Comments Inspired By Mountain: Best Of Mountain [SQ/Q8]

[ar surround]

Being a big fan of the Mountain song Nantucket Sleighride (To Owen Coffin), I've often wondered who this fellow Owen Coffin might be. Well, my book group's selection for this month is In The Heart Of The Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick. It is about the wreck of the Nantucket whaler Essex in 1820 and Owen Coffin was one of it's crew. It's a great read and I'm now aware of several tidbits:

- I always thought that Moby Dick's attack on the Pequod was pure science fiction. Not so. A huge 85 foot sperm whale, albeit not a white one, rammed the 87 foot long Essex...twice for heaven's sake...and the ship sunk.
- The 20 memeber crew abandoned ship in three beat up whale boats. As for poor Owen Coffin, the crew eventually ate him to ward off starvation.
- The Mountain song is about the Essex, however Robin-Marie is apparently some woman that Felix Pappalardi was messing around with on the side, not an Nantucketer from circa 1820.

I appreciate the song even more so now that I know the backstory. Here's a link to a short article about it.

https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-story-behind-the-song-nantucket-sleighride-by-mountain
Happy whaling, QQ friends!

 

[The56Kid]

I too love the song Nantucket Sleighride and appreciate finally understanding what it’s about. The Robin-Marie lyric is really disturbing in context given Gail Collins ended up killing her husband Felix Pappalardi for his cheating ways.

 

[par4ken]

Like many I first became aware of Mountain with the hit song "Mississippi Queen".

The first Mountain album I ever purchased was "Live: The Road Goes Ever On". I loved all the tracks and Gail Collins artwork. Nantucket Sleighride was the track that I most remembered from that album. Awhile later I purchased the album "Nantucket Sleighride" then later on Leslie West "Mountain" and "Flowers of Evil".

I think that the band took it's name from "Leslie West's" stature "The Man of Mountain". Technically the album "Mountain" was a west solo album but I still consider it part of the Mountain canon.

It was sad to read about Leslie West's death a couple of years ago. I purchased most of his solo albums. Also all the "West, Bruce & Laing" LP's two of which are SQ.





"

 

[The56Kid]

The louder sound link provided above by @ar surround led me to another article about Felix and Gail’s troubled marriage and drug use. As a young teen, I absolutely loved Mountain. I couldn’t get enough of Leslie’s wonderfully melodic solos, the juxtaposition of his rough vocals and Felix’s sweet vocals or Corky’s badass drumming. Another major component that made them special was Gail’s beautiful artwork and calligraphy. It’s almost shocking for me to read how Felix and Gail’s heroin use was what lead to their and the band’s demise. Hence the title of their last album Flowers Of Evil. What a shame!