Leslie West - RIP

One could do a whole lot worse than to be remembered for the riff of Mississippi Queen.  If you Google the name Leslie West this week, almost every hit that comes back links that indestructible riff to his name, like Ritchie Blackmore and Smoke on the Water.  Leslie West was almost as indestructible as the Mississippi Queen riff.  As many drugs as he did in the 1970s, it would have surprised no one if he joined the 27 Club.  He had bladder cancer – he beat it.  In 2011 he lost his right leg to diabetes.  That minor inconvenience didn’t stop him from touring.  But he didn’t die until last week at age 75.  According to his brother, his heart just gave out.

I got into Leslie West in a roundabout way, via his association with Jack Bruce. I started with West, Bruce & Laing, then I worked backwards to Mountain and his solo stuff.  Twenty-five years ago, The Who released a deluxe set of Who’s Next.  I thought I knew a lot about The Who, but I missed something. Imagine my surprise when I found a few songs that Leslie West played on.  Apparently, Pete Townshend wanted to record some stuff live with him playing rhythm and another guitar player playing lead.  They called Leslie West.  There’s a track of them playing the Motown song Baby Don’t You Do It.  The Who and Leslie West bashing live in the studio for almost nine minutes – magical stuff.  In his solo work after Mountain, one can hear him branching out into acoustic work.  His take of John Lennon’s Dear Prudence from his third solo album is a bit darker than the original, but no less captivating.  After 1988, his career was one long excursion into the blues.  It’s all good.

The influences:  Two of the Kings, Freddie and Albert.  Clapton was also a big influence.  A story he liked to tell involved he and his brother going to see Cream at the Fillmore East [it was the Village Theater before it had its famous name].  Felix Pappalardi produced West’s pre-Mountain band, the Vagrants. His brother told him the guy who produced him also produced Cream’s Disraeli Gears. West wondered “why don’t we sound like Cream?” His brother told him why he didn’t sound like Cream – “you guys suck, you don’t practice.” They went to the Village Theater, and they took LSD before the show. West said, “took some LSD, the curtain opened up and I heard Cream and I said ‘Larry, we really do suck”. Then he started practicing.

Many years ago, I read an interview of him in one of the guitar magazines of the day [I think it was Guitar World] and he talked about being a guitar teacher in either the late 1970s or early 1980s.  One of his students wanted to be taught how to shred.  Leslie West blew the shredder wannabe’s mind by telling him to play Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight.  His reason was that if you can’t play the slow stuff, you’re really gonna suck trying to play the fast stuff.

Who did he influence? Warren Haynes [he told West he started Gov’t Mule because of Mountain], Michael Schenker, Randy Rhoads, Neal Schon, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani [he bought one of West’s signature Dean guitars just so he could play with him on tour], Martin Barre [Jethro Tull!].

The guitars: Les Paul Jr [“a tree with a microphone” – he loved the P90 pickups], Gibson Flying V

The sound: Huge tone. It’s a big wall of sound.  He wanted his guitar to sound like three guitars.  West was a melodic player who didn’t play too fast. He once remarked that he didn’t know what “shredding” meant.  He was a proponent of the “less is more” approach.  Felix Pappalardi taught him “don’t play anything you can’t sing.”  Sometimes it’s difficult to describe someone’s music.  You kind of know what you want to say, but you’re not sure how to say it.  As is the case whenever a musician of renown passes, Warren Haynes writes an eloquent essay, and he always manages to put into words what the rest of us are thinking.  Perhaps that’s why he’s such a good songwriter.  A few days ago, he wrote this about Leslie West:

“Leslie’s style as a guitar player was not only powerful but unique as well. He had warm, rich tone and a beautiful, wide vibrato that sounded like a human voice. That combined with his note selection and spacious phrasing really gave him that vocal-like quality that I’ve always personally been drawn to (as I’ve mentioned many times). His ability to choose the right notes and not overplay was in an odd way like a rock version of BB King.

I know there are some young guitar players out there playing a million notes that may not have listened to Leslie West.  Do yourself a favor and check it out. You’ll be glad you did.”

