Search - Mountain :: Millenium Collection

Live Mountain 12/31/70 Felt Forum NY.

rick | Massachusetts, USA | 06/15/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Good live stuff! Material is from the first three Mountain albums, sounds like it was recorded right off the soundboard, well balanced sound (in stereo). Steve Knights' keyboard playing is heard on most of the recording but could be more pronounced...a must for any real Mountain fan..."Play it Loud!""

101 reasons to buy this disc... and one not to...

running_man | Chesterfield Twp., MI | 07/25/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This Mountain 'Millenium Collection' features 101 minutes of superb live recordings from the band circa-1970 (more on that later...), but unfortunately it appears to be a bootleg release. The tell-tale signs that this is less than an 'Official Bootleg' (which Leslie West and his minions have frequently released) are all over this one... beginning with the misspelling of the word 'millennium' on the cover, and Felix Pappalardi's name in the liner notes, and continuing through the absence of songwriting credits, the unsigned liner notes, and the fact that the identified distributor, 'The International Music Company AG' exists, but only dabbles in classical releases.



So what is 'Millenium Collection'? Well, the only reviewer here identifies the concert as being recorded New Year's Eve, 1970 at Felt Forum in New York. I'm not sure where 'rick' came up with that information since it doesn't appear anywhere in the 'Millenium' package, nor anywhere else that I tried to research the 2-CD set. It is identical, however, to an out-of-print 2-CD set once available here at Amazon simply titled 'Live'. If you check out that listing, you'll find that the song list is identical, the cover photo of Leslie West and bassist Felix Pappalardi is the same, and the Amazon reviewer notes that the two discs time out at 101 minutes. That Amazon review states the recordings are from the Fillmore East, circa 1971-72, but the band's Official Bootleg Series just released the 1971 New Years Concert, and that set list, while very similar, substitutes 'Theme For An Imaginary Western' for 'For Yasgur's Farm'. [.....] identifies 'Live' as the 1970 New Year's Eve show, which suggests that most likely is what 'Millenium' consists of. However that same site states that the 'Millenium' disc, "gathers 14 epic live versions" of Mountain music, suggesting the tracks are not from just one night's performance. It's a case of knowing about as much as we don't know.



None of that may really matter unless you're a stickler for accuracy and knowledge, or unless you're put off by bootleggers taking money out of the pocket's of the artists. It's hard to imagine why West and Mountain haven't released these recordings themselves, since they've made efforts to market so much more substandard fare. I must tell you, however, that for many people who enjoy bootlegs, these recordings may just be too pristine. It's what the soundboard heard... not how the band would sound to you in the imperfect setting of a concert venue. This is why I much prefer recordings such as volume one of Mountain's Bootleg Series, recorded from the audience of a show in California in 1971. But if you're looking for live performances of most of Mountain's best compositions from their epic, pre-1973 line-up, you would be hard pressed to find cleaner recordings than these.



And how lively are these live tracks? Well, I'll have to defer the answer to that question to other reviewers here since I have never been the biggest fan of Mountain. There is a wealth of live Mountain music out there, but the concensus from glancing at the available reviews suggest that the band is at a peak of emotion and energy on these tracks... which certainly makes sense for a New Year's performance from 1970, the exact point at which the band was building their fan base, and the songs were both fresh and relevant. There are apparent rare titles being performed here, such as 'Traveling In the Dark', and of course 'Auld Lang Syne', which sounds especially poignant as Leslie bends the notes through his wah-pedal.



Like 'Live', 'Millenium Collection' is currently out-of-print, though I would guess it's likely to turn up again sooner-or-later under another less-than-officially-endorsed title. It's not cheap, but as they say, you have to pay something to get something. For fans of Mountain, at least laying out some substantial bread for this 2-CD, 14 track set will generate musical dividends. Too bad Leslie and Corky and (oh, yeah) keyboardist Steve Knight (who they say is actually playing beneath the din of guitars and drums), won't be receiving any dividends in the form of royalty checks.



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