The Vagrants were an American, Long Island-based rock and blue-eyed soul group from the 1960’s. The group was composed of Peter Sabatino on vocals, harmonica, and tambourine, Leslie West on vocals and guitar, Larry West on vocals and bass guitar, Jerry Storch (also known as Jay Storch) on organ, and Roger Mansour on drums. (More from Wikipedia)
Felix Pappalardi, who produced Cream’s second through fourth albums and became almost a fourth member of the band, is actually from New York. A classically trained musician, Pappalardi had previously worked with a Long Island garage rock band called the Vagrants and had them signed to Atco Records. Their third single in 1967, “Respect” became a hit on the East Coast, until Aretha Franklin released her version of the song, and that was the end of that.
In early 1969, guitarist Leslie West of the Vagrants started a band called Leslie West Mountain (with “mountain” being a reference to his then-large size); other bandmembers were Norman Landsberg (keyboards, bass) and Ken Janick (drums). Felix Pappalardi expressed interest in producing the band’s work.
The album is called Mountain and was released in July 1969, just five months after Goodbye; Felix Pappalardi produced the album and also performed bass guitar with Leslie West, Norman Landsberg, and drummer N. D. Smart, formerly with the highly regarded Boston garage band the Remains (who are featured on the Nuggets album). The album is often confused as being by the band Mountain; but officially, it is the first solo album by Leslie West.
