John Kay – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Steppenwolf – Move Over

The more I listen to this band’s non-hits…the more I like them. They have some great album tracks that didn’t make it as hits. This song was released as a single and it did make the top 40 but it’s not as well known as Born To Be Wild and Magic Carpet Ride. It was written by John Kay and Gabriel Mekler.

The song was on the Monster album which was released in 1969. The album was produced by Gabriel Mekler, who had produced their first four albums and really helped create their sound. The reason I mentioned him is because their early songs have a raw sound but are polished at the same time. That’s not always an easy thing to do.

John Kay’s voice still sounds great after all of these years. I’m happy I got to shake his hand at a chance meeting. I also saw him in the 80s fronting the 80s version of Steppenwolf. Not many singers take control of a stage like he does.

The song peaked at #31 on the Billboard 100 and #12 in Canada. The album peaked at #17 on the Billboard Album Charts and #11 in Canada in 1969.

By 1969, the U.S. was deep in the Vietnam War, and protests against the war were everywhere. The country was also experiencing unrest due to issues like civil rights, government corruption, and the assassinations of political figures, like Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Because of that, Steppenwolf started to get a little more political in their songs.

This era was probably their most successful period, their following albums didn’t have as much commercial success but they are remembered and do get played.

Move Over

Things look bad from over here
Too much confusion and no solution
Everyone here knows your fear
You’re out of touch and you try too much

Yesterday’s glory won’t help us today
You wanna retire?
Get out of the way

The country needs a father
Not an uncle or big brother
Someone to keep the peace at home
If we can’t get together
Look out for stormy weather
Don’t make me pay for your mistakes
I have to pay my own

Yesterday’s glory won’t help us today
You wanna retire?
Get out of the way

I ain’t got much time
The young ones close behind
I can’t wait in line

If we can not wake you
Then we’ll have to shake you
Though some say you’ll only understand a gun
Got to prove them wrong
Or you will lose the battle
Don’t you know we’ll start a war
Which will be won by none

Yesterday’s glory won’t help us today
You wanna retire?
Get out of the way

I ain’t got much time
The young ones close behind
I can’t wait in line

Move over
Come on, Move Over

Steppenwolf – Don’t Step On The Grass Sam

Well it’s evil, wicked, mean and nasty
(Don’t step on the grass, Sam)
And it will ruin our fair country
(Don’t be such an ass, Sam)
It will hook your Sue and Johnny
(You’re so full of bull, Sam)

Hmmm, wonder what this song was about? When I was 18 I had a Steppenwolf compilation tape that I would play driving around and this song will stick in your head. I probably listened to it more than any other song on that cassette. Love the riff and the build-up. I really get into this song when it kicks in.

With edibles and pot legal in some states…this song shows how some things have changed. In 1968 the government had a full-blown war on drugs and just having pot could get you in serious trouble. In that year the government created The Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. A lot of the laws were made in the 50s and included a first-offense marijuana possession carried a minimum sentence of 2-10 years with a fine of up to $20,000.

In 1970, some of the mandatory laws were repealed when Congress saw it wasn’t doing anything to cut the drug culture. This song was banned for a period for obvious reasons in 1968.

John Kay the singer for Steppenwolf advocated for marijuana legalization during his band’s heyday in the late 1960s. The ‘Sam’ mentioned in the title of course refers to Uncle Sam and Harry Anslinger who was the commissioner of The U.S. Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics who helped make some of those strict laws early on. Kay wrote this song.

I don’t want anyone to think I’m advocating drugs…but come on… 2-10 years mandatory on possession of pot? Personally…I never smoked pot…not because I had anything against it but because I just cannot inhale smoke (Sorry Bill C.) of any kind. I’ll take that back…I did try in 2006 on my way to a Stones concert but I just couldn’t deal with the smoke. As a musician, it was all around me constantly so I did have plenty of contact highs.

Don’t Step On The Grass Sam was off of their second album…appropriately named The Second in 1968. The album peaked at #3 on the Billboard 100 and #2 in Canada in 1968.

The song suddenly stops and then….after pounding on the door, a group of actors playing policemen storm in saying, “Alright you guys, you’re under arrest for possession of marijuana.”…then you hear flushing.

