Mountain - Mississippi Queen - [Studio Album Version]

Mountain was an American hard rock band formed in Long Island, New York, in 1969. Originally comprising vocalist and guitarist Leslie West, bassist and vocalist Felix Pappalardi, keyboardist Steve Knight, and drummer N. D. Smart, the band broke up in 1972, but reunited on several occasions prior to West's death in 2020.
The song was born on a hot and sweaty Saturday night in August 1969, as drummer Corky Laing – not even a member of the group at that point – attempted to play a club gig with his previous band, called [somewhat ironically] Energy, during a power cut.
"We were at a funky beach place called 30 Acres in Nantucket [an island off Cape Cod], and because it was so darned hot everyone had their air conditioning on, causing the entire island to black out,” Laing recalls. “The emergency lights came on, but the band stayed unplugged. Everyone was hyped on soul pills. A friend of mine was with a drop-dead gorgeous chick. She was from the south and wearing a see-through dress covered in flowers.”
Knowing it was up to him to keep the show going, Laing launched into a freeform drum solo, bellowing the words ‘Mississippi queen, do you know what I mean?’ repeatedly and hitting a cowbell maniacally – for more than an hour.
I just had to keep this chick dancing, I was so turned on by her,” he shrugs. “But in screaming so loudly for so long I gave myself chronic laryngitis and screwed up my voice forever."