Steppenwolf - 1968-08-27 - San Francisco, CA (SBD)

Steppenwolf

1968-08-27

Fillmore West

San Francisco, California

Soundboard Recording

320 kbps

Artwork Included

01. Your Wall's Too High

02. Hoochie Coochie Man

05. Born To Be Wild

06. Desperation

07. The Ostrich

08. Tighten Up Your Wig

09. Disappointment Number (Unknown)

10. Lost And Found By Trial And Error

11. Hodge Podge, Strained Through A Leslie

12. Resurrection

13. Baby Please Don't Go

14. The Pusher

Steppenwolf - 1968-08-27 - San Francisco, CA (SBD)

While 1967 was the Summer of Love, 1968 may have been America's darkest hour.  Violence plagued the country - riots in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention, the My Lai massacre in Viet Nam, and of course, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy.  Perhaps its not a surprise that music that year also had a darker tone. In 1967, a band called the Sparrows changed their name to Steppenwolf, inspired by the Hermann Hesse's novel of the same name. That novel portrays man's struggle between spirituality and aggression, similar to what was transpiring in America in 1968. About a year later, in June 1968, the band skyrocketed to fame when they released the single Born To Be Wild. The song contains the lyric "heavy metal thunder", which of course became the name for the more aggressive, thunderous genre of music that emerged as the 1960;s evolved into the 1970's. The song climbed to #2 on the Billboard singles charts, and over the years it has become one of rock’s legendary tunes. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Born To Be Wild at No. 129 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. Since being included in the soundtrack for the movie Easy Rider in 1969, Born to Be Wild has been featured in dozens of other films, such as Coming Home, Borat, Dr. Dolittle 2, and Mr. Bean's Holiday, as well as countless TV shows, such as Married With Children and Miami Vice. This soundboard recording captures Steppenwolf at the Fillmore West, just 2 months after the release of Born To Be Wild, on August 27, 1968, 45 years ago today. Download this one to catch John Kay and his band at the start of a 7 year run of success that, in addition to Born To Be Wild, would include such tunes as The Pusher, Magic Carpet Ride, Sookie Sookie, and Move Over.