Steppenwolf Live
| Steppenwolf Live | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by Steppenwolf | ||||
| Released | April 1970 | |||
| Recorded | 1970 | |||
| Genre | Hard rock, psychedelic rock, blues rock | |||
| Length | 67:37 | |||
| Label |
ABC Dunhill MCA | |||
| Producer | Gabriel Mekler | |||
| Steppenwolf chronology | ||||
| ||||
Steppenwolf Live is primarily a collection of recordings from a single concert early in 1970 at the Santa Monica Civic Center by Steppenwolf staged in support of their 1969 album Monster. Released in April, 1970 by Dunhill Records, it contains Steppenwolf's well-known hits: "Born to Be Wild", "Magic Carpet Ride" and "The Pusher", as well as most of the songs from Monster, including the top 40 hit live version of "Monster".[1]
The song "Hey Lawdy Mama" was recorded in the studio, but edited in a manner to segue directly into "Magic Carpet Ride", thus retaining the album's "live" feel. (On original LP copies of Steppenwolf Live, "Hey Lawdy Mama" and "Magic Carpet Ride" are banded together as a single track, with a total running time of 7:13). A differently edited version of "Hey Lawdy Mama", incorporating a fade-out instead of the segue, was released as a single.
The songs "Twisted" and "Corrina, Corrina" are also studio versions which were eq'd and given some delay effects to match the actual live recordings and overdubbed with audience sounds at the beginning and ending of the songs.
The Bag by Kustom is one of the earliest talk boxes. These devices route the guitar signal from the driver of a speaker through a plastic tube held in the player's mouth. The sound of that is picked up from a stage microphone. John Kay was one of the first professional musicians to use a talk box having done so in 1969 studio recordings.
The studio cuts were added by the record company (Dunhill) against the band's wishes to give the album enough tracks to qualify as a double album.
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   link (Dunhill) |
| Allmusic | link (MCA) |
Track listing
- "Sookie, Sookie" (Don Covay, Steve Cropper) – 3:09
- "Don't Step on the Grass, Sam" (John Kay) – 6:01
- "Tighten Up Your Wig" (Kay) – 4:23
- "Monster" (Kay, Jerry Edmonton, Larry Byrom, Nick St. Nicholas) – 9:56
- "Draft Resister" (Kay, Goldy McJohn, Byrom) – 3:46
- "Power Play" (Kay) – 5:41
- "Corina, Corina" (Mitchell Parish, J. Mayo Williams, B. Chatman) – 4:09 (Studio recording)
- "Twisted" (Kay) – 5:02 (Studio recording)
- "From Here to There Eventually" (Kay, McJohn, Edmonton) – 6:40
- "Hey Lawdy Mama" (Kay, Byrom, Edmonton) – 2:59 (Studio recording)
- "Magic Carpet Ride" (Kay, Rushton Moreve) – 4:06
- "The Pusher" (Hoyt Axton) – 6:02
- "Born to Be Wild" (Mars Bonfire) – 5:43
Personnel
- Nick St. Nicholas - bandleader, bass guitar, backing vocals
- John Kay - vocals, guitar
- Goldy McJohn - keyboards
- Jerry Edmonton - drums
with Michael Monarch sub: *Larry Byrom - guitar
- Gabriel Mekler - producer
References
- ↑ Steppenwolf USA chart history, Billboard.com. Retrieved January 18, 2013.