Orleans (1973) Mountain - LOST 70s GEMS

Orleans' debut album was packed with fully funked up guitar stylings married with hollow high harmonies, reminiscent of California acts like Beach Boys/America, though uncharacteristic of their future Yacht rock hits which were full of smooth folk and jazz arrangements. The album carries a twilight vibe that laidback blue eyed soul artists seems to be forever trapped in. Wanderlust is a funk number with generic instrumentation but a forthright beat and duelling hard rock guitars pinch soloing while singer guitarist John Hall affects a slight Stevie Wonder inflection.


Ticonderoga Moon is a dreamy pop song with flowery electric guitar playing fluid runs, there are also some ethereal harmonics, folksy acoustic guitars, clear tenor vocals, some sighing harmonies and finally heartfelt lyrics all delivered as creamily smooth as the arrangement.
The solo is so heartily played to add some raw passion to this soothing number. The vocals by John Hall are delivered in a pure falsetto with a sweetly wide eyed simplicity to it reminding me particularly of Kenny Loggins's children albums of the 90s in the naive tone.


It's almost the gem if not for the song, Mountain, with it's hypnotic seduction of the listener. It starts with a soft, fuzzy, strung out groove of a pair of chiming guitars and a pair of pianos overlapping each other; but it's the unhurried groove that wins me over as well as the singer, I think it could be Wells Kelly whose drums are miked up far away to capture the ambience of a small room, particularly noticeable from his thudding bass drumrolls.

The sleepy melody is lean and to the point as the singer sings in a honeyed tone "And I thought that you were coming up,But I can see you want me back down, If you do you got a surprise
'Cause I can never back down in your eyes", "Now I guess we're growing up
And I can feel a big jump in my heart" and the whole final stanza;


But now I'll stay here on my mountain
And howl at the the moon
And be thankful for the way things are
I just hope they don't change too soon
But nothing ever stays the same
And if it did it would be a damn shame
So I'll keep on singing the same old song

The vocal melody is the thing that makes this song so great, the lilting lines as the singer describes in a relaxed, smiley vocal the ups and downs and general trajectory of a relationship he has seen many times before; he has scaled that mountain many times and this is reiterated by the ending refrains of 'It's the Same old song, it's the same, it's the same' cutting off the word 'song' from the end very abruptly over and over again like a record skipping. The romantic vibe is complete with the featheriness of the lead vocals and the lush mix that makes this not sound jaded but calming; almost lulling you to sleep. The rich, intoxicating mix is made up of a faint, baritone vocal emanating from the central channel, while guitars chime and a couple vaudeville pianos tinker away on the left and right channels.
I made a mistake in an earlier blog post, choosing the gem from this album as It All Comes Back and only name checking this tune when this is the tune I listen to most out of all Orleans tracks; so I have righted that wrong with this post revisiting their funky 1973 debut album.