Don’t Step On The Grass, Sam

Starin’ at the boob tube, turnin’ on the big knob
Tryin’ to find some life in the waste land
Finally found a program, gonna deal with Mary Jane
Ready for a trip into hate land
Obnoxious Joe comes on the screen
Along with his guest self-righteous Sam
And one more guy who doesn’t count
His hair and clothes are too far out

While pushin’ back his glasses Sam is sayin’ casually
“I was elected by the masses”
And with that in mind he starts to unwind
A vicious attack on the finest of grasses

Well it’s evil, wicked, mean and nasty
(Don’t step on the grass, Sam)
And it will ruin our fair country
(Don’t be such an ass, Sam)
Well it will hook your Sue and Johnny
(You’re so full of bull, Sam)
All will pay that disagree with me
(Please give up you already lost the fight, alright)

Misinformation Sam and Joe
Are feeding to the nation
But the one who didn’t count counted them out
By exposing all their false quotations
Faced by a very awkward situation
This is all he’d say to save the day

Well it’s evil, wicked, mean and nasty
(Don’t step on the grass, Sam)
And it will ruin our fair country
(Don’t be such an ass, Sam)
It will hook your Sue and Johnny
(You’re so full of bull, Sam)
All will pay that disagree with me
(Please give up you already lost the fight alright)

You waste my coin Sam, all you can
To jail my fellow man
For smoking of the noble weed
You need much more than him
You’ve been telling lies so long
Some believe they’re true
So they close their eyes to things
You have no right to do
Just as soon as you are gone
Hope will start to climb
Please don’t stay around too long
You’re wasting precious time

Steppenwolf – Rock Me

This song was their 3rd top ten hit of 1968-1969. The song was on their album At Your Birthday Party released in 1969.

The song peaked at #10 on the Billboard 100 and #4 in Canada in 1969. This song was originally the B side to Jupiter’s Child but later on, they were reversed. This song followed the top ten hits of Born To Be Wild and Magic Carpet Ride. John Kays voice is one of those voices that you can pick out from a crowd. Like Neil Young, John Fogerty, Van Morrison, and other unique singers.

I usually don’t research the meaning of a lot of songs but this one is interesting. The different meanings people get out of this one. Some say it’s a young woman looking for one good man, others say it’s about Mother Nature, and others say it’s about America at the time it was written.

John Kay’s songwriting gets overlooked…he is a fine songwriter with usually a message. He wrote Rock Me, which benefitted from being in the 1968 feature film Candy, a period piece of permissiveness featuring Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, and even Ringo Starr.

John Kay: 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.

Rock Me

She asked me maybeI would share her sorrowFor all the men that tried to treat her wrong

Though just a babyA waiting her tomorrowIt’s rock me baby, rock me babyAll night long

She needs an answer to her confusionSomeone to guide her with tendernessBut if she’s asking for a solutionAll that she getsYou know it’s something like this

I don’t know where we come fromI don’t know where we’re going toBut if all of this should have a reasonWe would be the last to knowSo let’s just hope there is a promised landHang on till then as best you can

Everybody’s ills you know itFills her with compassionThat’s why she tries to save the world aloneShe helps the needy in her own fashionAnd tries to give them all her own

She needs an answer for her confusionSomeone to guide her with tendernessBut when she’s asking for a solutionAll that she gets you know it’s something like this

Rock me baby, rock me baby all night longRock me baby, rock me baby all night longRock me baby, rock me baby all night longRock me baby, rock me baby all night longRock me baby, rock me baby all night longRock me baby, rock me baby all night longRock me baby, rock me baby all night long

Steppenwolf – Snowblind Friend

The last time I posted a Steppenwolf song (Sookie Sookie)…a fellow blogger obbverse reminded me of this one and it had been a long time since I heard it.

Snowblind Friend was written by Hoyt Axton, who first released it on his 1969 album My Griffin Is Gone. The song was written about one of his musician friends who died of a drug overdose. Hoyt did not glamorize drug use in this song. He had his own problems with drug addiction and did what he could to warn of the dangers

Stoned on some new potion he found upon the wall
Of some unholy bathroom in some ungodly hall

Hoyt Axton wrote so many songs…one of them was Joy To The World, he wrote it around the same time as Snowblind Friend. Steppenwolf was offered Joy To The World but they passed. It ended up going to Three Dog Night… who took it to number 1. What I wouldn’t give to hear a Steppenwolf version of Joy to the World!