I can’t top that, and I won’t even try.  I checked out Leslie West’s playing a long time ago.  Warren is right – I’m glad I did.  Below is a playlist I’ve had for a while.  I limited to the first seven years of his recorded output for the sake of brevity. It clocks in at just short of two hours.

Tony’s Leslie West playlist:

Blood of the Sun [Leslie West – Mountain (1969)]
Dreams of Milk & Honey [Leslie West – Mountain (1969)]
This Wheel's On Fire [Leslie West – Mountain (1969)]
Mississippi Queen [Mountain - Climbing! (1970)]
Theme for an Imaginary Western [Mountain - Climbing! (1970)]
Never In My Life [Mountain - Climbing! (1970)]
Silver Paper [Mountain - Climbing! (1970)]
Sittin' On a Rainbow [Mountain - Climbing! (1970)]
Don't Look Around [Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride (1971)]
Nantucket Sleighride (To Owen Coffin) [Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride (1971)]
You Can't Get Away! [Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride (1971)]
The Great Train Robbery [Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride (1971)]
Flowers of Evil [Mountain – Flowers of Evil (1971)]
Baby Don’t You Do It [The Who – Whos’ Next Deluxe (1995)]
Why Dontcha [West, Bruce & Laing – Why Dontcha (1972)]
Out Into The Fields [West, Bruce & Laing – Why Dontcha (1972)]
Shake Ma Thing (Rollin Jack) [West, Bruce & Laing – Why Dontcha (1972)]
Pollution Woman [West, Bruce & Laing – Why Dontcha (1972)]
Love Is Worth the Blues [West, Bruce & Laing – Why Dontcha (1972)]
Rock 'N' Roll Machine [West, Bruce & Laing - Whatever Turns You On (1973)]
Backfire [West, Bruce & Laing - Whatever Turns You On (1973)]
Token [West, Bruce & Laing - Whatever Turns You On (1973)]
Crossroader [Mountain – Twin Peaks (1974)]
Don't Burn Me [Leslie West – The Great Fatsby (1975)]
E.S.P. [Leslie West – The Great Fatsby (1975)]
Dear Prudence [Leslie West - The Leslie West Band (1976)]
Sea of Heartache [Leslie West - The Leslie West Band (1976)]

1/16/22
 
Not content with having a single Leslie West playlist, here’s another one I compiled from his work between 1988 and 2015.

Masters of War [Mountain - Masters of War, 2007]
Standing On a Higher Ground (feat. Billy F. Gibbons) [Unusual Suspects, 2011]
One More Drink for the Road (feat. Steve Lukather) [Unusual Suspects, 2011]
Busted, Disgusted or Dead (feat. Johnny Winter) [Still Climbing, 2013]
Third Degree (feat. Joe Bonamassa) [Unusual Suspects, 2011]
Serve Somebody [Mountain - Masters of War, 2007]
Subterranean Homesick Blues [Mountain - Masters of War, 2007]
Long Red [Still Climbing, 2013]
To the Moon [Unusual Suspects, 2011]              
A Stern Warning [Soundcheck, 2015]
Tales of Woe [Still Climbing, 2013]
Blues Before Sunrise [Blue Me, 2006]
I Woke Up This Morning [Blue Me, 2006]
Four Day Creep [Blue Me, 2006]
Crawlin' Kingsnake [Blues to Die For, 2003]
Louisiana Blues [Got Blooze. 2005]
(Look Over) Yonder's Wall [Got Blooze. 2005]
Spoonful [w/ Jack Bruce] [Theme, 1988]
I'm Ready [Blues to Die For, 2003]
Going Down [Soundcheck, 2015]
Walk in My Shadow [Got Blooze. 2005]
Hellhound on My Trail [Blues to Die For, 2003]
As Phat As It Gets [As Phat As It Gets, 1999]

Here For the Party [Soundcheck, 2015]

Empty Promises / Nothin' Sacred [Soundcheck, 2015]

Don't Start Me Talkin' [Blues to Die For, 2003]

Nothing's Changed [Unusual Suspects, 2011] 

Love You Forever [Unusual Suspects, 2011]