Biography
Although Mountain Bus predated the hard rock outfit Mountain by several years, Windfall Music filed suit on the latter’s behalf, alleging the Chicago group had misappropriated the name, misled consumers, and siphoned sales of Mountain LPs. Guitarist Ed Mooney, singer Tom Jurkens, and drummer Steve Krater first crossed paths as Loyola University students in Chicago, each already leading separate bands by 1962. After Mooney’s Moons & the Stars and Jurkens’ Jurk & the Bushmen disbanded in 1965, the three musicians joined forces in Rhythms Children, recruiting additional players that included Krater. The ensemble dissolved in 1967 when one member departed for Canada to evade the Vietnam draft. Mooney, Jurkens, and Krater then enlisted guitarist Bill Kees, forming Mountain Bus. The quartet remained intact until April 1970, when Krater took a two-week honeymoon; Lee Sims substituted during his absence, and upon Krater’s return the band retained both drummers. From 1967 through 1971 the group performed locally while its members maintained day jobs. In that same span, several Chicago record-store proprietors launched the independent Good Records to document area acts and sell the pressings inexpensively. The label captured Mountain Bus in spring 1971; their album Sundance appeared and moved sluggishly before gaining momentum. Sales ceased abruptly in November, however, when Windfall Music obtained a temporary restraining order barring Good Records and the musicians from employing “Mountain” in the band’s name. Having garnered scant attention beyond Chicago and negligible album revenue, Mountain Bus appeared to be collateral damage in a broader effort to cripple Good Records, whose low-price model threatened major-label margins. The label collapsed under legal costs, and Mountain Bus disbanded. Leslie West and Felix Pappalardi of Mountain later stated they had neither known of nor endorsed the action, yet the outcome was irreversible.