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MASTERS
OF ROCK MASTERS OF ROCK MASTERS OF ROCK
STEPPENWOLF
It took a Canadian to move to the States and start a band to ring in a
new era of harder, more dangerous rock than what the world had been used
to. Their unmistakable rock classic, Born To Be Wild was even more
widely unleashed onto the unsuspecting world as the theme song to identified
with an equally groundbreaking film, Easy
Rider. The song had
since been used in over 50 movies and will no doubt continue to be applied
in that manner in pictures to come - its reverberation of a time, attitude
and culture still rings true today. Its forerunning of a new, more powerful
music style was not merely present in one of its lines of "heavy metal
thunder", but in every nuance and crunch. This precursor of things to
come is then pushed to one side with another classic, Magic Carpet
Ride. The balance between gritty rock and Hippie music hovers slightly
on the border, but the rest of their songs display a preference for the
former, the whole peace & passive existence not too comfortable in their
energetic rock ethic. The psychedelic hints are no surprise (I mean we're
talking late 60s / early 70s here after all…) and the flavour of the times
are well exemplified in songs like Pusherman, a drug related tune
to stand comfortably next to Rodriguez's
Sugarman. The rest of the 16 tracks include such tunes as Sookie
Sookie, Ride With Me, Tenderness, Hey Lawdy Mama and Jupiter's
Child.
5 / A
- PB
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