Climbing! is the debut album from American hard rock band Mountain and features one of my favorite guitar riffs of all time on “Mississippi Queen”. The combination of a cowbell count-in paired with the iconic slithering guitar riff sounds like cigarettes and a steak dinner– simply 70’s classic rock perfection. And alongside Leslie West’s pitch perfect gruff vocal delivery it has stood the test of time as one of those definitive early 70’s bangers that will never go out of style. It’s so good that The Prince of Darkness himself Ozzy Osbourne saw fit to record a cover version on his 2005 album Under Cover. One of my favorite stories about the recording of the song was that the cowbell intro was pure happenstance– the band was late into a recording session, drummer Corky Laing was growing weary of the endless takes, and he started counting into the song using the cowbell sheerly out of boredom. Upon listening back the band loved the sound so much that they kept it in the final cut. Sounds like they had a fever and the only prescription was more cowbell.
Standout Songs: “Mississippi Queen”, “Never In My Life”, “To My Friend”
