STEPPENWOLF
''HOUR OF THE WOLF''
1975
36:46
********************
1 Caroline (Are You Ready For The Outlaw World) 04:49 (Mars Bonfire)
2 Annie, Annie Over 04:09 (Alan O'Day)
3 Two For The Love Of One 03:42 (George Biondo, Jerry Edmonton)
4 Just For Tonight 05:37 (Bobby Cochran, Jerry Edmonton)
5 Hard Rock Road 03:29 (Jerry Edmonton)
6 Someone Told A Lie 04:10 (John Kay, Bobby Cochran, Jerry Edmonton)
7 Another's Lifetime 04:31 (Wayne Berry)
8 Mr. Penny Pincher 06:15 (Van Dunson)
********************
Bass, Vocals – George Biondo
Drums – Jerry Edmonton
Guitar – Bobby Cochran
Keyboards – Andy Chapin
Vocals, Guitar – John Kay
Saxophone On 1, 5 - Tom Scott
********************
ABOUT THE ALBUM/OFFICIAL
1975-Imported. Now finally available on CD. This release is one of their best from the ’70s. Features “Caroline (Are You Ready For The Outlaw World),” with its searing sax solo by Tom Scott among other highlights. Other songs: Annie Annie Over, Two For The Love Of One, Just For Tonight, Hard Rock Road, Someone Told A Lie, Another’s Lifetime, Mr. Penny Pincher.
-----
By this time Jerry Edmonton (our drummer) had taken over the art direction and started working with a photographer named Lori Sullivan. Together they created the “Hour Of The Wolf” album artwork. Once again we recorded at my studio but the record was mixed by Roy Halee who some of us had worked with during our days with “The Sparrow”. Roy, who is a renowned engineer, gave the album it’s full and varied sound. “Mr. Penny Pincher” and “Another’s Lifetime” were fine songs and I also like the way “Someone Told A Lie” turned out while Mars Bonfire (of Born to be Wild fame) contributed a timely new tune called “Caroline, Are You Ready For The Outlaw World”. That track also featured Tom Scott playing a burning sax solo through a leslie. Overall the album was less raw and bluesy then some previous Wolf efforts but it showed some of our other musical sides to good advantage. Unfortunately our label “Mums Records” folded just when this album was released and so it was more or less ignored by Epic who was Mums distributor.
********************
ABOUT THE ALBUM/WIKIPEDIA
Hour of the Wolf is an album by Steppenwolf, released in 1975. It was the second of their four albums released under the label Epic.
********************
REVIEW/AMG
Joe Viglione
The second of four albums the reconstituted Steppenwolf cut for Epic, Hour of the Wolf has a very cool fog-enshrouded wolf howling on the cover, the band's name in blood red, and an interesting amalgam of contemporary sounds. Tom Scott's horns are featured on the Mars Bonfire tune "Caroline (Are You Ready for the Outlaw World)" and "Hard Rock Road," a composition byBonfire's brother, drummer Jerry Edmonton. Alan O'Day's "Annie, Annie Over" fits the Steppenwolf sound, though it comes from the unlikeliest of places -- O'Day was known more for Helen Reddy's "Angie Baby" than the sublime "Heavy Church" that Three Dog Night covered. "Heavy Church," with its heavy organ sound, would have been the track this group could have taken up the charts. A major oversight! The rhythm section of George Biondo and Jerry Edmonton come up with a dyed-in-the-wool authentic Steppenwolf number in "Two for the Love of One." The problem is that it's all been heard before, and the band is not progressing to where it should be on this 1975 release. With close to 20 minutes per side, it is a generous helping of John Kay music (recorded mostly at Kay's own facility), with guitarist Bobby Cochran teaming up with Edmonton on the semi-ballad "Just for Tonight." The material is all adequate, but where Kay was crafting an interesting direction on his Forgotten Songs & Unsung Heroes solo disc, abandoning those elements for the somewhat tried and true is this album's dilemma. When Kay does touch upon that venture slightly, as on the slide guitar and slick chorus vocals of "Another's Lifetime," it is most satisfying. Scott played saxophone on multiple Carole King albums around the time Hour of the Wolf was released, adding to her hit output; it's interesting that, two years after his recording on "Hard Rock Road" with Steppenwolf, King would go Top 30 with "Hard Rock Cafe" from her Simple Things album, which included Scott's saxophone. Had Steppenwolf paid attention to the charts and crafted 45s as the band had in the '60s, the four-album ride with Epic might have been more beneficial to the fans who loved those immortal 45s. "Mr. Penny Pincher," the last song on the album, seems to prove that just showing up is not enough in such a tough industry.
********************
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
Cub Koda
Led by John Kay (born Joachim Krauledat, April 12, 1944), Steppenwolf's blazing biker anthem "Born to Be Wild" roared out of speakers everywhere in the fiery summer of 1968, John Kay's threatening rasp sounding a mesmerizing call to arms to the counterculture movement rapidly sprouting up nationwide. German immigrant Kay got his professional start in a bluesy Toronto band called Sparrow, recording for Columbia in 1966. After Sparrow disbanded, Kay relocated to the West Coast and formed Steppenwolf, named after the Herman Hesse novel. "Born to Be Wild," their third single on ABC-Dunhill, was immortalized on the soundtrack of Dennis Hopper's underground film classic Easy Rider. The song's reference to "heavy metal thunder" finally gave an assignable name to an emerging genre. Steppenwolf's second monster hit that year, the psychedelic "Magic Carpet Ride," and the follow-ups "Rock Me," "Move Over," and "Hey Lawdy Mama" further established the band's credibility on the hard rock circuit. By the early '70s, Steppenwolf ran out of steam and disbanded. Kay continued to record solo, as other members put together ersatz versions of the band for touring purposes. During the mid-'80s Kay re-formed his own version of Steppenwolf, grinding out his hits (and some new songs) at oldies shows. Nevertheless, they'll be remembered for generations to come for creating one of the ultimate gas'n'go rock anthems of all time.
