Yes. I remember Easy Rider, with an already demented-looking Jack Nicholson, and rehearsing these songs over and over again in dank basement of my drummer's father's house in junior high school. Steppenwolf (A name derived from the title of a literary work by Herman Hesse) was acid rock. This music was juke box quarter-eatin' fare, for all of us who in our middle teens aspired to lives of doing what we wanted on our terms.
The music was an avalanche of rumbling, roaring heavy metal thunder. It was liberating.
I quit the band (the rhythm guitarist was a student of mine with a strong ego, so I relegated myself to the George Martin arranging and producing position. We took second place in the Hempstead Battle Of The Bands that year. The first prize winners were a group who had crossed over the ghetto lines to be heard. Black and brassy, they made a sound that changed my whole life.
When I went to take my bow, all I could think of was how these guys had totally reconfunkioned me into a the type of musician I was born to be.
And now, Steppenwolf, with two culture-defining songs from a wonderful era in my life before I had taken to selling myself off in tiny pieces in an insane yard sale that lasted more years than I care to remember. Sometimes I'm glad that I'm still here - especially when the music is on - DAZZ
BORN TO BE WILD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMbATaj7Il8
ROCK ME BABY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6MtZZ_pJ88
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