Steppenwolf

I have a special place in my heart for Steppenwolf. I grew up seeing their Magic Carpet Ride 7” in my home before I would have a profound interest and liking for the song. When I began searching for 1960s rock, I picked up whatever Steppenwolf albums crossed my path.



During my show with The Reaktor’s Abby Schacter, she said the magic words that Magic Carpet Ride was within my grasp and I loaded it into Winamp in an instance.



I think Steppenwolf was one of the funkiest rock groups of the late 1960s to early 1970s. The band covered Don Covay’s early and funky Sookie Sookie. Magic Carpet Ride is one of the funkiest rock songs ever recorded since The Rolling Stones’ Sympathy For The Devil.

The band, especially John Kay, looked like what I know The Ramones would eventually look like.  One of the band members had an Afro similar to Eric Clapton in his Cream heyday. I don’t know if an Afro is what that Steppenwolf member would call his hairdo but let us call it as we see and know it.

Early punk rockers like The Ramones and Stooges are the hardest rock sounds I’ve heard shades shy of Sabbath. The Steppenwolf brand of rock had more of an edge and daresay a mean streak to it compared to most popular acts of the late sixties.

My reference to Kay’s vocals and image as precursor to punk rockers The Ramones dictates that bands following Kay and company would have to be edgier or meaner than the hardest rock bands of their time.

Steppenwolf is synonymous with Easy Rider, the iconic motorcycle movie of the late 1960s.  I believe The Ramones may have been recording as early as the late 1960s,  alongside Steppenwolf, but with Kay on a mainstream platform, The Ramones and Stooges would be the underground, punk prototype kings they renowned as today.