Mountain celebrates Woodstock anniversary
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Leslie West and Mountain will play Hippiefest at the Pepsi-Cola Roadhouse.
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Leslie West ... a hippie?
"No, I never was a hippie," says the formidable frontman for the band Mountain.
Nonetheless, he and Mountain are happy campers on the HippieFest tour, which hits the Pepsi-Cola Roadhouse Friday with Chuck Negron (formerly of Three Dog Night), Felix Cavaliere, the Turtles and Badfinger.
- With: Mountain, Chuck Negron (formerly of Three Dog Night), Felix Cavaliere, the Turtles and Badfinger.
- Where: Pepsi-Cola Roadhouse, Burgettstown.
- When: 7:30 p.m. Friday.
- Tickets: $85-$115; 1-800-745-8300.
Mountain is the sole Woodstock veteran, having played its third gig at the festival, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary next month. The band -- West, longtime drummer Corky Laing and Rev Jones -- will be returning to the original site in Bethel, N.Y., for a Heroes of Woodstock concert (West will also get married on stage).
A heavy blues-rock band best known for its 1972 hit "Mississippi Queen," Mountain certainly brings more of a metal vibe and a lot more volume to HippieFest.
"That's why they have us go on last," West says, with a laugh, "because they don't want to scare the people away."
Mountain is also one of the few bands from that scene to turn up on the video games "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero," which has drawn some young fans to the band. West is grateful for the inclusion on "Guitar Hero," even if, he says, "I [stink] at the game, by the way. I don't think it has anything to do with playing the guitar. I remember watching a 'South Park' where one of the kids said, 'Hey you wanna learn how to play guitar' and he said, 'Nah, I just wanna play "Guitar Hero." ' "
The other huge boost for Mountain this decade was the sampling of its song "Long Red" (along with Billy Squier's "The Stroke") in the 2003 Jay-Z hit "99 Problems" by producer Rick Rubin. It was also used by Kanye West and Common, among others.
"I have 10 million worth of platinum for it on my wall now," West says. "I wrote it in 1969. They took different parts of it and sampled it. I love Rick Rubin's work and I always thought it would be great if someone used some heavy music for rap. I was watching Jimmy Kimmel, and Kanye West was on and Jimmy Kimmel opens the album and starts looking at the credits and says, 'I can understand you sampling a Michael Jackson song, but why on earth would you take a Mountain song?' And Kanye West says, 'Cause me and my mates have good ears.' "
The most recent Mountain project is 2007's "Masters of War," an album of Bob Dylan songs turned into hard rockers, with guest spots by Ozzy Osbourne and Warren Haynes.
"I wanted to re-arrange Bob Dylan songs," West says. "I didn't want to do them like Dylan, there was no point to that, and I couldn't sound like Dylan anyway."
West says the project began when he was in Europe and heard a bootleg version of Neil Young's "Blowin' in the Wind" with a choir.
"I listened to it and said, 'Gee, I'd love to sing that song,' so I went home and started playing around with my guitar. I wanted it to be heavy. I wanted it sound like a Mountain record. I kept looking at Dylan's catalog, and I came up with songs I could re-arrange and also sing. I mean he has 700-odd songs, for crying out loud. And when you listen to the lyrics of 'Masters of War' and 'The Times They Are Changin', it sounds like he wrote them a month ago."
West says he met Dylan once in a music store, but had one other notable brush with him.
"When I first bought my house in Woodstock the agent was driving me around. I thought I was a big shot. I bought a Bentley. It was 1969 or '70. When we drove up to this house and she said it belonged to a folk singer. I was thinking 'Who could it be ... Tim Hardin?' So we drive into this long driveway and this gigantic long cabin mansion it was, and we go in the house. I still don't know whose house it is. I'm looking around. And on one of the back porches I see these, you know those photo booths you can go in a get four photos for a dollar? I see one of those strips and it's John and Yoko, and I'm like 'Who's house is this?'
"And all of a sudden I go in the living room the whole wall is a gigantic mural of Bob Dylan with a harmonica, and I got so scared and petrified, I ran out of the house and left. I got another house. I couldn't believe I was in Dylan's house, Jesus Christ. This was right after he had his motorcycle accident and he was holed up there. Oh my god, it gave me a chill, like wait a second, this isn't for me -- a punk kid from Queens."
First Published July 23, 2009 12:00 am
