This is my entry for Kevin’s No Theme Thursday for June 19, 2025.
Mountain were a hard rock band who are best known for their song “Mississippi Queen”. The song was recorded for their debut album Climbing!. Although I’m not sure it’s a great idea to use a pun for a debut album title, “Mississippi Queen” was a classic rock/AOR staple in the 1970s and 80s and features one of the heaviest riffs ever recorded.
Prior to their debut album, Mountain were best known for their performance in 1969 at Woodstock. One of the songs they performed during that show was “Long Red,” and this is where I am going to focus. As a song, “Long Red” is fairly forgettable, but it features a drum intro by N.D. Smart with crowd work by vocalist Leslie West.
At the time, no one could have imagined that those 20 or 30 seconds of recording were meaningful, but 18 years later the intro to the song became one of the most sampled pieces in hip-hop history. The simple, funky drum beat and shout outs by West were first sampled by Eric B. & Rakim on the song “Eric B. is President” for their 1987 album Paid In Full.
That was followed quickly by dozens of uses of the sample in the late 1980s and a continuous use of the sample in many more songs throughout the 90s and up to today. I’m not much of a Woodstock fan so this is one of my favorite outcomes of the festival. Here are two more songs that use the sample.
The Radio Faux Show 
Fascinating how that bit is living its own life.
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Yes indeed!
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Never knew this. Interesting! On the topic of Leslie West and Mountain, there’s a video of him performing “Mississippi Queen” with Van Halen that I absolutely love!
Great post, my friend!
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As always, thanks for the inspiration!
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My pleasure, my friend. And thank you!
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