Definitely one of the finest
of many good live albums from the early
seventies. Catching the live beast that
was Steppenwolf at the peak of their undoubted
powers.
All the hits are here, which in a way
is kind of sad as this could easily be
called “Greatest Hits Live” and it would
be true. Steppenwolf in one guise or another
are still going today, although only lead
vocalist John Kay is still flying under
the Steppenwolf banner purely because
he legally owns the name. However, no
real new product has come out of the Steppenwolf
pack for 30 years.
But that’s irrelevant to this album, which
is a wonderful collection of great songs
played by a group of musicians, who were
as tight as rugby’s front row forwards.
Only two covers songs in the set, which
makes even more of a mystery why things
went quiet on the creative front, and
both covers are songs that they turned
into their own. Opener “Sookie, Sookie”
and perhaps the greatest anti-drug song
ever recorded in Harry Axton’s “The Pusher”,
where John Kay sings behind his sunglasses
with venom and bile in his lyrics, making
it more than clear what he thinks of these
demons of the underworld.
All of the original songs are steeped
in the turn of the decade, “Draft Resister”
with rants against the draft; the Vietnam
war “From Here To There Eventually”; and
the American Government in general, “Don’t
Step On The Grass Sam”.
Sensibility, the in between banter from
Kay, has been left in place, and the interplay
of keyboards and guitars is a forerunner
of what was to come in the late seventies.
The song “Monster”, clocking in at over
ten minutes, more than lives up to its
name. This version wiping the floor of
its studio recorded counter part from
Steppenwolf’s previous album, showing
what can happen to a song when it’s taken
out onto the road and sharpened up.
It is though, the last trio of songs that
the crowd has obviously been waiting for,
and in the hard rock stakes the band doesn’t
disappoint. “Magic Carpet Ride” is aptly
titled and would be the jewel in the crown
of most bands, but Steppenwolf can follow
this with a sonic version of “The Pusher”
and then push all the buttons with the
song that gave birth to the term heavy
metal “Born To Be Wild”, where Jerry Edmonton
goes for it on the guitar, bringing the
baying audience to a frenzy before closing
the show.
Both “The Pusher” and “Born To Be Wild”
were immortalized in the 1969 cult motor
bike movie “Easy Rider”. The sights and
sounds of Peter Fonda, Dennis Hooper,
and Jack Nicholson driving across the
screen to Steppenwolf, is etched in anybody’s
mind who was there for the sixties.”Steppenwolf
Live” is not only a great album, but a
monument to its era.
Pawed by Mott The Dog
Remastered by Ella Crew
E-mail: review@mott-the-dog.com
