Mountain's 'Mississippi Queen' Delivers an Avalanche of Sound

‘200 Greatest 70s Rock Songs’ Book Excerpt

Photo bySony Music Entertainment

Mountain — singer-guitarist Leslie West, bassist and producer Felix Pappalardi, and drummer Corky Laing — formed in 1969. Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen” is the band’s biggest hit, reaching №21 in 1970. West told Music Aficionado that Laing came up with the inspiration for the lyrics.

“After I did my solo album Mountain we put the band together and started thinking about doing some recording. Corky came over to my place, and I said, ‘What do you got?’ He had this silly little thing — ’Mississippi Queen, you know what I mean / She taught me everything.’

“He had played in Nantucket and the power went out, so he did a drum solo. He started scatting these words — they just kind of came out. So that’s what he had. Meanwhile, I had been playing around with this riff in my apartment. I showed it to him, and in 20 minutes we had the song.

“We were halfway through the album before we started on ‘Mississippi Queen.’ We had the song pretty much together, more or less. Felix gave us a little direction about the opening riff and that it should go to the five-chord right off the bat. What? No, that’s bull.

“Felix liked to do a lot of takes on some things, sure. Sometimes we’d rehearse a tune over and over and over again, and that got insane. You’d have a good take in the beginning and then you’d lose it, so then you gotta go back — ’Oh, that was the good take.’

“But that wasn’t the case with ‘Queen.’ We did it a few times to get the main rhythm. We were building the foundation of a house. You gotta get that foundation down or else. It doesn’t matter how many drapes you put on the windows. If the foundation isn’t there, who cares?”

"Mississippi Queen" by Mountain

Laing’s cowbell to count off the song has made its intro instantly identifiable. “The cowbell was always in there because we had to start the song. Felix told Corky to count the song off, so he used the cowbell. Simple as that.

“He hit the bell and I went into my riff. He did his drum fill — ’whack-a! whack-a!’ — and I went into the lead. It’s a great opener. So that’s how I remember it. I wasn’t taking LSD back then, so I’m pretty sure that’s right.”

“I was really influenced by The Band so that one was my impression of ‘Cripple Creek,’ Laing said in the San Diego Reader. “It’s the same backbeat, see, but Leslie took it pretty far, just came in and ripped it up.”

Pappalardi, who produced Cream’s Disraeli Gears LP, suggested adding a piano — to West’s continuing annoyance. “You know what I hate? That piano. Oh, yeah. It was unnecessary.

“He’s doing these little parts in the holes — you can hear it at the end. It’s terrible. I was totally opposed to it. Felix’s whole thing was, he didn’t want us to look or sound like Cream, so he put that piano in. I didn’t like it, man.”

Frank Mastropolo is the author of 200 Greatest 70s Rock Songs and 200 Greatest 60s Rock Songs.