It's funny how I can't remember much of today but can pick out certain things in the 53 years of life itself. Most of the time revolves around my times at the local record store or various ones that used to be in existence. The old Woolworth's stores from Webster City to Lincoln to the ones that were close by. I'm certainly glad that I grew up in a era that we could pick out 4 for a dollar specials at Woolworth's or Arlens for that matter. One thing stands out in my mind was that around the hippie era (1969) I gotta kick out of some dude, whacked out on too much pixie sticks and playing Sookie Sookie about 10 times that day. I really don't know what ever happened to that guy, or the three ladies in Arlens, reeking of not having a bath for about 10 days and stinking up the joint. It was a whole different time and somehow I can still picture and for that matter smell that. It wasn't pretty.
Now that I got your attention there, the majority of singles found in Woolworths or Arlens' got me to acquire plenty of Dunhill singles from Steppenwolf, a band originally known as Sparrow and made a hard to find album for Columbia before moving over to Dunhill. The first two singles flopped (A Girl I Knew, and Sookie Sookie) before they struck rock and roll gold with Born To Be Wild. For the most part, the first Steppenwolf album was very good and was one of the longer albums that were out there at that time, clocking about 48 minutes. John Kay and company could do pop as well as rock and roll, (B sides Everybody's Next One and Take What You Need), but they could also jam out, sometimes great (The Pusher), sometimes good (The Ostrich) and sometimes so so (Desperation, later covered by a new British band Humble Pie).
While John Kay sang most of the time, Steppenwolf the 2nd had Goldy McJohn (I'm guessing) helping out on vocals on Faster Than The Speed Of Light and 28, but the hits belonged to Kay with Magic Carpet Ride and FM classic Don't Step On The Grass Sam. This could have been a classic album but it's hampered by a strange medley after Magic Carpet Ride, but overall the album isn't bad either.
At Your Birthday Party is another strange album, the singles taken off the album the highlights including It's Never Too Late, Rock Me and Jupiter Child. Most of side 1 is listenable with Round And Down, Don't Cry and Chicken Wolf getting a lot of play on my stereo, but side 2 falls apart with too much filler.
Monster seems to be a concept album about the wrongdealings of the government that ring true to this day although the 9 minute Monster/America/Suicide segment may be too much for the short attention span people out there. Move Over was a minor hit. With that Steppenwolf Live came out and shows the band in fine form, but it's poorly recorded. Early Steppenwolf, which dates back to 1967 is a bit more rougher and has the 21 and half minute The Pusher which takes forever getting off the ground. You had to be there.
While John Kay, Goldy McJohn and Jerry Edmonson being the core members of this band, there were plenty of personnel changes and turnovers in the band and George Biando replaced the fired Nick St. Nicolas on the heavy Steppenwolf 7 album. While this record gets a bad rap, I tend to call this my favorite of the studio Steppenwolf albums out there. The songs titles are hilarious (Ball Crusher, Earsplittenloudenboomer), Kay's lyrics hard to figure out but they do ride the groove on Who Needs Ya and Hippo Stomp. And Kay continued to talk of social issues like Renegade. I might be overrating this with an A minus grade but to me it's a classic. For Ladies Only, on the other hand is kinda bland as Kay starts writing more sensitive songs like Tenderness or the title track which just might be the best thing Goldy McJohn ever did on the piano break. Outside of Ride With Me, it's their least interesting album. Of course when this came out on CD, the infamous Penis mobile in the record jacket disappeared, perhaps that somebody at Universal would have thought people would be offended.
With that in mind, Steppenwolf decided to call it a day and Rest In Peace, their final Dunhill LP, cherry picked key tracks off the First album and 7. 1973's 16 Greatest Hits highlighted their singles but somehow didn't add the Hey Lawdy Mama 45 edit, choosing to go with the fadeout on the live album. John Kay moved to a so so solo career and made two decent albums before deciding to reconnect with Steppenwolf once again.
With a new guitar player (Bobby Cochran) and a new label (Mums/Epic) Slow Flux came out in 1974 and while reviews of that record were lukewarm at best, they managed to score a top thirty hit in Straight Shooting Woman but Slow Flux was more in line with For Ladies Only rather than Born To Be Wild, it's more middle of the road rock. Sometimes they would get heavy (Gang War Blues, co written with Kim Fowley, Get Into The Wind) but they kinda played it safe, even covering Albert Hammond's Smokey Factory Blues (The 45 version is different than the LP). The record didn't sell very well, their label Mums went under and the next two albums came out on Epic. Goldy McJohn was booted out of the band and the late Andy Chapin (who would be killed in the plane crash that took the life of Rick Nelson) replaced him for Hour Of The Wolf. With some highlights (Caroline, Hard Rock Road, Someone Told A Lie), it was sadly coming the fact that Steppenwolf's time has come and gone. 1976's Skullduggery is their final chapter of anything decent, but the only time the record catches fire is on the title track. The record didn't sell, Epic dropped them and then the band would go through many many configurations and personnel before John Kay and Jerry Edmonton retook the name away from various lineups that Goldy McJohn and Nick St Nicolas would put together.
While semi retired, John Kay does tour as John Kay And Steppenwolf when summertime comes around but he only does about four to five show at best. Larry Byrom, guitarist for the Monster and 7 albums would become a go to Nashville session player and can be heard on many country albums. Jerry Edmonton died in a car accident in 1993. Goldy McJohn continues to play in various bands around the Washington State area and still remains very bitter toward John Kay.
Grades:
Steppenwolf (Dunhill 1968) B+
Steppenwolf The 2nd (Dunhill 1968) B+
At Your Birthday Party (Dunhill 1969) B-
Monster (Dunhill 1969) B
Steppenwolf Live (Dunhill 1969) C+
Early Steppenwolf (Dunhill 1970) B-
7 (Dunhill/ABC 1970) A-
For Ladies Only (Dunhill/ABC 1971) C+
Rest In Peace (Dunhill/ABC 1972) B
16 Greatest Hits (Dunhill/ABC 1973) B+
Slow Flux (Mums/Epic 1974) B+
Hour Of The Wolf (Epic 1975) B
Skullduggery (Epic 1976) C
All Time Greatest Hits (MCA 1999) A-
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