This song introduced the word “snowblind” to the rock music lexicon to describe addiction, specifically to cocaine. The insidiousness of the drug and its grip on the user has never been conveyed so accurately and poignantly.

Steppenwolf 7

Snowblind Friend peaked at #60 in the Billboard 100 and #37 in Canada in 1970. It was on the album Steppenwolf 7 and it peaked at #19 in the Billboard Album Charts and #14 in Canada. This would be Steppenwolf’s last top 20 album in their career. They did have a Greatest Hits album that peaked at #24 the following year.

They are not in the Hall of Fame yet but were nominated in 2017 but didn’t make it. In 2018 the Hall did pick “Born to Be Wild” as one of the first five singles that shaped rock and roll to be inducted into the hall in its history.

Altogether they had 13 studio albums, 5 live albums, and 21 singles. 8 of the albums were in the top 40 and 7 of their singles were in the top 40. In Canada they were very popular…they had two #1’s in Born To Be Wild and Magic Carpet Ride and 11 singles in the top 40.

John Kay: “That song spoke to me because I knew the person that the song was written about. That’s why I decided, as a tribute to this young man, that we would do a version of it on the Steppenwolf 7 album.”

This is a TV special on the Steppenwolf 7 album

Snowblind Friend

You say it was this morning when you last saw your good friend
Lyin’ on the pavement with a misery on his brain
Stoned on some new potion he found upon the wall
Of some unholy bathroom in some ungodly hall
He only had a dollar to live on ’til next Monday
But he spent it on some comfort for his mind
Did you say you think he’s blind?

Someone should call his parents, a sister or a brother
And they’ll come to take him back home on a bus
But he’ll always be a problem to his poor and puzzled mother
Yeah he’ll always be another one of us
He said he wanted Heaven but prayin’ was too slow
So he bought a one way ticket on an airline made of snow
Did you say you saw your good friend flyin’ low?
Flyin’ low
Dyin’ slow

Steppenwolf – Sookie Sookie

Steppenwolf…they all look like badasses…all of them especially the ring leader John Kay. They had some danger in their rock and roll and Kay’s voice is just killer. I saw a version of Steppenwolf once in the 80s and John Kay demanded and commanded the stage swinging his mic stand like a weapon.

I met Mr. Kay one time very briefly…just shook his hand…a very nice guy so he wasn’t a badass that day. This song was written by Don Covay who wrote a lot of early rock songs about dancing. Don Covay was recording for Atlantic Records at this time. As they did with many of their artists, they sent Covay to Memphis to record at Stax Records, where the house band was top-notch. Covay wrote Sookie Sookie there with Stax guitarist Steve Cropper.

Steppenwolf had this song on their 1968 debut album Steppenwolf. It was released as the first single that year but didn’t do too well. The song did peak at #92 in Canada and that was it. The next single did a little better…it was a song called Born To Be Wild.

The third single was“Magic Carpet Ride,” ABC-Dunhill saw the wisdom of re-releasing the “Sookie Sookie”….however, this time it was a “B” side. Like the “Born to be Wild” and “Magic Carpet Ride,” “Sookie Sookie” not only featured the extraordinary guitar work of Michael Monarch and vocals by John Kay, it had that Steppenwolf signature organ sound

The song also ended up being used by some radio stations as background music for promos and commercials.

Sookie Sookie

Let it hang out baby, let it hang out now, now na-na now
Let it hang out baby, everybody work out
Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sue

Let it hang out baby, do the Baltimore jig
Let it hang out baby, boomerang with me
Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sue

Really got it bad child, drink a bottle of turpentine
When you wake up in the morning, feelin’ kinda fine
Let it hang out baby, let it hang out now, now na-na now

You better watch your step girl, don’t step on that banana peel
If your foot should ever hit it, you’ll go up to the ceiling
Hang it in baby, hang it in baby
Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sue

Let it hang out baby, let it hang out now, now na-na now
Let it hang out baby, everybody work out
Hang it in baby, hang it in baby, hang it in baby
Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sookie, Sue