Today at work my bathroom smelled
like pizza. Not like the ‘aftermath’ of pizza, but like someone had been eating
fresh pizza in there. Anyway, here’s a music review.
Disc 1082 is…16 Greatest Hits
Artist: Steppenwolf
Year of Release: 1973 but featuring
music from 1967-1971
What’s up with the Cover? There are a lot of borders on
this cover. This would ordinarily annoy me, but the smaller this band photo is
the better. I can live with the shapeless dude without a shirt on the right
hand side but the guy showing off his belly on the left? Tuck that beer baby in, my friend.
How I Came To Know It: Everyone knows this band’s big
hit, “Born to be Wild” and it is why
I bought this on cassette back in high school. I ordered it by mail through Columbia
House, where you got something like 11 albums for 8 cents or 8 albums for 11
cents or something, but then you had to spend the next year finding a tape a
month to buy at the regular price.
That
tape copy has long been lost to the mists of time, but about a year ago my
buddy Ross was placing an order to some small online clearing house that offered
free shipping. He asked me if I wanted to get anything at the same time. The
website listed a bunch of classic albums, including this one for only $5 so I
decided it was time for it to return to my collection. “16 Greatest Hits” is
probably the only album I’ll ever buy through a discount mail order
system…twice.
How It Stacks Up: This is a greatest hits album so doesn’t stack
up.
Ratings: Greatest hits albums don’t get a
rating.
What is a Steppenwolf anyway? Apparently it is a
Herman Hesse novel from the twenties about a man struggling with his human
nature and his more bestial instincts. Like a werewolf, only on a psychological
level.
In terms of the band, Steppenwolf is a half-American,
half-Canadian hybrid that made a lot of cool music in the late sixties and
early seventies. They weren’t a psychological werewolf so much as they were a psychedelic
werewolf, banging out simple rock and roll in complex arrangements (another
dichotomy) and singing about sex, drugs, rock and roll and a bit of social
revolution. Hey man, it was the sixties.
I know this album very well and I came into it
preparing to cringe at the overplayed ghosts of my past. Instead, I found every
track was like an old friend, gone too long but always welcome when he rings me
doorbell. Not literally, obviously. I’m Canadian: call ahead before you ring my
doorbell.
This is some solid rock and roll, and if these guys
had just banged it out in the traditional way it would still be good. The riffs
are memorable, and the melodies are creative and have a meandering carefree
quality, without ever losing focus.
But Steppenwolf was not content with just writing
good riffs and pop hooks, and steep their music in layers of sound. Instead of
relying on studio tricks, they allow complicated arrangements to create these
layers, and this puts a lot of pressure on the musicians to be tight, lest the
result be a muddy mess. Fortunately everyone is up for the challenge.
Guitar and vocals are a big part of all rock and
roll, and Steppenwolf is no exception, but I found their willingness to rely
heavily on organ fills the music with an overlay of otherworldly groove. The
constant organ licks, combined with flashes of tambourine and harmonica take
sixties flower power pop elements and combine them with harder rock. The result
is a celebratory parade of crazed but controlled creativity.
Thematically, Steppenwolf loves their motorcycles.
In addition to their most famous song (do I really have to name it)
lesser-known tracks like “Ride With Me”
and “Screaming Night Hog” further
explain the joy of the wind in your hair and the growl of a Harley Davidson
between your legs. When I was a kid I was warned me to steer clear of bikers,
but I would always peer out from behind the curtains when I heard the sword
pipes growling down the block. “Born to
be Wild” recaptured early childhood memories of them driving through my
neighborhood; demigods of dangerous rebellion.
While “Born to
be Wild” and “Magic Carpet Ride”
are the obvious hits on this record, I’ve known these songs so long they all
feel very familiar. “Snowblind Friend”
and “The Pusher” are both cautionary
tales about hard drugs with “Snowblind
Friend” being particularly tragic with lines like:
“He said he wanted
heaven, but prayin’ was too slow
So he bought a one
way ticket on an airline made of snow.”
And this being the late sixties, there are a fair
number of protest songs, the best being “Monster”
which bemoans Steppenwolf’s observation that the idealistic values that founded
America have become perverted and monstrous.
When I first had this on tape I didn’t appreciate
it. I’d play “Born to Be Wild” flip
the tape, rewind four minutes and then play “Magic Carpet Ride.” Years later I realize this album has very
little filler, and if there is any it is probably in the acid-rock meandering
instrumental in the middle of “Magic
Carpet Ride”.
Instead, this album gives you a lot of what made the
late sixties great; innovative music that wasn’t afraid to push boundaries. Whether
you want to rock out while you ride your hog, or examine the social ills of
modern society, there are tracks a-plenty for you to delve into. I’m glad this
record is once again part of music collection and I won’t make the mistake of
letting it slip away again.
Best
tracks: Born to
be Wild, It’s Never Too Late, Snowblind Friend, Magic Carpet Ride, The Pusher,
Monster
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