1751 Steppenwolf - Monster/Suicide/America

From: Monster; Year: 1969; Genre: Hard Rock

As I trundle on towards 2000 songs picked some of the bands I've yet to pick a song from is staggering and amazing. I've actually been a fan of Steppenwolf for many years and love much of their music.
Funny enough, other than hearing Born to be Wild and Magic Carpet Ride countless times before, I was actually introduced to the band through one of those "evil rock and roll" spiels that churches put on from time to time; get this: they actually called Steppenwolf one of "the devil's" bands! Isn't it odd how many times fundamentalist groups go out on their crusades against things that have nothing to do with what they're accusing them of and then come away with egg on their faces. You'd think that they'd learn their lesson eventually and quit being like the boy who cried "wolf," or "Steppenwolf" in this instance. ((Quietly awaits for the "pun police" to arrive.)) Suffice it to say, in the end all of their efforts ended up backfiring; I don't remember even one other youth member being swayed by it. It actually caused some to get into the bands they were, in fact, vilifying; of course among the bands that I got into due it were: Alice Cooper, Queen, and Steppenwolf.
Anyhoo, I guess I should've picked one of their more popular ones for my first pick from the band, but it's not like I have a limit to the amount of songs I can pick; I'll surely pick them at some point in the future. This raucous three-section opening track is one of my favourites from Steppenwolf; I absolutely love how they used the music to balance and shift back and forth between different and contrasting emotions. While overall the sound is more than a bit dated, the lyrical content and message within the song is frighteningly still more than up to date. You'd think that in the forty years since this song was written that the issues mentioned within would've been fixed.

Hear Monster/Suicide/America on YouTube.
Here is a live performance from a couple of years ago on YouTube.



My song pick a year ago today: Max Roach - Valse Hot

My song pick two years ago today: Nightwish - Amaranth

My song pick three years ago today: The Grateful Dead - Alabama Getway

My song pick four years ago today: Bob Seger - Night Moves

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