Steppenwolf

          

Steppenwolf is a Canadian-American hard rock group that was prominent in the late 1960s. The group was formed in 1967 in Los Angeles by vocalist John Kay, guitarist Michael Monarch, bassist Rushton Moreve, keyboardist Goldy McJohn and drummer Jerry Edmonton after the dissolution of its Toronto-based precursor, The Sparrows.

The band has sold more than 25 million units worldwide,with 8 gold albums and 12 Hot 100 singles of which 6 were top 40 hits. Their biggest hits were "Born to Be Wild", "Magic Carpet Ride", and "Rock Me". Steppenwolf's core lineup broke up in 1974, but frontman John Kay continues to tour.

In the words of John Kay, the origin of the name goes like this:

"Steppenwolf was originally a book written by Herman Hesse, (a German author) and it was a book I was totally unfamiliar with when the band that became Steppenwolf was in its infancy.

The young man who lived next door to where Steppenwolf started to rehearse (by the name of Gabriel Mekler, born and raised in Israel) had read the book. When it came time to put a name on the demo box that was going to go to the first label, he said "Well, what is the band called?" and aside from the obvious joke names and other obscene suggestions which were not marketable, he finally said, "Well look, how about Steppenwolf'? I think it's a word that looks good in print, and it denotes a certain degree of mystery and power and you guys are kind of rough and ready types."

Everybody said that sounds pretty interesting and if we don't get a deal we can always scrawl another name on the box and send it to somebody else, so let's go with that for now. Well, that's what it's been now for many years and, to be honest, it's been a very good name."

http://www.steppenwolf.com

The original Hesse novel, Steppenwolf, (in German Der Steppenwolf) is the tenth novel by the German-Swiss author. It was originally published in Germany in 1927. The novel's title comes from the lonesome wolf of the steppes. The book had a resurgence of interest during the 1960s with young people who connected with the protagonist's story (and Hesse's) spiritual crisis and the protagonist's split between his humanity, and his wolf-like aggression and homelessness.Hesse claimed that this modern in fact young people had basically misunderstood what he considered to be a story of middle-age.

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