Have you ever had the experience of going back to an album you
\nreally liked when you were younger, only to discover that the
\nsounds you heard don’t match up to the childlike ideals you set
\nyourself up to hear?<\/p>\n
Back when I was in high school in the late ’80s, I got into
\nSteppenwolf while I was in my metalhead stage. Having just gotten
\nmy license, I knew a great record store in Skokie that carried
\nimports and was the be-all, end-all for finding the stuff that
\nSound Warehouse didn’t (or wouldn’t) carry. (This particular store
\nis gone now; a bank stands in its place. My father never has gotten
\nover the fact that where the record store-now-bank stands once was
\na place where he got the best, greasiest onion rings ever known to
\nman. But I digress.)<\/p>\n
One such album that I found in one of my numerous searches was
\nSteppenwolf The Second<\/i>, the heavy metal godfathers’ second
\nrelease of 1968. Best known for the single “Magic Carpet Ride,” it
\nwas the obvious next step for me to pick up once I had digested
\ntheir self-titled release – you know, the one that Sound Warehouse
\ndid<\/i> carry.<\/p>\n
Digging it out of the Pierce Memorial Archives over the weekend,
\nsomething struck me about this album – namely, it had not aged very
\nwell. Sure, there were still some great performances on this album,
\nbut the inevitable “sophomore slump” strikes again!<\/p>\n
John Kay and crew, of course, had the inenviable task of living
\nup to the hype that “Born To Be Wild” had created. I mean, how do
\nyou top a song that is quickly becoming an anthem for a new
\ngeneration of music listeners? The answer came in “Magic Carpet
\nRide,” a song that mixed in psychedelia – and a pretty hefty dose,
\nat that – with the bombastic rock that had made Steppenwolf famous
\nthat year. Thirty-one years later, it’s still a great track.<\/p>\n
But where Kay and company stumble on their tragic flaw is in
\ntheir attempt to expand past the world of blooze-rock. Granted,
\nthey had tackled some lighter material on
\nSteppenwolf<\/i> on “Desperation” and “A Girl I Knew” – but at
\nleast the material was strong enough to carry the theme. On this
\nalbum, Kay dips into the politically absurd with “Spiritual
\nFantasy,” where Kay waxes poetic about ideals and the evils of the
\npolitical system while Eastern-influenced guitars pluck in the
\nbackground and a string chorus plays. Oh,
\nplease<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Most of the second half of
\nSteppenwolf The Second<\/i> becomes a mish-mash as songs
\ninterweave themselves into an all-out mess. Tracks like “Hodge,
\nPodge, Strained Through A Leslie” and “Resurrection” are wastes of
\ntime. However, the last two tracks (“28” and “None Of Your Doing”)
\nsave some face.<\/p>\n
It should be noted that a second vocalist takes on some of the
\nduties here, but the MCA reissue tape doesn’t have any liner notes,
\nand neither All-Music Guide or the official Steppenwolf page list
\nwho this vocalist is. Their work can be heard on “28,” “Faster Than
\nThe Speed Of Life,” and trading lead vocals with Kay on “Don’t Step
\nOn The Grass, Sam”. Any enlightenment from the audience would be
\nappreciated – especially if John Kay himself happens to be
\nreading.<\/p>\n
This all isn’t to say that
\nSteppenwolf The Second<\/i> is a major washout. “Faster Than The
\nSpeed Of Life,” a live version of “Tighten Up Your Wig” and the
\npro-marajuana “Don’t Step On The Grass, Sam” all do shine on this
\nalbum. But it’s interesting to hear Kay take on some of the old
\nblues standards that have become more commonplace these days – I
\neven heard him take a verse of “The Sky Is Crying” on near the end
\nof the album, though the exact song slips my mind at the moment.
\nQuite frankly, had it not been for Stevie Ray Vaughan’s take on the
\nsong, I probably would never have noticed Kay’s rendition.<\/p>\n
\nSteppenwolf The Second<\/i> is a relic of the psychedelic-heavy
\nmetal-birth generation, and does have moments that shows this
\nband’s brilliance. However, in the end, it remains an album that is
\n“for the fans,” or for those who want to hear more than what
\nclassic rock radio feeds us on a daily basis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7243],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-38847","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-steppenwolf","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38847"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}