Mountain guitarist Leslie West, R.I.P.

West co-founded the band Mountain in the '60s.
All the big name guitarists were fans of Leslie, from Hendrix to the British guitar gods.
He suffered a heart attack the other night at his home in Florida, and passed away at the hospital.

I believe he was 75.

I can't post any YouTube videos with this phone browser. Maybe someone could be kind enough to post some of Leslie's songs.
Thanks.

originally posted by: ColeYounger
West co-founded the band Mountain in the '60s.
All the big name guitarists were fans of Leslie, from Hendrix to the British guitar gods.
He suffered a heart attack the other night at his home in Florida, and passed away at the hospital.

I believe he was 75.

I can't post any YouTube videos with this phone browser. Maybe someone could be kind enough to post some of Leslie's songs.
Thanks.

He had so much power and energy into his playing. Time for me to recheck youtube. If I can I'll post some youtubes

a reply to: ColeYounger

2020 rolls on...

Great song, and if you bother to listen to the others, then you will understand how good he really was.

Damn this year!

a reply to: ColeYounger

I don't know much Mountain stuff but I do love Nantucket Sleighride , here's Leslie West performing the great Sleighride in 2003.


Awesome.

RiP Leslie.

RIP Leslie!

I didn't know about it and I was playing their music on the computer one hour ago. Leslie found the way to say goodbye to me.

youtu.be...

His homage to The Beatles:
youtu.be...

a reply to: ColeYounger

One of my all time favorites, definitely a huge influence on my playing. RIP Leslie West!

Sad to hear, he was a great musician. RIP Leslie

I first heard Mountain when my brother got drafted towards the end of Vietnam, being the good little brother I was, I confiscated his 45’s, 8 tracks and black light posters for safe keeping. Mississippi Queen was one of the 45’s I played over and over.

Great story on how he got his signature tone.

“Mountain's first gig was at Fillmore West in 1969,” remembers Leslie West. “I had been using Marshall amps, and that’s what I expected to find when I opened a bunch of cartons that had arrived from the airport, but instead I got a Sunn - and it wasn’t even a guitar amp. "The cartons contained a Sunn Coliseum P.A. head and four 4x12 cabinets, and I thought, ‘There’s no way I can get a good tone out of this thing.’ But the head had four microphone inputs and a master volume control, and when I plugged in and turned it up I got this amazing tone, which became my sound. "And remember, this was years before amps had master volume controls. The head had huge transformers and gigantic KT88 tubes, and the cabinets were loaded with Eminence speakers, which never hurt your ears even with the treble all the way up. That’s the amp I used on Mountain Climbing, which included ‘Mississippi Queen.’”

Their albums had cool artwork: