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Blues Rock Guitar - Гитарный блюз рок

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Guitar Blues Rock #1/2025 (Feb 03, 2025)

Leslie West

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Leslie West (Mar 05, 2025) 46 Tracks

#Hard'n'Heavy, #Хард'н'Хэви

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Hard'n'Heavy (Dec 18, 2024)

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Heavy Blues



Heavy Blues Rock #1/2025 (Jan 07, 2025)
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Leslie West (Leslie Weinstein), musician, was born on October 22, 1945; died on December 22, 2020.

West was born in New York City into the family of Bill Weinstein, vice president of a carpet shampoo company, and his wife Rita, a hairdressing model. While Leslie was growing up, the family lived in several New York City neighborhoods, including Queens, Forest Hills, and Long Island. Although his mother gave him a ukulele when he was eight years old, his passion for the guitar arose after he saw Elvis Presley on TV. Cash gifts from the bar mitzvah allowed him to buy his first instrument.

After his parents divorced, he changed his last name to West, and after graduating from high school, he worked for a while as a jeweler in Manhattan. However, music remained his main hobby. "At lunchtime, I went to 48th Street and looked at all the guitars in the shops," he told Classic Rock magazine. "One day, apparently, I took too long, and my boss told me not to come back."

Leslie West can claim to be one of the creators of heavy metal. His band Mountain made a splash by playing their fourth concert at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969, along with bands such as the Who, Jimi Hendrix and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Physically huge, West had a powerful presence as a singer, but it was his massive, overdriven guitar sound that became the band's most memorable calling card. Paul Stanley of Kiss said that, "Leslie's tone could have stopped a rhino at full alert."

The original incarnation of Mountain lasted only until 1972, but during its short existence the band created several memorable compositions. Mississippi Queen, from their debut album Mountain Climbing!, was a roaring, bluesy classic that earned them their biggest hit - No. 21 in the US - and gained a permanent spot on rock radio stations.

Mountain reunited in 1973, but disbanded again at the end of 1974. West played roles in the films "Family Honor" (1973) and "Money Pit" (1986).

West also played guitar on the track "Bo Diddley Jam" on Bo Diddley's 1976 album 20th Anniversary of Rock 'n' Roll all-star. Also in 1976, West auditioned for Lynyrd Skynyrd after Ed King left, but the vacant spot eventually went to Steve Gaines.

In the mid-70s, West released a couple of albums on which he was simply listed - "The Great Fatsby" in 1975 (featuring Mick Jagger on guitar) and "The Leslie West Band" in 1976 (featuring Mick Jones on guitar, shortly before he created the Foreigner group).

Since 1981, Mountain has continued to reform, tour, and record regularly. West teamed up with Ian Gillan of Deep Purple to write and play guitar on the song "Hang Me Out To Dry" from Gillan's album ToolBox, released in Europe in 1991. West and Joe Bonamassa recorded the Warren Haines song "If Heartaches Were Nickels" together. West released it on the album Guitarded (2005), and Bonamassa released it on A New Day Yesterday (2000). In May 1987, West played the role of bandleader in a series of late-night pilot shows for Howard Stern on FOX. In total, he recorded five shows with Stern that never aired. Stern later created a new show called the Channel 9 show without West. West continued to make periodic radio appearances, particularly on Stern's radio show.

By the end of the 1970s, West had recovered from his addiction to heroin, morphine, and cocaine. In various interviews, West has said that his drug problems and similar problems of other band members prevented the success of both Mountain and West, as well as Bruce and Laing. In the mid-1980s, just as he was overcoming drug problems, West was diagnosed with diabetes, and his weight fluctuated for many years as he battled the disease. He also had a brief bout with bladder cancer in the early 2000s. In 2011, due to complications caused by diabetes, West had to have his right leg amputated. In a 2014 interview, West said that, in his opinion, his past smoking also contributed to the crisis with his leg.

Obsessed with drug addiction, West retired from music for a while, then cleaned himself up and re-formed Mountain with Laing and bassist Mark Clark (Pappalardi died in 1983) for the album Go for Your Life (March 1985). The band split up again, and West released the album Theme (1988), reuniting with Jack Bruce. West participated in the recordings of legendary rock guitarists Guitar Speaks (1988) and Night of the Guitar (1989) for the subsidiary company IRS Records - Illegal. His next solo album was Alligator (August 1989), followed by Dodgin' the Dirt (1994).

In 1994, West and Laing teamed up with former Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding in the next edition of Mountain, recording two tracks for the compilation album Over the Top (1995). In 1999, the solo album As Phat as It Gets followed. After the album for Voiceprint, Guitarded, in 2004, West released two blues-themed albums for Blues Bureau International, 2005's Got Blooze and 2006's Blue Me. In June 2011, he lost a leg due to complications caused by type 2 diabetes, but this did not slow down his progress much. Three months later, in September, he released the album Unusual Suspects, featuring guitarists Billy Gibbons, Slash, Zakk Wilde, Joe Bonamassa and Steve Lukather. The 2013 album Still Climbing became another stellar set featuring bluesmen Johnny Winter and Johnny Lang, Twisted Sister vocalist Dee Snyder, and Creed and Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti. After the release of the Soundcheck album in 2015, West began spending less time in the studio, but continued to tour regularly until 2019, when he was plagued by constant health problems.

On Monday, December 21, 2020, West suffered a cardiac arrest and was rushed to a hospital in nearby Palm Coast, where he never regained consciousness. Leslie West died on Wednesday, December 23, 2020. He was 75 years old.

During his musical career, Leslie has released 16 solo records, 8 as part of the Mountain band and 3 as part of the band With West, Bruce and Laing. In 2023, West was named the 245th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.

A slice of today's profile includes songs from 1999-2015 records


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Heavy & Guitar Blues Rock (4)
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Album Blues Rock #10 (28-03-2025)
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