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Thread: Felix Pappalardi

  1. #1
    dailyvault Guest

    Felix Pappalardi

    Anyone besides myself remember Mountain as more than the band that performed "Mississippi Queen"? Sadly, the band might now be better known due to the fact that bassist/vocalist Felix Pappalardi (who also had been a producer for Cream) was murdered by his wife Gail Collins in, I believe, 1983.

    I didn't see any postings on Felix anywhere here, so I just wanted to throw something up in his honor. I thought Mountain was a great band (and I didn't discover them until an uncle of mine gave me his record of "The Road Goes Ever On" when I was in my teens in the '80s).

  2. #2
    Tugboat25 Guest
    I cannot voice an opinion either way in regards to Mountain but I have to say that they made a huge mistake in pining their legacy on one song (Mississippi Queen).
    It's all Leslie West would talk about. It's all he ever played on radio shows and stuff.
    It was Mississippi Queen over and over and over again ad nauseam.
    I think Leslie blew it by doing that. No matter how good Mountain may have been, they are stuck being that band that did Mississippi Queen. Anything else that might be valuable is disregarded.
    Last edited by Tugboat25; 11-03-2007 at 01:01 PM.

  3. #3
    Danny62 Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Tugboat25 View Post
    I cannot voice an opinion either way in regards to Mountain but I have to say that they made a huge mistake in pining their legacy on one song (Mississippi Queen).
    It's all Leslie West would talk about. It's all he ever played on radio shows and stuff.
    It was Mississippi Queen over and over and over again ad nauseam.
    I think Leslie blew it by doing that. No matter how good Mountain may have been, they are stuck being that band that did Mississippi Queen. Anything else that might be valuable is disregarded.

    Maybe it didn't help when Hendrix had praised Leslie on what a great song it was?

    I don't recall any other hits by these guys?

    Were there any?

  4. #4
    Tugboat25 Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Danny62 View Post
    Maybe it didn't help when Hendrix had praised Leslie on what a great song it was?

    I don't recall any other hits by these guys?

    Were there any?
    Yeah, you might be onto something Dan.
    I am by no means condemning them but they pigeoned holed themselves (apparently voluntarily).
    Last edited by Tugboat25; 11-03-2007 at 04:14 PM.

  5. #5
    dirk diggler Guest
    I first heard them when i was in high school early 70's i've still got the vinyl LP "Nantucket Sleighride" my favourite plus the cd "Avalanche" and another cd called "Guitar speak" i bought years ago that has a compilation of guitarists including Leslie West doing a song called "Let me out' a here.
    Also did not now that Felix Pappalardi had been killed very tragic ending ..
    Last edited by dirk diggler; 11-04-2007 at 04:02 AM.

  6. #6
    dailyvault Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Danny62 View Post
    Maybe it didn't help when Hendrix had praised Leslie on what a great song it was?

    I don't recall any other hits by these guys?

    Were there any?
    I don't think anything that charted, but some of my favorite songs by them are "Flowers Of Evil," "Sister Justice," "Nantucket Sleighride" and "Silver Paper". IMHO, they're one of those '70s bands that is due to be rediscovered.

    Leslie West, on the other hand, is not helping the Mountain legacy. I heard their latest live album "Eruption," and it sounded like he could barely sing or play. Sad, really.

  7. #7
    ratkin638 Guest
    I interviewed Mountain in the early 70s, when they were pretty much at their peak. Leslie West was really full of himself (despite the fact that they were playing a 4,000 seat hall in Hackensack, NJ that night). Felix, on the other hand, was one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet. He was a great bass player and a top notch producer. Mountain actually started as a Felix Pappalardi-produced Leslie West solo album, which was called "Mountain" as a reference to West's size.

    I don't think that it's a coincidence that a lot of Mountain's best songs ("Silver Paper," "Nantucket Sleighride," "Travellin' In The Dark") were the ones where Felix had the largest role. The band was never the same after he died.

  8. #8
    Armcast Guest
    Mississippi Queen is the only song of theirs I'm familiar with....I'll ask my sister, she's real big on music from the late 60's early 70's...

  9. #9
    Join Date
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    Shot by a jealous wife

    Felix was a talented musician and producer, even started his own record label - Windfall. I never saw Mountain live, though I had their albums. I did see West, Bruce & Lang when they were touring back in the 1970's.

