{"id":2018,"date":"2020-11-16T20:39:49","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T20:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2018"},"modified":"2020-11-25T20:49:27","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T20:49:27","slug":"ftv-laurence-gordon-laing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2018","title":{"rendered":"FTV: Laurence Gordon Laing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0Quick:\u00a0 Which of these names does not sound like it belongs on this list of iconic rock musicians?\u00a0 Keith Moon, Leslie West, Jimi Hendrix, Felix Pappalardi, John Lennon, Jack Bruce, or Laurence Gordon Laing?\u00a0 If you guessed the last one, you get a gold star, but note that I did NOT say \u2018does not belong\u2019 on the list.\u00a0 If I had listed Laing using his more recognizable moniker of \u2018Corky\u2019, you may still have thought that he doesn\u2019t belong on this short \u2018A-list\u2019 of rock royalty.\u00a0 For the record, Laurence Gordon grew up as the youngest of five children in Montreal, Canada and was called \u2018Corky\u2019 because his sibs had a hard time pronouncing either of his given names.\u00a0 We can add one more nickname as John Lennon called him \u2018Mr. Energy\u2019, but more on that later.\u00a0 Perhaps we should explain why he is on this list by starting with his first notable band, Energy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Energy was slated to open for The Who at a Montreal hockey arena.\u00a0 Wandering underneath the stage, Laing spied Keith Moon\u2019s sequined Union Jack coat and decided that as long as it fit him, he might as well take it back to his own dressing room.\u00a0 As he told Dave Ling in <\/span>Classic Rock Magazine<\/span><\/i> (Issue 271, February 2020), \u201c[When Moon realised his jacket was gone] I could hear the yelling from the room next door.\u00a0 \u2018Me jacket!\u00a0 Where\u2019s me jacket?\u00a0 Me grandma made it for me and I left it under the stage.\u00a0 I can\u2019t believe it is gone!\u2019’ Seized by a bout of conscience, Laing knocked on The Who\u2019s dressing room door:\u00a0 \u201c[Moon said] \u2018Me jacket!\u00a0 You\u2019re a gentleman!\u00a0 I can\u2019t believe you\u2019ve got me jacket!\u2019 and he gave me a big kiss right on the lips.\u201d\u00a0 When Laing admitted that he was going to steal it, the room got real quiet and he assumed the mercurial Moon was about to plant something else on his kisser:\u00a0 \u201c[Moon the Loon rushed forward, grabbed me in an embrace and said] But ya didn\u2019t mate, did ya?\u00a0 Ya didn\u2019t!\u201d and he rewarded Laing with another kiss. \u00a0 They remained good friends and Laing was inspired by Moon enough to pattern much of his drum technique after Moon\u2019s unconventional style.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As for meeting John Lennon, he decided to forge phony press credentials to crash John and Yoko\u2019s 1969 Montreal bed-in for peace.\u00a0 Once he was at their bedside, the ever honest Laing confessed, \u201cI\u2019m very sorry, but I\u2019m not a newspaper writer.\u00a0 I\u2019m just a musician in a local band that would do anything to meet you.\u00a0 I\u2019ll just leave.\u201d\u00a0 Amazed at the kid\u2019s kutzpa, Lennon invited him to sit down and talk music.\u00a0 He liked the kid\u2019s band name, Energy, and they shared a few minutes discussing songs and song-writing.\u00a0 As he departed, Lennon commented on Laing\u2019s display of testosterone, calling him \u2018Mr. Energy\u2019 as he left.\u00a0 Years later, Laing would find himself adding backing vocals to Lennon\u2019s 1975 <\/span>Rock N Roll<\/span><\/i> album.\u00a0 Talk about making connections!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Laing\u2019s history with Mountain\u2019s Felix Pappalardi goes back even farther in time.\u00a0 In 1967, Pappalardi asked Energy to come with him to New York to help him audition for a position as a producer for Atlantic Records.\u00a0 Pappalardi got the job and by 1969, he was producing Cream.\u00a0 At this same time, Energy made a leap of faith.\u00a0 They moved to New York to try and take the next step up in their own career.\u00a0 Pappalardi and Leslie West appeared at Woodstock with the original lineup of Mountain.\u00a0 A short time later, Felix called Laing to see if he was interested in filling the drum throne when their original drummer, ND Smart, departed.\u00a0 Although he was hesitant to abandon the two mates he had made the jump to New York with, Laing eventually accepted the offer.\u00a0 It seemed prudent to go with the band that had better prospects, so Corky joined Mountain on September 12, 1969.\u00a0 Best known for the hit <\/span>Mississippi Queen<\/span><\/i>, most people are unaware that the song was built from a chorus that Laing had created on the spot at an outdoor Energy gig years earlier.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0According to Laing, Energy was playing on Nantucket on a sweltering summer night in 1969.\u00a0 The island\u2019s limited electricity supply was taxed by the large number of air conditioners in use.\u00a0 This caused an island-wide power failure in the middle of their set.