Mississippi Queen

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"Mississippi Queen" is a song originally performed by the band Mountain and widely considered a rock and roll standard as you can identify the song in the first few seconds.

Mississippi Queen was written by Leslie West (who supplies lead vocals and guitar) and drummer Corky Laing. It was Mountain's most popular song, originally appearing on their 1970 album “Climbing!”. The song starts with the banging of Laing's cowbell and West's easily recognizable guitar tracks. The music itself may be fundamental classic rock, but the riff-intensive guitar work has no doubt helped Air Guitar become the accepted art form it is today. ^[1]

[edit] Lyrics

The lyrics were inspired by the girlfriend of one of Laing’s friends. While playing at a club in Nantucket, he noticed the gal who was visiting from Mississippi and happened to be wearing a see thru dress that evening. The power suddenly went out (on the entire island) and in a drug induced moment of creativity, Laing began belting out the words.^[2]

The song seems to be a confession of love by the singer to a Cajun lady nicknamed “Mississippi Queen”. She comes from Vicksburg, MS a city on the Mississippi River at the Louisiana state line (on Interstate 20).

Early in the song, he compliments her lovemaking skills (or admits his lack thereof) by stating “…she taught me everything”, then goes on to say she was a dancer who “moved better on wine”. The singer continues with the story informing us that she had asked him to be her man to which he replies, "I'd do what I can". He evidently took her up on her offer as the next line says "to keep her looking pretty, buy her dresses that shine…while the rest of them dudes were makin’ their bread, buddy beg your pardon, I was losin’ mine”.