Graded on a Curve: Steppenwolf, The Best
of Steppenwolf

At the turn of the seventies, Steppenwolf were the shit. They produced a handful of classic songs—biker anthems and dope cautionary tales and tunes that captured the confused mood of the times—and then broke up, and the loss was ours. But what I like the most about them is the way they lost members. Original bassist Rushton Moreve was fired in 1968 after he refused to set foot in California, convinced by his hippie girlfriend who received portents that it was going to slide into the sea. Meanwhile, guitarist Michael Monarch was sacked after showing up for a gig wearing only bunny ears and a jock strap and playing his guitar loudly and out of tune. He got fired, in other words, for being the un-Butthole Surfer.

Kay, who was born in Prussia and whose real name was Joachim Fritz Krauledat, formed Steppenwolf in Toronto in 1967. Their rise to the top was not one long and slow slog through the merciless rock swamp—by 1968 they were famous, thanks to the success of “Born to Be Wild.” The band’s profile was increased by the inclusion of “Born to Be Wild” and their cover of Hoyt Axton’s “The Pusher” on the Easy Rider soundtrack. After that, hit followed hit until the usual creative difficulties led the band to break up on Valentine’s Day, 1972.

Steppenwolf have kinda been forgotten, with the exception of “Born to Be Wild” and “Magic Carpet Ride.” And both songs, while great, have an antiquated feel to them. That said, songs like “The Pusher”—one of the most furious anti-hard-drugs songs ever written—sound like they could have been recorded yesterday. Kay never sounds so strident as he does on “The Pusher,” threatening, “I’d cut him if he stands/And shoot him if he’d run/Yes I’d kill him with my razor/And my Bible and my gun.” The guitarist plays cool riffs throughout, giving the song an ominous vibe, all coiled menace like a poisonous snake about to strike.

On the drug front, Hoyt Axton also contributed “Snowblind Friend,” which couples a beautiful melody with lyrics about a coke-wrecked friend backed by organ and some cool psychedelic guitar. Kay sings, “He said he wanted Heaven/But praying was too slow/So he bought a one-way ticket/On an airline made of snow.” CokeAir; the only airline where you pack your baggage in your septum! “Snowblind Friend” and “The Pusher” provide wonderful bookends for Steppenwolf’s attitude towards hard drugs, which basically comes down to an unremitting hatred for dope dealers but compassion for the people caught up in their snare.

“Hey Lawdy Mama” is a heavy, organ-drenched tune, and so cool the Minutemen saw fit to cover it. It includes a hip instrumental break and a great chorus, and if you don’t find yourself singing along I strongly advise you to check your pulse, because you could be dead. Meanwhile, “It’s Never Too Late” is a slow and lovely tune about redemption, with piano and organ playing a prominent role. Meanwhile Kay sings the great chorus, “It’s never too late to start all over again/To love the people you caused the pain/And help them learn your name.” “Rock Me” is a classic rocker, fast-moving and with Kay’s vocals front and central. It’s a song about mixed-up confusion, with Kay singing, “I don’t know where we come from/I don’t know where we’re going to/But if this all should have a reason/We would be the last to know.” That’s followed by some tres cool percussion and handclaps, along with the cries of some female backup singers, before returning to Kay’s final repetition of “Rock me baby/Rock me baby/All night long.”

“Ride With Me” opens with some cool guitar, at which point Kay comes in with his usual powerhouse vocals to sing, “Ride with me, baby/Til the end of the day” while that guitar fires off distorted riffs of the first order. Once again, Kay is confused, and the confusion extends to “Move Over,” an organ and guitar-drenched number in which Kay sings, “Things look bad from over here/Too much confusion and no solution” before he basically says move or get out of the way. He throws in a bit of hippie hope when he sings, “If we can get together/Look out for stormy weather” but he doesn’t sound confident, just impatient; he hasn’t got too much time and he’s not about to stand in line. Meanwhile the guitar plays some killer riffs and this one is a lost classic for sure.

“Who Needs Ya” is my least favorite song on the LP, chiefly because the melody does nothing for me. Ditto the chorus. As for the instrumentation it’s undistinguished; there’s a decent piano in there, but that’s about all that floats my boat. As for “Born to Be Wild” and “Magic Carpet Ride,” what can I say about them that hasn’t been said before? The former boasts one powerhouse guitar riff and a cool organ, while Kay brags about being a “true nature’s child,” which leads me to think he ought to be hugging a tree instead of polluting the air and raising a racket on his Harley Davidson. Ah, but those interlocking guitars and organ make the song great, just as the monstrous psychedelic opening to “Magic Carpet Ride” leads to one funky tune, with the organ swirling and the guitar going chucka-chucka as Kaye invites his girl to close her eyes and let the sound take her away. Then the guitar comes back, playing more acid-influenced hoodoo, while the organ provides happening punctuation. It’s a great little jam, and I’m always sorry when it makes way for Kay’s return to take the song out.

Steppenwolf captured the zeitgeist—namely the end of the Age of Aquarius and the heavy hippie hangover that followed—almost as well as the doom-obsessed Doors. But Steppenwolf’s wasn’t an existential dread; it was grounded in what was happening all around them. “The Pusher” alone is a stone cold classic about the innumerable casualties that followed the counterculture’s move away from pot and acid to harder drugs, and I can’t think of another band that addressed the issue with such untrammeled rage. Steppenwolf was only around for four years or so, but in that time they kicked ass and took names, before they took off on their Harleys forever, so much heavy metal thunder retreating from a soft-rock future that would give us James Taylor, Carole King, and Janis Ian. Talk about knowing when to cut and run. The magic carpet ride was over, and the Eagles were circling overhead.

GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-

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