Let It Bleed stands as a critics’ favorite among the Stones’ catalog. For me, it will always be a huge disappointment.

I grew up with lots of music in my house. In particular, my mom loved playing The Rolling Stones – up to 1967. After that year, she didn’t spin any of their platters. I grew up to Between the Buttons, 12×5, and December’s Children. I loved those albums. I believed that they could very well be in the running for “World’s Greatest Rock Band” based on those tasty tracks. But my mom refused to play the post-’67 Stones. Why, mom? “They’ve been dead from the neck up since 1968,” was her reply.

One day, many years later, I questioned my mom’s judgment. After all, she didn’t like Led Zeppelin… maybe there was something to the Stones after 1967. I’d heard their stuff on the radio and liked some of it. So I tried out Let It Bleed. It had “Gimmee Shelter,” “Midnight Rambler,” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” all songs I enjoyed. It promised to be a true pleasure, one of the greats.

Whaddya know, my mother was right.

Those three songs were the only ones I did like of the nine on offer. Most of the album sounded like a drug-fueled bar crawl. I didn’t hear the spark and brilliance I knew from their earlier work. I got the feeling the album was successful because the Stones were popular and that, therefore, anything they did had to also be successful. Success also meant importance, so the album became something on the order of Paris Hilton – famous for being famous.

I like a third of the album and can’t stand the rest. I really don’t like it. 3 out of 10 and I’ll defend that.

Yes, The Road Goes Ever On is an actual album title. It’s a Mountain live album from 1971. It’s bluesy, warm, and amazing. Leslie West, the band leader and guitarist, has been described as “a guitar player’s guitar player.” Although obscure outside of the band’s big single, “Mississippi Queen,” West is a master guitarist that has garnered the recognition of the best in the business.

This album has but four tracks. The first two, “Long Red” and “Waiting to Take You Away,” were from the band’s appearance at Woodstock in 1969. “Long Red” is a nice blues-based jam, while “Waiting to Take You Away” is a dreamy, impassioned exploration. Side one finishes off with “Crossroader,” another blues song that comes right out of Cream’s playbook. Ironically, the band’s producer and bassist, Felix Pappalardi, hated comparisons between Mountain and Cream and took pains to show how they were different, even though his vocal style was very much like Jack Bruce’s. All through side one, West’s guitar solos are a real treat. It’s fun stuff.

Side two is one song: “Nantucket Sleighride.” Over seventeen minutes of jamming and sonic power. It takes the dreamscapes of “Waiting to Take You Away” and develops them at length. While I truly enjoy the studio version of the song, I always enjoy the live versions of the song. West’s ability to improvise with brilliance never disappoints. The keyboard player, Steve Knight, is a bit uninspired, but Corky Laing’s drumming and Pappalardi’s thunderous bass playing more than make up for Knight’s shortcomings. In the end, it’s West’s guitar and the visions that spring from it that dominate the album.

If the album was just “Nantucket Sleighride,” I’d give it a 10. There are a few hitches and glitches on side one, but not enough to make the album score less than a 9 out of 10. It’s well worth finding. The live version of “Nantucket Sleighride” is a 99-cent download from Amazon, and that makes it a steal at that price.