https://sandmanjazz.wordpress.com/2020/09/17/30-day-album-challenge-day-17/

I’ve received many albums over the years but this one brings back an special memory. Keep in mind this is before the internet. My Grandma didn’t drive nor did she actually go into stores so the fact that she pulled this off was pretty cool. Grandma called my friend Shar and asked for help. Grandma wanted to give me a gift I would truly love. Shar didn’t live very far from my grandparents so she went and picked up the money and went to the record shop downtown and got the album I was saving to buy.

It was my 14th birthday and the last thing I expected from my grandmother was an album. I never expected to get Steppenwolf Live. I squealed and jumped up and down like a crazy person.

Steppenwolf Live was a collection of recordings from a concert early in 1970 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium by Steppenwolf staged in support of their 1969 album Monster.

“”Hey Lawdy Mama” and “Magic Carpet Ride” are banded together as a single track, with a total running time of 7:13. A differently edited version of “Hey Lawdy Mama”, incorporating a fade-out instead of the segue, was released as a single. The songs “Twisted” and “Corrina, Corrina” are also studio versions which were EQ‘d and given some delay effects to match the actual live recordings and overdubbed with audience sounds at the beginning and ending of the songs” ~ Wikipeida.

I loved Magic Carpet Ride and Born to Be Wild. I played those two songs so much my grandmother wouldn’t let me bring the album when I came to visit her. She was sick of hearing them over and over after a couple of weeks.

Born to Be Wild

Get your motor runnin’
Head out on the highway
Lookin’ for adventure
And whatever comes our way
Yeah Darlin’ go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into spaceI like smoke and lightning
Heavy metal thunder
Racin’ with the wind
And the feelin’ that I’m under
Yeah Darlin’ go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into spaceLike a true nature’s child
We were born, born to be wild
We can climb so high
I never wanna dieBorn to be wild
Born to be wildGet your motor runnin’
Head out on the highway
Lookin’ for adventure
And whatever comes our way
Yeah Darlin’ go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into spaceLike a true nature’s child
We were born, born to be wild
We can climb so high
I never wanna dieBorn to be wild
Born to be wild

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Mars Bonfire

Born to Be Wild lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

“Born to Be Wild by Mars Bonfire, which is the stage name of Dennis Edmonton. He wasn’t a member of Steppenwolf, but his brother Jerry was the band’s drummer. Bonfire wrote a few other songs for Steppenwolf as well, including “Ride With Me” and “Tenderness.”

Explaining how he came up with the song, Bonfire said: “I was walking down Hollywood Boulevard one day and saw a poster in a window saying ‘Born to Ride’ with a picture of a motorcycle erupting out of the earth like a volcano with all this fire around it. Around this time I had just purchased my first car, a little secondhand Ford Falcon. So all this came together lyrically: the idea of the motorcycle coming out along with the freedom and joy I felt in having my first car and being able to drive myself around whenever I wanted. ‘Born To Be Wild’ didn’t stand out initially. Even the publishers at Leeds Music didn’t take it as the first or second song I gave them. They got it only because I signed as a staff writer. Luckily, it stood out for Steppenwolf. It’s like a fluke rather than an achievement, though.”” ~ https://www.songfacts.com/facts/steppenwolf/born-to-be-wild

Magic Carpet Ride

I like to dream, yes, yes
Right between the sound machine
On a cloud of sound I drift in the night
Any place it goes is right
Goes far, flies near
To the stars away from hereWell, you don’t know what
We can find
Why don’t you come with me little girl
On a magic carpet rideWell, you don’t know what
We can see
Why don’t you tell your dreams to me
Fantasy will set you freeClose your eyes girl
Look inside girl
Let the sound take you awayLast night I hold Aladdin’s lamp
So I wished that I could stay
Before the thing could answer me
Well, someone came and took the lamp awayI looked
Around
A lousy candle’s all I foundWell, you don’t know what
We can find
Why don’t you come with me little girl
On a magic carpet rideWell, you don’t know what
We can see
Why don’t you tell your dreams to me
Fantasy will set you freeClose your eyes girl
Look inside girl
Let the sound take you away

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: John Kay / Rushton John Moreve

Magic Carpet Ride lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG Rights Management

Released in September 1968, Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride” became one of rock’s first songs to open with an extended passage of guitar distortion. The eerie prologue lasts 20 seconds and includes chugging electronic tones before dissolving into the song’s rhythmic power chords and blues-rock vocal. The timing of the longer guitar distortion in Magic Carpet Ride after Hendrix’s Foxey Lady’s short guitar distortion set the bar for heavy metal bands.