Long Island guitarist Leslie West was so impressed by Cream that he formed a band with Felix Pappalardi, who had produced the “Disraeli Gears” and “Wheels of Fire” LPs, on bass, to play the same kind of blues-soaked hard rock. Though they’re not much remembered today, Mountain was one of the bands that helped transform blues rock into heavy metal.
“Nantucket Sleighride,” the slang term for a harpooned whale pulling a whaleboat, was the highlight of the band’s second album, released in 1971. Owen Coffin was the name of a young sailor on the whales ship Essex, which was rammed and sunk by a sperm whale in 1820. The survivors drifted for months in lifeboats and resorted to cannibalism to survive; Coffin was the loser when the last four drew straws to determine who would die to feed the rest.
