And do spread this show in lossy formats, either!