\u00a0 Lang had spied what he called \u2018a goregeous southern babe\u2019 named Molly dancing with his friend Roy Bailey.\u00a0 When the power went out and the music stopped, Laing was fearful he would lose track of Molly so he began beating his cowbell and bellowing out the words, \u201c<\/span>Mississippi queen, do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean?\u201d <\/span><\/i>over and over to get her attention.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t work as she left with the aforementioned Roy Bailey, but the gig left Laing with two long lasting outcomes:\u00a0 \u201cAfter screaming so loudly and for so long that night, I gave myself chronic laryngitis and it screwed up my voice forever.\u201d\u00a0 The second thing he carried away from that night was the kernal of a hit song.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Mountain needed one more song for their first album, Laing shared the cowbell driven chorus (which his Energy bandmates were never interested in turning into a complete song).\u00a0 Guitarist Leslie West added the iconic guitar riff to it and in a short time, they had written the completed song around the cowbell driven riff.\u00a0 Corky assumed the cowbell would be deleted from the final mix, but producer\/bass player Pappalardi said, \u201cNo, I think it\u2019s kinda cool,\u201d so it stayed.\u00a0 Watching concert clips of the song today, it takes but four beats of the cowbell to get the crowd up and screaming in anticipation of the hit.\u00a0 West had released an earlier solo album simply entitled <\/span>Mountain <\/span><\/i>(a reference to West\u2019s size), but when the album <\/span>Climbing!<\/span><\/i> hit the streets in March of 1970, <\/span>Mississippi Queen <\/span><\/i>became the anthem for the summer of 1970.\u00a0 Mountain, by now the band\u2019s name, was announced as the next big thing.\u00a0 It stuck with us enough that my friends and I spent the summer of 1970 greeting each other with \u201cMississippi Queen!\u201d rather than \u201chey\u201d or \u201chello\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>Mississippi Queen<\/span><\/i> would remain THE \u2018cowbell\u2019 song until <\/span>Saturday Night Live<\/span><\/i> immortalized Blue Oyster Cult\u2019s <\/span>Don\u2019t Fear The Reaper<\/span><\/i> with the \u201cmore cowbell\u201d skit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Though Laing wasn\u2019t at Woodstock with Mountain, he still managed to collect royalties from the movie and sound rack.\u00a0 The Woodstock tracks were being buffed up at The Record Plant in New York at the same time Mountain was recording in the same studio.\u00a0 Contrary to popular belief, many of the music tracks heard in both the film and on the Woodstock soundtrack album were not of great quality and had to be sweetened in the studio.\u00a0 Laing was asked to help doctor the drum parts for Ten Years After\u2019s explosive <\/span>I\u2019m Going Home<\/span><\/i>:\u00a0 \u201cA mic on (TYA drummer) Ric\u2019s drums had failed [during the recording at the festival], and I had to re-record his parts to <\/span>I\u2019m Going Home.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 I didn\u2019t even know who Ten Years After was, let alone how their song went.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m Going Home<\/span><\/i> was twenty nine minutes long [the <\/span>CRM <\/span><\/i>editor points out that it was actually less than ten minutes] and [guitarist] Alvin Lee kept speeding up and slowing down, so it was quite a challenge.\u201d\u00a0 Not only did Laing receive royalties, he also got a gold record for his work.\u00a0 Corky earned\u00a0 a second gold record for his own song that was used in the movie – <\/span>For Yasgur\u2019s Farm<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The iconic Mountain era (which included keyboardist Steve Knight), lasted until 1971 with a half live\/half studio album called <\/span>Flowers of Evil<\/span><\/i> signaling the end of this lineup.\u00a0 Laing remembers Pappalardi\u2019s wife, Gail Collins as a factor in the band\u2019s increasing levels of animosity. The other two legs of the stool that contributed to the band\u2019s collapse were the old rock and roll standbys:\u00a0 drugs and ego.\u00a0 Collins had written lyrics for both Mountain and with Jack Bruce (from Cream), so it was a rather natural progression when the band West, Bruce, and Laing became the next \u2018super group\u2019.\u00a0 Their 1972-73 albums (<\/span>Why Don\u2019tcha <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Whatever Turns You On <\/span><\/i>as well as a swansong live set called <\/span>Live \u2018N\u2019 Kicking<\/span><\/i>) sold well, but the WBL group really couldn\u2019t tour the states.\u00a0 Bruce had been banned from the United States as a \u2018registered drug user\u2019 but he still blamed West and Laing for the band breaking up.\u00a0 Bruce claimed that West and Laing had scuttled the band, but to this day, Laing denies it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A 1974 reunion of the band that included Pappalardi (and produced the double-live album <\/span>Twin Peaks<\/span><\/i>) was, as Laing described it, \u201cA desperate act.