The large guitarist/singer, a veritable Mountain of a man, has left us as another casualty of a year most of us will only celebrate one day of. Leslie West was 75 and did not recover from a heart attack. I saw him about 15 (?) years ago at a Hippiefest concert where he could still belt out his big hit, turn his guitar up to 11 and rock the Cafe. The Zombies , Felix Cavaliere and Country Joe also played that day and CJ borrowed Mountain’s current bass player to play some psychedelic lead guitar on a couple tunes. Sorry but I can’t remember the bass man’s name But he covered the vocal on Imaginary Western beautifully. In Rock ‘n’ Roll like in Jazz, borrowing from other people’s tunes, band members and arrangements was usually accepted and often brought a special charm to a live performance. Mountain’s main run lasted three years but several versions all featuring Mr. West existed over the ensuing years. He seemed to have a sense of humor about how loud he played, not pretending that it was anything but an audience friendly trick rather than a sign of hyper virtuosity. RIP and rock on.