Steppenwolf

This is just a quick post as the dreaded bug that has been striking everybody else ill around me has finally come home to roost. In other words, I feel like utter crap.

Anyway, Father's Day is this weekend and in honour of my father, I'm going to share a song that he had in his music collection when I was growing up.

He owned the 7-inch single, and it was a genuine anomaly among the Peter Paul & Mary and Neil Diamond records:



This is the single issued as the follow-up to "Born To Be Wild", and for my money this is a way better track. It was the last time the band troubled the singles charts ever again in this country.

The mastering on the original single in mono was so hot that it bursts through the speakers - if you turn it up loud enough it'd pin anyone under 50kgs back in their seat.

The first thing that hits you is that odd, multi-layered feedback sound at the start for about 10 seconds before it kicks in. Absolutely brilliant!

Below is a TV performance from 1968 of the track. The fashions and the haircuts are thankfully dead and buried, but at least the music was cool.

Happy Father's Day, to all the dads out there!