    [SIZE=6][/SIZE]
    April 17, 1983
    [SIZE=-1]Felix Pappalardi returned to his fashionable apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side after a Saturday night out. He would not live to see another sunrise. Sometime in the wee morning hours of Sunday April 17; 1983, he was shot once in the neck with a .38 caliber derringer. He died on his bedroom floor without ever receiving medical attention. Gail Collins, who was his musical collaborator, designer of the Mountain artwork used on all of their albums and stage outfits...and to whom Felix was married...was the person who fired that fatal shot.[/SIZE]
    [SIZE=-1]Pappalardi was well established in the Rock community. He was a founding member and bassist of the rock group Mountain and was an acclaimed record producer, most notably for the supergroup Cream. But Gail Collins, perhaps ironically, possessed enormous artistic talent as well, having co-written many songs with Felix (primarily as a lyricist) for Mountain. She also is credited as a co-witer for Cream's Strange Brew. Even though she received little acclaim for her contributions, there is no evidence to suggest that professional jealousy provoked the shooting.[/SIZE]
    [SIZE=-1]There was, however, strong evidence to suggest that jealousy of another kind may have led to the shooting: Felix Pappalardi's relationship with another woman.[/SIZE]
    [SIZE=-1]Valerie Merians, 27, blonde, attractive and an aspiring singer, is purported to have been the girlfriend of Felix Pappalardi. She described her approximately 10 month relationship with Felix to investigators as serious, stating that they had even "discussed marriage". She seemed to back up much of her claim by producing gifts given to her by Felix expressing his love and affection for her.[/SIZE]
    [SIZE=-1][/SIZE]

    http://www.pappalardi.com/Shot.html
    Last edited by Demgirl; 10-11-2008 at 06:01 PM. Reason: adding link

  10. #10
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    Talking to Leslie, he and the rest of the crew are still bitter about how the whole Pappalardi trial ended. He also said it was stupid for Felix to have given Gail a gun and taught her to shoot!

    On a different note, one of the funniest rock and roll scenes that I personally witnessed. Leslie and Corky Laing (Mountain's drummer) were arguing before a gig. During the show Corky does a little trick where he bounces drum sticks into the audience. After bouncing about a half dozen sticks into the audience, Corky takes aim and drills one into the back of Leslie's head, knocking his glasses off. Leslie finishes the song and ends the show. Let's just say that we had to clear everyone from the back stage area and loud shouting could be heard quite cleary from the front of the stage!

  11. #11
    ShockDoc Guest
    I seem to recall another popular Mountain song (at least for budding musicians) was THEME FROM AN AN IMAGINARY WESTERN. That's Pappalardi playing the piano on the Cream song, BADGE.

  12. #12
    Guest Guest
    Wow! I love Mountain, lol - didn't realise Felix was dead! I must have been under a rock!

  13. #13
    78 Cobra II Fan Guest
    I love Mountain one of my top 10 bands, if you look at the Nantucket Sleighride all the art work was done by Gail Collins and she has credit on some of the songs, the same lady who shot Felix I saw a show on VH-1 years ago and Leslis West was saying how her name is all over that album he said he thought it was her album when he first saw it.

  14. #14
    Long Gone Day Guest
    Saw them live in the late '70's at J.B. Scott's in N.Y. and they were great! And "Nantucket Sleighride" would be my favorite that I played over and over and over again.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0JrV86EKCs

  15. #15
    NewYorkDoll Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by ShockDoc View Post
    I seem to recall another popular Mountain song (at least for budding musicians) was THEME FROM AN AN IMAGINARY WESTERN. That's Pappalardi playing the piano on the Cream song, BADGE.

    LOVE that song. i haven't thought about it in years.

  16. #16
    TheMysterian Guest

  17. #17
    dirk diggler Guest
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S4ThsGrkqo
    Jeez won't look at the cover of this album the same way again what the hell goes wrong in peoples lives....

  18. #18
    Long Gone Day Guest

  19. #19
    Forever-27 Guest

    Felix Pappalardi - Mountain

    As a producer, Pappalardi is perhaps best-known for his work with British psychedelic blues-rock power trio Cream, beginning with their second album, Disraeli Gears. As a musician, Pappalardi is widely recognized as a bassist, vocalist, and founding member of the American hard rock band/ heavy metal forerunner Mountain, a band born out of his working with future bandmate Leslie West's soul-inspired rock and roll band The Vagrants, and producing West's 1969 Mountain solo album. The band's signature song, "Mississippi Queen" is a rock classic and is still heard regularly on classic rock radio stations.


