Dreams of milk and honey (Mountain) (LP 3298 - 3302)

Mountain  Live (The Road Goes Ever On) (Vinyl, Image Records, 1972) ***  

Mountain  Millenium Collection  (2CD, Digimode Entertainment, live 1971 - released 1999) ****

Mountain  Roll Over Beethoven (CD, Image Records, live 1974 - released 2002) ***

Mountain  Twin Peaks (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1974) *** 

Mountain  Eruption (CD, Snapper Music, live 1983/2003 released 2004) ** 

Genre: Hard rock, rock

Places I remember: Real Groovy, The Warehouse

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Long Red (Live)

Gear costume: Nantucket Sleighride (Milennium Collection)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: The Live (The Road Goes Ever On) album's four songs cover a wide range of time - 1969 to 1972: Long Red and Waiting to Take You Away are from the August 16, 1969, performance at Woodstock, Nantucket Sleighride is from the December 14, 1971, show at the Academy of Music in New York City, and Crossroader from the January 29, 1972, appearance at the Rainbow Theatre in London.

So, it lacks cohesion and flow. I have always liked the versions of the songs though - Long Red in particular and the side long version of Nantucket Sleighride is okay but it stretches the song out a tad too much.

Millenium Collection is a 2CD album of their gig at the Fillmore East, New Years Eve, 1971. This is probably the best of the live albums that I own (Spotify has a truckload of them). Long Red is still in the setlist, and Nantucket Sleighride weighs in at around 6 minutes. Just avoid the 10 minute guitar solo!

Roll Over Beethoven is a 1974 show broadcast on radio (The King Biscuit Flower Hour) and also marketed as Greatest Hits Live. It features some spirited performances. The band has fun on the covers like Whole Lotta Shaking Goin' On. The sound of the recording is perfect too, btw.

Twin Peaks is a double live album, also documenting a gig from 1974 in Japan (Corky Laing hadn't rejoined at this point). 

It would have made a killer single album - a bloated version of Nantucket Sleighride takes up two sides and West's tedious guitar solo also slows things down. Apart from that the band deliver on the usual songs.

Eruption is a double CD set. The first takes in some shows live in New York City from 1983 (Mark Clarke on bass) and the second from European shows in 2003 (West and Laing joined by Richie Scarlet on bass). Luckily the '85 live version is nothing like the wimpy studio one. The guys fire through a sloppy but spirited set list that includes a so so version of Joe Walsh's Rocky Mountain Way. Felix' vocals are very much missed on songs like Imaginary Western and Sleighride (terrible version of that one).

The 2003 gig kicks off with a damn good version of West Bruce & Laing's Why Dontcha, but then it gets a tad sloppy with long introductions from Leslie and less than stellar versions of old songs. 

Where do they all belong? And, apart from a Greatest Hits album on CD, that is it - my brain hurts after navigating their complicated catalogue. To a novice I'd recommend that compilation - it has everything you need.