At one time, this group was known as the Sparrow. They had emigrated from Canada, settled in the Bay Area, played a lot of the minor clubs and were terrible.
Now they are the Steppenwolf, live in Los Angeles and have a record which is quite good. The material and their instrumental style is nothing too original; in fact, their first record is a compendium of current and past techniques, attitudes and material. But it works and works very well.
The recording opens with their subsequently released single, "Skookie,, Skookie," by Don Covay. Covay, although not very well known, is one of the best R&B writers in the world ("Chain of Fools," "Mercy, Mercy") and it is appropriate that
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they would feature his songs. They do it very well and with an overlay of modern techniques, notably fuzztone.
Then they have this track called "Berry Rides Again," a small musical tribute to the rhythms, runs and reality of Chuck Berry. Memphis, Tennessee, Nadine and Johnny B. Goode are done up in an attractive instrumental package that is tight and that rocks perfectly. It's a straight, obviously intentional, steal from Berry, but it is brought right up to date in is performance.
Following this is Willie Dixon's classic "Hootchie Kootchie Man," a song primarily identified with Muddy Waters. Although this number seems to fit well into the concept of the LP, the vocal really doesn't make it because the mimicry is on the wrong side of flattery.
The original material — with one or two exceptions — sounds pretty much the same, but that's good.
The fascinating thing about this album is not that it is just a tasteful and well-executed look at the various modes of rock and roll, but that those modes also include a sampling of the most attractive varieties that are heard in San Francisco. For instance, "Your Wall's Too High" opens like a Country Joe and the Fish number and closes like a PigPen piece from the Grateful Dead. "Desperation," which is one of the best tracks on the record, including the R&B tributes, sounds exactly like the Quicksilver Messenger Service. The vocal has a deep, throaty sound that is very effectively mournful. The piece — five minutes long — works wonderfully. "A Girl I Knew" contains fuzz-tone guitar, a feedback guitar solo and the bass and drums working at once the same tones and notes. There's also a harpsichord. It all falls somewhere between Quicksilver and Buffalo Springfield.
The main thing about this album is that it's just nice. (RS 9)
Steppenwolf's first album was a pleasant surprise. In a season of mainly mediocre releases, even the best albums of recent months (with your choice of exceptions) suffered from a depressing unevenness and should have been much better. By comparison, Steppenwolf's first was a model of consistency which stood up well to repeated listening. While it opened up no new worlds of music, the album did demonstrate that the "known world" of hard rock and roll still contains fertile land to cultivate, rich veins to mine, and plenty of room to stake out a claim. As the trade papers might have said: "A solid first outing by a promising new group."
However, it is the second album which often transforms a "promising new group" into a "flash-in-the-pan has been." Some such performers have talent and depth enough for only one good album. (It's been said that everyone has one good novel in him; the percentage for record albums is somewhat lower.) Other young musicians have difficulty "getting it together" when confronted with the pressures accompanying an initial success: traveling, concerts, interviews, business hassles, ego conflicts etc.
Happily, The Second, if it does not actually fulfill, certainly sustains the promise of the first LP. It shows not only that Steppenwolf is a very strong group, but that it has its own distinct identity Musically, The Second is an extension and refinement of ideas present in the earlier effort. But it also exposes a few weaknesses.
Steppenwolf plays with a remarkable sense of musical economy combined with admirable taste. Virtually everything in their arrangements fits, and fits together. Each instrument complements the others; the music doesn't strain against itself, but moves ever forward. And this is mostly dense, hard–driving music, largely based upon shifting tempos and the interaction of several rhythmic levels. Listen to the first two verses of "Magic Carpet Ride" (the group's current single): The organ and bass are playing what might be called alternate drum lines, while the drummer plays yet another figure ... very tight, tasty counterpoint.
John Kay, the lead singer, wrote most of the album's material. On two cuts he is assisted by Gabriel Mekler. Mekler is also responsible for "28," one of the best songs on the album. For the most part it is competent journeyman material. As a lyricist, Kay has some of Mick Jagger's ability to take a simple, banal, even non-grammatic phrase and make it work in the correct context. (Consider "I can't get no satisfaction.") "Don't Step on the Grass, Sam" is a good example of this. It's all about the "noble weed" and is a very amusing dope song ... as dope songs go.
As a singer, Kay has a serviceable enough voice and can handle slow blues material satisfactorily. But it is his attack and phrasing on upbeat numbers which lend distinction to his performances. He is foremost a rhythm singer, just as the group is a rhythm band.
Highlighted by the fantastic opener and the buzzing, thumping psychedelic classic, "Magic Carpet Ride," Steppenwolf's second record is another good example of the roots of heavy metal. Not quite as heavy as Blue Cheer, yet most of the songs here were harder than anything else coming out in 1968, with bedrock riffs and distortion on top of distortion.
