RIP Leslie West

[stelligan]

[TUBEDUDE]

Another one down, damn.
I'll have to listen to some some of my Mountain and West, Bruce and Laing LP's today.
Especially Mississippi Queen, the original "more cowbell" song.

[Phil_S]

I was stunned when I opened the NY Times and saw this. Leslie West was a guitar hero from Long Island. The Vagrants used to play the Action House on Long Beach Rd in Island Park. I was too young to get in. In the spring of 1970, I saw a show at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, NY. Small Faces (Rod/Ronnie, not Steve Marriott) opened the show for Mountain. Small Faces, barely known, turned in a performance to remember, and were a very hard act to follow. Mountain didn't disappoint. West was there with his LP Jr. in it's full glory, a very large man with the small guitar. He worked that thing for all the tone he could squeeze from it and he was an expert. It is probably the best double bill show I've ever seen. Some 50 years later, I still remember being there.

[angelodp]

Yes Leslie was a great hero at Forest Hills High School. In the guitar wars (affectionate term for battle of the bands), we all marveled at Wachtel and West, others. I hung with Johnny Ramone (Cummings). We were together when we heard Purple Haze for the first time, man oh man. Then the Vagrants played FHHS auditorium and a whole new idiom of Rock was emerging. Leslie and Waddy grew up in the same building. Walter Becker went to Junior High when I did, he was a certified genius at 14. Simon and Garfunkel preceded us at FHHS, Burt Bacharach too. Music flowed. I was lucky enough to see Leslie at Woodstock, amazing day. Then in the early morning hours of that last day at Woodstock (Monday actually), Jimi blazed the stage with most everyone gone already. I stood there with the bedraggled last ten thousand as I heard the Star Spangled Banner. Heady heady days for sure. RIP Leslie you were an inspiration.

[Leo_Gnardo]

I was always awestruck with Leslie West's tone. 1969 Miss. Queen got a lot of airplay on WNEW FM. My radio stuck on that channel, couldn't wait to hear it again. Then I collected the first 4 Mountain LP's plus their predecessor "Leslie West: Mountain." Got to meet him briefly about 1990 at Millbrook Studio. He'd lost a lot of weight, everywhere except his bulging froggy eyes. Then again backstage at some "day of the dinosaurs" concert in Michigan @ 1992 where he greeted me with his self-evaluation, a witticism I have shamelessly borrowed constantly since then: "I'm at the crest of my latest slump." No Leslie, your playing was always top notch, regardless of how the business fared.

[TUBEDUDE]

I got to see him in Philly after Mountain was gone. He had Corky Laing with him as "The Wild West Show". Amazing show, Leslie was as good as ever. Best short scale Gibby player ever. He and Steve Marriott convinced me to try one...best left to those with smaller hands. Anyway Corky did the whole drums on fire thing with lighter fluid. In the middle of solos, bouncing sticks off of the drums deep into the crowd without missing a beat. That stick bag at his leg must have had eighty sticks in there. Leaving the venue I saw the rental equipment trucks. White and unmarked they each had a bumper sticker saying "Need entertainment, see a rodeo".
One of the best shows I've seen.

[statorvane]

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No Leslie, your playing was always top notch, regardless of how the business fared.

+1. No question.