Steppenwolf - 1968-05-13 - Dallas,TX (SBD)

Steppenwolf
1968-05-13
State Fair Music Hall
Dallas TX
Soundboard recording
320 kbps
Artwork Included

01. Introduction by Agustus > Sookie Sookie
02. Greeting from John Kay > Hoochie Coochie Man
03. Tighten Up Your Wig
04. Desperation
05. Born To Be Wild
06. Tuning and U-Turns > Your Wall's Too High
07. Berry Rides Again
08. The Ostrich
09. The Pusher

Steppenwolf - 1968-05-13 - Dallas, TX (SBD)

While 1967 was the Summer of Love, 1968 may have been America's darkest hour. Violence appeared to be the order of the day - 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 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 in Dallas on May 13, 1968, 51 years ago today, and just a month before the release of Born To Be Wild.