PHILIPPE PARINGAUX CHRONICLE MAGAZINE ROCK & FOLK N ° 34 November 1969 Page 73 3 albums 33 RPM 1969 Ref: EMI 2C062-90225 - ABC / Dunhill Records DS-50060 US (Live Album) "More or less transferred to Los Angeles because of the riots, we landed in San Francisco. At that time, everything began to Haight Ashbury" It was John Kay who writes it on the beautiful cover of the first album recorded by Steppenwolf. It was in 1967, in a box in San Francisco called "The Matrix". The disc comes out, and it is worth to be heard because Steppenwolf was already, at the time, a rather amazing group, different from all those who flourished on the West Coast. Very oriented blues, John Kay and his men, torn here trying to reconcile two genres that were just in the process of separation: the blues in question and the so called psychedelic music. In this regard, a song like "The Pusher" is extremely revealing of refusal Steppenwolf having to make a dramatic choice between music that has nourished and desire to escape. Thus, this piece, which lasts an entire face, begins (or does not start, since it is certain that the musicians did not know at that time how they were going to finish) by ten minutes of various sound effects, smothered bearings funds, amazing stridency that vibrate a moment before dissolving into silence (I guess pretty much would be received as a band playing in a French box! there, not a whisper. It's a good Part of the difference ...), onomatopoeia distorted. Then, and this is the extraordinary, we witness the Birth of music, its slow development, first as vague, misty, hesitating, then more and more assured, more and more structured every second . The sound of the organ tablecloths establish a climate of drama, the play of the drummer is organized gradually lead to a slow tempo and thick, John Kay is extensively vibrate the strings of his bass guitar. And we feel that that time, no one has said anything, without a melody instrument has outlined, we feel suddenly they know what they'll play that they are included. The extraordinary voice of John Kay then joins in, deep and torn, black. The music was born. Going back to disk, you have an idea of what the band at the time, not very different from today, in fact, regarding the sound, but musically cruder and confirms that the directory: themes Willie Dixon or John Lee Hooker, an old classic like "Corina", all interpreted with a certain feeling, a certain color (mostly) but not very original. Steppenwolf has come a long way since he was born music in "Matrix" San Francisco, May 14, 1967. A path that goes through Paris soon.