    Pappalardi was forced to retire because of partial deafness, ostensibly from his high-volume shows with Mountain. He continued producing throughout the 1970s and released a solo album and recorded with Japanese hard rock outfit Blues Creation.
    Pappalardi was shot and killed by his wife, Gail Collins Pappalardi, on April 17, 1983 in their East Side Manhattan apartment. Gail was subsequently charged with second-degree murder. She claimed it was an accident, and was found guilty of the lesser criminally negligent homicide and sentenced to 16 months to 4 years in prison and was released on parole in April, 1985. He is interred next to his mother at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York.

    The grave of Felix Pappalardi in Woodlawn Cemetery

  20. #20
    guardmom2008 Guest
    I never heard of him, but I got to know a little about him thanks to your thread.
    very sad that his wife killed him whether, he was very young and talented.

  21. #21
    Forever-27 Guest
    Mountain is one of thoes overlooked bands from Woodstock. Say Woodstock and people think of Hendrix, Janis Joplin , The Who , Country Joe and the Fish, Arlo Gurhrie. They fall into the same crack that Creedence Clearwater revival and The Grateful Dead did. Often overlooked performers of the Woodstock Festival, 1969.

  22. #22
    Guest Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Forever-27 View Post
    Mountain is one of thoes overlooked bands from Woodstock. Say Woodstock and people think of Hendrix, Janis Joplin , The Who , Country Joe and the Fish, Arlo Gurhrie. They fall into the same crack that Creedence Clearwater revival and The Grateful Dead did. Often overlooked performers of the Woodstock Festival, 1969.
    There was also a very talented black guitarist/singer at Woodstock! Kinda bluesy. Can't for the life of me remember his name!

  23. #23
    DsplcdPrsn Guest
    It's too bad that Felix Pappalardi is remembered more for his contribution to Mountain than as a highly skilled producer. If nothing else, he produced Cream from "Disraeli Gears" until they broke up.

    One of his hallmarks was his use of unusual or unexpected instruments in songs. Watch this video, and pay particular attention to his use of Swiss Hand Bells in the chorus!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMMQt8bv22k

  24. #24
    Forever-27 Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Vlad View Post
    There was also a very talented black guitarist/singer at Woodstock! Kinda bluesy. Can't for the life of me remember his name!

    Wasnt Ritchie havens was it ... or Sly and the Family Stone
    Last edited by Forever-27; 08-02-2009 at 08:04 PM.

  25. #25
    Guest Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Forever-27 View Post
    Wasnt Ritchie havens was it ... or Sly and the Family Stone
    Ah Yep it was Richie Havens. Thanks
    I see Bert Sommer and the Keef Hartley band played too. Both great acts!

  26. #26
    OnDeMove Guest
    One of the great lost stories of the music business is that of Eric Clapton buying his first wah-wah pedal. Felix Pappalardi was producing Disraeli Gears for Cream, which was being recorded at the Atlantic Records studios up at Columbus Circle. On a break Clapton and Pappalardi went for a walk and ended up at Manny's Music, a world-renowned music equipment store just off Times Square. Pappalardi talked Clapton into trying a wah-wah pedal. Clapton bought it, and then used it on the song "Strange Brew" that afternoon.

  27. #27
    dirk diggler Guest

    Strange Brew

    Great song one of my favourites off Disraeli Gears..

  28. #28
    Join Date
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    Gail Collins has died at the age of 72.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...icle-1.1698818

    VCNJ~
    Professional Thread-Killer

  29. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by VeuveClicquotNJ View Post
    Gail Collins has died at the age of 72.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...icle-1.1698818

    VCNJ~
    “She left instructions for her cats to be euthanized so their ashes could be mixed with hers,” said neighbor, Joan Montgomery. “Who does that?”


    Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...#ixzz2uSRGsRLF

    Still killing things from beyond the grave

  30. #30
    1karenhb Guest
    Kind of ironic that the pop up ad at the bottom of the first photo in the article is for cat litter.

  31. #31
    Wendy A. Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by 1karenhb View Post
    Kind of ironic that the pop up ad at the bottom of the first photo in the article is for cat litter.
    That is funny! That's fucked up about the cats. She kinda looked like a crazy bitch though.

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