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The following are John Kay’s reflections and recollections of each Steppenwolf, John Kay solo and John Kay & Steppenwolf release. His candid remarks give even the well-versed fan an insight to the creation of each body of work. Please note that permission has not been granted to post the lyrics to certain songs. Any of the links below resulting in the 'under construction' sign, fall into this category.
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STEPPENWOLF - 1968
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"Steppenwolf" was first recorded at United/Western Studio’s in Los Angeles. We didn’t care for the results at all. Through my friend Morgan Cavett, we discovered The American Recording Studio, with engineers Richard Podolor and Bill Cooper. Everything fit together. They, along with Gabriel Mekler our producer made for some very exciting recording sessions. We were knocked out by what we heard. It was everything we hoped for. We recorded onto an eight track machine through a tube board using a live echo chamber that Richie and Bill had built, which was one of the best live chambers in Los Angeles at that time. We recorded seven songs the first day and four more the next. The majority of the vocals were recorded on the third day and the album was mixed on day four. The entire album cost around $9,000.00 to make. We thought it sounded pretty damn good and in my opinion it still holds up to this day. Someone once said, “You have your entire life to get ready for the first album, and no time for the next one”. That was certainly true in our case.
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THE SECOND - 1968
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“The Second” was a record full of experimentation. It was started a few short months after the first album was released. At that time we were contractually obligated to record two albums a year. That pressure, along with our greatly increased touring schedule, TV show appearances, etc, quickly had us behind schedule. We had a number of songs that had not made their way on the first album, plus some new tunes I had written or co-written with Gabriel Mekler. Mars Bonfire, who had contributed “Born To Be Wild” to the first album brought us “Faster Than The Speed of Life”, which Jerry Edmonton (our drummer) sang. Since Mars was at the studio to show us his new song, he wound up playing rhythm guitar on “Magic Carpet Ride”. Among the things that stand out the most about these sessions were that “Don’t Step On The Grass Sam”, was a whole lot of fun to record and of course “Magic Carpet Ride” with all it’s experimentation in the instrumental section of the tune. Other favorites of mine are “None of Your Doing” and the blues suite on side two, “Disappointment Number Unknown” which comprised most of side two of the original vinyl release. Recording of this project took longer than the first album. One reason was American Recordings improved it's recording capabilities by upgrading from an 8 to a 16 track system, which meant we could add additional instruments, sound effects, etc. All in all, it took about 6 weeks to record, which by today’s standards, is still pretty good time.
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AT YOUR BIRTHDAY PARTY - 1969
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The recording sessions for “At Your Birthday Party” started to show the wear and tear of the road on all of us. In addition, some band members for the first time, tried their hand at songwriting and I had run out of tunes to contribute. This album nevertheless includes some of my favorite Steppenwolf tracks such as “Happy Birthday”, “Jupiter’s Child” and “Rock Me”. Nick St. Nicholas (who had replaced our original bassist Rushton Moreve) had an idea for a song titled “It’s Never Too Late”, which triggered me to work out the rest of the song. That one is an all time favorite of mine. Gabriel Mekler (our Producer) had his hands full trying to be fair to all band members and stay neutral to allow us to work out the difficulties on our own. The fact that the song “Rock Me” (which had been written for the soundtrack of the motion picture “Candy”) had already been a hit single before it was included in the “Birthday album” may have reduced the impact of the album because the initial sales of the LP were not what we had hoped for, although over the years, it became quite popular with many of our fans.
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EARLY STEPPENWOLF - 1969
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Before Steppenwolf was formed in 1967 several of it’s members had been in the Canadian rock band known as the “Sparrow”. The Sparrow had migrated from Toronto, to New York City to Los Angeles, and finally to the San Francisco bay area. Amongst various venues there, which included the Avalon and Fillmore ballrooms, the Sparrow played a club called the Matrix. In 1966, unbeknownst to the group, the club manager recorded a couple of the Sparrow shows. These recordings were released by ABC Dunhill in 1969 because we were busy touring and were not ready for the next studio album. While the recording quality of the “Early Steppenwolf” is not state of the art, it nevertheless contained some good blues covers and what is truly a collectors item, a 20 minute experimental version of “The Pusher.
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MONSTER - 1970
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With “Monster” came a fresh burst of energy with the addition of Larry Byrom (who replaced Michael Monarch on lead guitar) and his “let’s get to it” attitude. In my opinion the monster album was a stronger effort than anything since the second album. However, time was once again our enemy which made it necessary that we recorded this project in an unusual fashion. The guys came up with one track after another while I was trying to keep up with my vocal parts and lyrics. Since this was supposed to be a concept album, I had to write within certain guidelines so that the lyrics fit within the concept. During the recording of this album and “7”, which was to follow, I spent most of my time at my studio sometimes until 3 or 4 in the morning, working on the melodies and lyrics. I would join the guys at American Recorders where they continued to come up with new tracks, whenever I was ready to overdub my finished vocal parts on one of the previously recorded basic tracks. On “From Here To There Eventually” and “Power Play” I also played guitar on the basic tracks. The somewhat unusual method of recording notwithstanding I was nevertheless excited each time the guys brought me a newly recorded instrumental track, since Larry and the guys came up with one great musical idea after another. Consequently, we were all pleased with the results.
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STEPPENWOLF LIVE - 1970
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After the “Monster” album, The Wolf needed a breather from the constant studio recording activities. It was therefore decided that a live album was exactly what we needed. We recorded one of our concerts at the Santa Monica civic auditorium which was a benefit for the “Students Against The War In Cambodia Committee”. The resulting recordings had more material that would fit on one album but not enough to fill 2 disks. Consequently we recorded additional songs such as “Hey Lawdy Mama” “Corina Corina” and “Twisted” in the studio where we then (through the addition of canned applause) tried to integrate these extra cuts into the truly live tracks. While with hindsight, I wish we would have had the chance to record multiple concerts because then we would not have had to live or die with the results of only one performance, this album, nevertheless was very successful and still quite popular with many fans today.
Part 2 here,
part 3 here,
part 4 here.
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