\u201d\u00a0 Out on his own, Corky began working on a solo album in 1977.\u00a0 The list of friends he brought in to help make the 1977 album included Eric Clapton, Dickey Betts, and Randall Bramlett.\u00a0 Called <\/span>Makin\u2019 It On The Street,<\/span><\/i> it sold modestly but led to a deal with Elektra Records for a follow up LP that would include contributions by West, Pappalardi, Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson, Todd Rundgren, and John Sebastian.\u00a0 With the arrival of the punk movement, the album was shelved for twenty one years, finally being released as <\/span>The Secret Sessions<\/span><\/i> (with a vinyl re-release in 2018).\u00a0 Laing remembers the period well:\u00a0 \u201cThat record had taken years to make, all kinds of musicians stopped by to jam, each of them was a friend,\u00a0 I still believe that the music stood up, and the positive reviews reflect that belief.\u00a0 But [when it was mothballed] I was heartbroken.\u00a0 That was a very dark time for me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By 1985, West and Laing were ready to climb that Mountain once again (but without Pappalardi who had been shot to death by his wife, Gail Collins, two years earlier – some think because Pappalardi said he was going to leave her.\u00a0 She maintained that it was accidental).\u00a0 This Mountain fell when Laing and West had a disagreement over the writing credits and royalties for various songs form their back catalog (including <\/span>Mississippi Queen<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 Laing moved on forming a band called The Mix (with former Hendrix bass player Noel Redding and guitarist Eric Schenkman from The Spin Doctors), and he later toured with MeatLoaf.\u00a0 Laing even gave it a go as a suit serving as A&R vice president of PolyGram Records in Canada from 1989 to 1995 (\u201cYeah, I became a weasel\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Never say never.\u00a0 In 1992, West and Laing once again joined forces to promote a two-disc Mountain anthology called <\/span>Over The Top.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 This new spirit of cooperation led to two new albums (<\/span>Man\u2019s World <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>The Mystic Fire<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 A rather strange collection of Bob Dylan songs was released in 2007 (<\/span>Masters of War<\/span><\/i>) that featured guest appearances by Ozzy Osbourne and Warren Haynes (from Gov\u2019t Mule).\u00a0 The band Mountain hasn\u2019t performed together since 2010, but West continues to perform solo.\u00a0 West nearly died before having his right leg amputated below the knee due to complications from type-2 diabetes, but the problems between the two Mountain men began long before West\u2019s health scare.\u00a0 According to Laing, \u201cWhat happened in our last year together was that Leslie really stopped caring – all you need to do is go on to YouTube for proof.\u00a0 I really wish that wasn\u2019t so, but it\u2019s pretty pathetic.\u201d\u00a0 The continuing disagreements about the rights to <\/span>Mississippi Queen<\/span><\/i> also played a part.\u00a0 As the old Led Zeppelin lyric says, \u201cMountains crumble to the sea.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Corky Laing\u2019s Mountain is keeping the music alive with Chris Shutterson guitar and Mark Mikel on bass and vocals.\u00a0 Laing is happy with the band, stating, \u201cI\u2019ve been through fifty years\u2019 worth of musicians, and I\u2019m not going to lie and tell you that all of them were great, but these guys really nail it.\u201d\u00a0 While he feels rock music may have passed its \u2018sell by date\u2019, he keeps playing.\u00a0 Having turned 72 in January of this year, he sums up his future:\u00a0 \u201cMost of my contemporaries are either dirt-napping, broke, or no longer have the ability or the inclination.\u00a0 But not me.\u00a0 I will continue doing this because I still love it.\u00a0 I\u2019m in music:\u00a0 I\u2019m not in the music business.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As is our habit, we will be spinning the music of Corky Laing and Mountain around the time this <\/span>From The Vaults<\/span><\/i> goes to press.\u00a0 Tune in to WOAS FM 88.5 or check us out on the web <\/span>at www.woas-fm.org.<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video:\u00a0 How can one name check ‘Mississippi\u00a0 Queen’ without playing it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0Quick:\u00a0 Which of these names does not sound like it belongs on this list of iconic rock musicians?\u00a0 Keith Moon, Leslie West, Jimi Hendrix, Felix Pappalardi, John Lennon, Jack Bruce, or Laurence Gordon Laing?\u00a0 If you guessed the last one, you get a gold star, but note that I did NOT say \u2018does not belong\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2018"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2033,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018\/revisions\/2033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}