RIP Leslie West

Steven Hale
1 min readDec 24, 2020
Photo by Lubo Minar on Unsplash

Many of my fellow male Boomers learning of the death of Leslie West: “Damn!”

Almost everyone else: “Who?”

The central figure of Mountain was a major transition between late1960’s gonzo blues-oriented hard rock and 1970’s metal.

But hard rock fans might not know that Leslie West was capable of incredible restraint.

On 1970's “Climbing”— which contained Mountain’s biggest hit “Mississippi Queen” — West covered “Theme for an Imaginary Western” from Cream’s Jack Bruce (lyrics by Pete Brown) — one of the most moving compositions from the classic era, and (I think) Mountain’s best studio performance. Why Cream never performed the song is an eternal mystery.

West would later collaborate with Bruce on several albums, including a number of live versions of “Western” available on YouTube. On their 1987 Howard Stern performance, West’s playing (in my view) surpasses the best of Clapton (Derek and the Dominoes or Blind Faith included). It’s what you don’t hear in this live version that counts.

It may be a long time before we see a power player with so much grace.

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Steven Hale

Music: Discovering the lost and forgotten. Politics: Exposing injustice. Screenwriting: Emotional storytelling.