A Reasonably Cheap Way of Getting 8 of its 11 Tracks in Stunning Audio
Inside the Erick Labson Remastered 2CD "Gold" Anthology
"…Everybody Work Out!"
As
you can see from this release's dull artwork and naff title, on the outside,
this reissue has all the imagination and aesthetic appeal of a cold hamburger
on a Monday morning. It's the kind of compilation you'd probably ignore in the
rack of your local music emporium. "Gold" for God's sake!!
So
why review it, give it the time of day and what has "Gold" got to do
with getting the best out of their superb 1968 debut album? Because of what's
contained on the inside – stunning
remasters offering a huge eight of the debut album's eleven sexy tracks in spiffing
audio curvaciousness.
Some
explanation with regard to the seriously upgraded audio...
I've had various
compilations throughout the years in order to have Steppenwolf tracks in my
collection - both British and American issues - and some like the Beat Goes
On British 2CD set of their first two albums are excellent. But they are all
rendered redundant by this fantastic 2CD Anthology. To the details of that first...
UK
released September 2005 – "Gold" by STEPPENWOLF on Universal/Geffen 0602498629468
(Barcode 602498629468) is a 31-Track 2CD Anthology of New Remasters. The album from
which each song is taken from is listed after each entry...
CD1
(70:03 minutes):
1.
Born To Be Wild (Steppenwolf)
2.
Sookie Sookie (Steppenwolf)
3.
Everybody's Next One (Steppenwolf)
4.
Your Wall's Too High (Steppenwolf)
5.
Desperation (Steppenwolf)
6.
The Pusher (Steppenwolf)
7.
The Ostrich (Steppenwolf)
8.
Take What You Need (Steppenwolf)
9.
Magic Carpet Ride (Steppenwolf The Second)
10.
Don't Step On The Grass Sam (Steppenwolf The Second)
11.
Tighten Up Your Wig (Steppenwolf The Second)
12.
It's Never Too Late (Steppenwolf The Second)
13.
Jupiter's Child (At Your Birthday Party)
14.
Rock Me (At Your Birthday Party)
15.
Monster: Suicide/America Medley (Monster)
CD2
(66:29 minutes):
1.
Move Over (Monster)
2.
Power Play (Monster)
3.
Hey Lawdy Mama (1970 US 7" 45-single)
4.
Snow Blind Friend (Steppenwolf 7)
5.
Who Needs Ya (Steppenwolf 7)
6.
Renegade (Steppenwolf 7)
7.
Foggy Mental Breakdown (Steppenwolf 7)
8.
Hippo Stomp (Steppenwolf 7)
9.
Screaming Night Hog (1970 US 7" 45-single)
10.
For Ladies Only (For Ladies Only)
11.
Tenderness (For Ladies Only)
12.
Ride With Me (For Ladies Only)
13.
I'm Movin' On (John Kay solo - Forgotten Songs & Unsung Heroes)
14.
My Sportin' Life (John Kay solo - My Sportin' Life)
15.
Drift Away (John Kay solo - My Sportin' Life)
16.
Straight Shooting Woman (Slow Flux)
The
stunning remastered sound engineered by ERICK LABSON is way better than
anything else previously issued and the sheer numbers of tracks also make it
seriously great value for money too (you can pick it up for less than a fiver
in certain places). Erick
Labson is one of those great unsung-heroes of CD reissues. Working on the huge
and varied Universal catalogue, he has amassed a monumental 1200 + credits to
his name for Engineering, Mastering, Restoration and Digital Remastering
stretching back to the early Nineties. So old EL knows his way around a master tape
or two. His better-known mastering/remastering Rock credits include: The Who's
"My Generation Deluxe Edition", Neil Diamond's "Play Me: The
Complete Uni Studio Recordings", Joni Mitchell's "The Beginning Of
Survival", Wishbone Ash's "Argus" and Three Dog Night's
"The Complete Hit Singles". And as anyone who owns these will know, they are all exceptional in their sound quality and thorough in their
presentation.
To
the self-titled "Steppenwolf" debut...
Their first LP was released January 1968 in the USA on ABC/Dunhill
Records D-50029 (Mono) and ABC/Dunhill Records DS-50029 (Stereo) - March 1968
in the UK on RCA Victor RD 7974 (Mono) RCA Victor SF 7974 (Stereo) – this 2CD set uses only the STEREO
mixes. You can sequence the eight of eleven as follows...
Side
1:
1.
Sookie Sookie [2]
2.
Everybody's Next One [3]
3.
Berry Rides Again
4.
Hootchie Kootchie Man
5.
Born To Be Wild [1]
6.
Your Wall's Too High [4]
Side
2:
1.
Desperation [5]
2.
The Pusher [6]
3.
A Girl I Knew
4.
Take What You Need [8]
5.
The Ostrich [7]
As
per the track outlay given above, the three that are missing are John Kay's "Berry Rides Again"
and their cover of the Willie Dixon Chess Records classic "Hootchie
Kootchie Man" from Side 1 - as well as "A Girl I Know" from Side
2 – a co-write between John Kay and Morgan Cavett.
The
LP featured the 60ts counter-culture anthem "Born To Be Wild" which
along with the grind of "The Pusher" would be made globally iconic
after both were featured in the "Easy Rider" film about bikers
sidestepping the man. I do wish
Steppenwolf weren't forever attached to that
biker song - solely - almost as if it's all they ever did because when you
play the fantastic opener "Sookie Sookie" (a Don Covay cover version)
or the Kay original "Your Wall's Too High" at the end of Side 1 – you
realise they had so much more to offer that was way better.
The wildly famous
60ts rebel anthem "Born To Be Wild" was inked by one Dennis McCrohan
under the penname Mars Bonfire – and
I dare say old Dennis was glad he did as the royalties much have kept him in rock
candies for decades to come. McCrohan had been with a group called The Sparrow
before joining Steppenwolf although he left and wasn't with the band when "Wild"
became the huge hit it was and still is (Sparrow managed three rare 45s in 1965
and 1966 - one on Capitol and two with Columbia Records).
The
mighty Country Rock singer Hoyt Axton penned the stunning guitar-wailing anti-drugs
song "The Pusher" – a subject matter Hoyt often obsessed over after
he had seen too much of its downsides (a lot of people walking around with
tombstones in their eyes). John Kay would return to Axton on his solo LPs for
material - he also penned "Joy To The World" - a No. 1 for Three Dog Night.
Kay then pleads for some more mercy in the aching slow rawk of "Desperation"
– take my hand if you don't know where you're going. The near six-minutes of
"The Ostrich" that ended Side 2 contains Sixties Rock, Sixties Psych
by way of The James Gang and even The Allman Brothers – a fabulous romp with
its drums and warbling organ punishing your speakers as Lead Singer and
Songwriter John Kay warbles his way through the harsh ways of the real world.
Piano gets introduced for "Take What You Need" – easily the most
poppy song on an otherwise Hard Rocking album.
Given
the sheer amount of back catalogue and artists that Universal owns and
maintains, it's no real surprise to find that the number of compilations in the
"Gold" series is somewhat hair-raising. But in there are bands like
The Crusaders, Traffic and Steppenwolf with storming audio that most don't hear
about.
"Sookie
Sookie…Let It Hang Out Baby...Everybody Work Out!" indeed!
Time to
rediscover just how good LA's Steppenwolf really were/are and dig into this
fabulous Anthology overhaul. Still cool after 50+ years...
