Mississippi Queen – Mountain

Every now and then, certain songs will pop back up into my regular rotation for a period of time, then disappear for a while, and then the cycle repeats. “Mississippi Queen” is one of those songs. I’ve listened to the Mountain hit multiple times a day for the past few days, and I remember going through a similar phase with the song two or three years ago, and then even before that. It’s genuinely one of my all-time favorite rock songs, and I’m always happy to hear it out and about, but for whatever reason, I just don’t listen to it that often on my own. I think that when I do listen to it of my own accord, I’ll listen to it so much that I tire myself out of it. If anybody knows the term for the phenomenon, please let me know.

Believe it or not, I think the first time I heard this song was in a cartoon I use to watch all the time growing up, “Regular Show“. Scene below. At the time, I really had no idea as to what was being alluded to here. Regular Show is one of the best “kids” shows that I watched growing up, and a ton of the episodes still hold up, and feature some great music.

Link if embed doesn’t work – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZvo8PaHkRs

Overall, this song is pretty straightforward. Bluesy lyrics about a dancer whom the singer is falling in love with. One of the most iconic and badass opening riffs of all time. Someone described the screaming guitar paired with the crunchy riffs as sounding like “a carnivore choking on dinner,” and I have to agree with them. And we can’t not mention the cowbell intro. I got a fever. And we all know what the only solution is. Gotta have that cowbell. Got to.

Huge shoutout to Leslie West (RIP) for belting this thing out and playing those iconic guitar parts.

Link to song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEnF6EB-yMs

Link to live – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss1EyyXL4Gk