Good subject. I always had a soft spot for Leslie West. He had his own understanding of guitar. Sensitive and not over the top. A leader in the 1970s hard rock and heavy metal movement. "Mississippi Queen" is one of the good ones.

Love Leslie/Mountain. Love Jack/ Cream. Bought this at the time, and like yourself, l was revolted by the cover. “Pleasure” l recall pleasurably - “Watch out for that baby carriage!” In a Jack Bruce biography, as l recall, someone tells of bringing the finished album to the record company and having the experience of hearing it through their ears and realizing to his dismay that it wasn’t so hot. Jack speaks glowingly of Leslie. Of the denizens of the world of rock and roll, not so much.

I absolutely love the first Why Dontcha.  I bought it when I was really into heavy rock and it stuck with me.  The heavy sound and Jack Bruce's playing are off the hook.  He did use a distorted sound with his Gibson bass.  I like the JB written songs as well and I picked up on the main melodic bass riff in Pollution Woman and always played with it as a bass player.  I agree the live album is a dud and I never even heard of the second studio album until a few years ago.  From some songs I heard, I was never inclined to buy it.  
Jack Bruce is one of my heroes and favorite artists.  This is just one part of his multi-faceted musical adventures.  I like BLT and BBM as well as most of his solo output..

HEROIN

Brilliant!!!!Next Tony Williams Lifetime!!!👍👍

An interesting video of which I agree with most of your comments - particularly when it comes to Leslie West. Back in around 1975/6 (when I was at school) I had a part time evening job at Vernon's Pools. Along with a few of my mates we were porters who dragged bags of pools coupons around! Anyway, they had a PA system and used to play the local radio channel - Radio City (in Liverpool). One night they played 'Politician' from the WB&L live album. This was the first time I had ever heard that version or indeed of this band. I was a Cream fan and a developing Jack Bruce fan at the time, so I had to have this album! The reason I did that deadbeat job was to make money to buy albums! I misheard the DJ and thought the band was called Bruce, West & Laing (as it really should have been, although WB&L does roll off the tongue better).

Anyway, that was the first WB&L album that I bought and I still think it is a great live album. I think you are unfairly diminishing it. That version of 'Politician' is the best version Jack ever did - outside of Cream - and bristles with energy. The basswork is every bit as engaging as is the guitar soloing. The whole album is full of band dynamics and whilst two of the tracks are throwaways - 'Play With Fire' and 'The Doctor' - they are at least full of high-powered playing - by all three of them. But the key to that album is the bass masterpiece 'Powerhouse Sod' which not only has a great riff to match any other, it also features a powerful bass solo by Bruce. It's a well-recorded album, from early in their career and it's just a pity it wasn't a double. More of that gig was recorded and there are plenty of WB&L bootlegs around (here on YouTube too). That version of 'Powerhouse Sod', long as it is, was actually edited down from a lengthier piece, if you can believe it?!! One thing that does annoy me about that album is the band credits. Leslie is listed as guitar & vocals. Jack is just listed as bass guitar. And yet Jack actually sings lead vocals on 3 tracks and backing vocal on the 4th (The Doctor)!!! Appalling research by whatever plonker assembled the sleeve notes. In any event, "Live 'N' Kickin'" is in my opinion their best album, certainly in terms of completeness.

Your comments about the debut album 'Why Dontcha', I generally concur with. Too much raucous singing by West. His vocals are actually better when he eases off the rock & roll drawl on tracks like 'While You sleep'. Laing is a surprisingly capable singer on his contribution 'Turn Me Over'. But neither of them are as great as Bruce and much of the material is just filler as you stated. The exceptions definitely are definitely the Bruce/Brown songs. 'Pleasure' is quite good, but 'Out Into The Fields' really is magnificent. It could easily have sat within 1971's 'Harmony Row' or 1974's 'Out Of The Storm'. Ditto the enigmatic 'Pollution Woman' which really has great lyrics and some neat guitar and bass riffing. The album sleeve design isn't great but is typical of early 1970s second tier rock albums. The album is much heavier in sound and style than Cream, and in fact anything else Jack would do. The band seemed to suffer from an identity crisis. It veered far too much towards Mountain for my liking, rather than towards Cream, but it was in many respects a replacement for Mountain - at least in West's & Laing's eyes. It actually became an interlude in the Mountain career for them, and an interlude in Jack's solo career for him.

Their final studio album, also featuring a throwaway title 'Whatever Turns You On' is similar in many respects to its predecessor, albeit perhaps a little more refined. The album sleeve design is weak and undermining, even if it does depict a drug-addled trio in freefall much of the time. The material within is once again mostly weak and forgettable, but once again with two notable exceptions: 'November Song', which is classic piano-ballad Bruce/Brown and should have been on his next solo album, as too should have been 'Like A Plate', which is an ingenious song, with interesting construction. BTW the title is rude. It refers to British slang phrases 'like a plate of ham' (referring to oral sex), whilst also referencing the theme of food associated with the album cover. Leslie West in particular was noted for his gargantuan appetite and sloppy table manners! Nevertheless it is one of the album highlights.

West, Bruce & Laing suffered from a number of factors. The first was management with both British and American companies arguing over who should really control and manage them. Some kind of compromise was eventually reached between Polydor and CBS/Columbia; although the latter was dominant. Bud Prager (West & Laing) had a bigger chequebook than Robert Stigwood (Bruce). The second was internal friction between band members egos which worsened as time went on, and heavy drug use by all of them. The third was driving commercial pressure to perform and succeed from the word go. CBS expected another Led Zeppelin on their books. WB&L hit the ground not so much running as wobbling. Nevertheless their early concerts were well received and many attendees felt they had the potential to reach the heights that Cream did. The truth is that they were thrown together rather than naturally coming together like Cream did, and their tempestuous behaviour was more immediately apparent in this trio than it was with Cream, which took time to fester. Ultimately, although Jack remained friends with both - even appearing with West much later, and featuring on his solo album 'Theme', he had no love for WB&L. He did not look back on it fondly as he did with Cream or Lifetime. When he was offered a reunion he flatly declined but let his son Malcolm represent him instead, which gave us the bizarre West, Bruce Jnr & Laing concert run in 2009-2010. In conclusion, the best WB&L album is yet to appear, which would be a compilation album with the half-dozen best studio tracks and a few live ones to bulk it out.

And just to briefly touch upon Mountain - they were almost always a quartet, certainly in the early days. They appeared at Woodstock with Leslie West (G&V), Felix Pappalardi (B&V), Steve Knight (Keys) & original drummer ND (Norman) Smart (who never went into the studio with them and was later replaced by Corky Laing). West never really wanted Knight on board, but was persuaded by Pappalardi that they needed one.

I love the version of Politician on the live album.

I don't find disappointing on these two albums. You may have a different opinion but for me they did an awesome work both of these albums that they did even though this is just short lived collaborative work.

Steve knight organ,mountain 4 members

Unfortunately a story of what should have been, Mountain and Bruce together was so promising but nothing really stood out. Lemmy spoke very fondly of Leslie West in his autobiography White Line Fever.

Third Degree is their best track.

I have Why dontcha and the live album and agree that are not great. I prefer some Leslie West solo albums( Mountain from 69, The Leslie West Band, The Great Gatsby..).

That first album cover is bloody awful, but it is very clean.

Agreed. Terrible covers (what were they thinking?). Out In The Fields is superb.

with the amount of drugs done back in the day Im surprised anyone actually made a record