Post by B on Dec 28, 2020 17:32:13 GMT -5
Leslie West, Mountain Guitarist Who Belted Out ‘Mississippi Queen,’ Dead at 75
Co-founder of hard-rock group went into cardiac arrest earlier this week
www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/leslie-west-dead-1106777/
"Leslie West, the towering guitarist who created the hard-rock milestone “Mississippi Queen” with his band Mountain, died Wednesday morning.
West’s brother, Larry West Weinstein, confirmed the musician’s death to Rolling Stone. He was 75. The cause of death was cardiac arrest. On Monday, West was rushed to a hospital
after suffering cardiac arrest at his home near Daytona, Florida, where he never regained consciousness.
Released in 1970 on Mountain’s debut album, Climbing!, “Mississippi Queen” was two and a half minutes of boisterous bliss built around West’s burly yowl and guitar blasts
and drummer Corky Laing’s completely unironic cowbell. One of those never-say-die songs of the classic-rock era, “Mississippi Queen” has been featured in countless soundtracks,
TV shows (The Americans, The Simpsons), and in Guitar Hero III. In an interview with Guitar Player earlier this year, West said the song “has just everything you need to make it a winner.
You’ve got the cowbell, the riff is pretty damn good, and it sounds incredible. It feels like it wants to jump out of your car radio. To me, it sounds like a big, thick milkshake.
It’s rich and chocolatey. Who doesn’t love that?”"
(more at link)