********************
BIOGRAPHY/WIKIPEDIA
********************
WEBSITE
********************
TO THE TOP
********************
''HOUR OF THE WOLF''
1975
36:46
********************
1 Caroline (Are You Ready For The Outlaw World) 04:49 (Mars Bonfire)
2 Annie, Annie Over 04:09 (Alan O'Day)
3 Two For The Love Of One 03:42 (George Biondo, Jerry Edmonton)
4 Just For Tonight 05:37 (Bobby Cochran, Jerry Edmonton)
5 Hard Rock Road 03:29 (Jerry Edmonton)
6 Someone Told A Lie 04:10 (John Kay, Bobby Cochran, Jerry Edmonton)
7 Another's Lifetime 04:31 (Wayne Berry)
8 Mr. Penny Pincher 06:15 (Van Dunson)
********************
Bass, Vocals – George Biondo
Drums – Jerry Edmonton
Guitar – Bobby Cochran
Keyboards – Andy Chapin
Vocals, Guitar – John Kay
Saxophone On 1, 5 - Tom Scott
********************
ABOUT THE ALBUM/OFFICIAL
1975-Imported. Now finally available on CD. This release is one of their best from the ’70s. Features “Caroline (Are You Ready For The Outlaw World),” with its searing sax solo by Tom Scott among other highlights. Other songs: Annie Annie Over, Two For The Love Of One, Just For Tonight, Hard Rock Road, Someone Told A Lie, Another’s Lifetime, Mr. Penny Pincher.
-----
By this time Jerry Edmonton (our drummer) had taken over the art direction and started working with a photographer named Lori Sullivan. Together they created the “Hour Of The Wolf” album artwork. Once again we recorded at my studio but the record was mixed by Roy Halee who some of us had worked with during our days with “The Sparrow”. Roy, who is a renowned engineer, gave the album it’s full and varied sound. “Mr. Penny Pincher” and “Another’s Lifetime” were fine songs and I also like the way “Someone Told A Lie” turned out while Mars Bonfire (of Born to be Wild fame) contributed a timely new tune called “Caroline, Are You Ready For The Outlaw World”. That track also featured Tom Scott playing a burning sax solo through a leslie. Overall the album was less raw and bluesy then some previous Wolf efforts but it showed some of our other musical sides to good advantage. Unfortunately our label “Mums Records” folded just when this album was released and so it was more or less ignored by Epic who was Mums distributor.
********************
ABOUT THE ALBUM/WIKIPEDIA
Hour of the Wolf is an album by Steppenwolf, released in 1975. It was the second of their four albums released under the label Epic.
********************
REVIEW/AMG
Joe Viglione
The second of four albums the reconstituted Steppenwolf cut for Epic, Hour of the Wolf has a very cool fog-enshrouded wolf howling on the cover, the band's name in blood red, and an interesting amalgam of contemporary sounds. Tom Scott's horns are featured on the Mars Bonfire tune "Caroline (Are You Ready for the Outlaw World)" and "Hard Rock Road," a composition byBonfire's brother, drummer Jerry Edmonton. Alan O'Day's "Annie, Annie Over" fits the Steppenwolf sound, though it comes from the unlikeliest of places -- O'Day was known more for Helen Reddy's "Angie Baby" than the sublime "Heavy Church" that Three Dog Night covered. "Heavy Church," with its heavy organ sound, would have been the track this group could have taken up the charts. A major oversight! The rhythm section of George Biondo and Jerry Edmonton come up with a dyed-in-the-wool authentic Steppenwolf number in "Two for the Love of One." The problem is that it's all been heard before, and the band is not progressing to where it should be on this 1975 release. With close to 20 minutes per side, it is a generous helping of John Kay music (recorded mostly at Kay's own facility), with guitarist Bobby Cochran teaming up with Edmonton on the semi-ballad "Just for Tonight." The material is all adequate, but where Kay was crafting an interesting direction on his Forgotten Songs & Unsung Heroes solo disc, abandoning those elements for the somewhat tried and true is this album's dilemma. When Kay does touch upon that venture slightly, as on the slide guitar and slick chorus vocals of "Another's Lifetime," it is most satisfying. Scott played saxophone on multiple Carole King albums around the time Hour of the Wolf was released, adding to her hit output; it's interesting that, two years after his recording on "Hard Rock Road" with Steppenwolf, King would go Top 30 with "Hard Rock Cafe" from her Simple Things album, which included Scott's saxophone. Had Steppenwolf paid attention to the charts and crafted 45s as the band had in the '60s, the four-album ride with Epic might have been more beneficial to the fans who loved those immortal 45s. "Mr. Penny Pincher," the last song on the album, seems to prove that just showing up is not enough in such a tough industry.
********************
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
Cub Koda
Led by John Kay (born Joachim Krauledat, April 12, 1944), Steppenwolf's blazing biker anthem "Born to Be Wild" roared out of speakers everywhere in the fiery summer of 1968, John Kay's threatening rasp sounding a mesmerizing call to arms to the counterculture movement rapidly sprouting up nationwide. German immigrant Kay got his professional start in a bluesy Toronto band called Sparrow, recording for Columbia in 1966. After Sparrow disbanded, Kay relocated to the West Coast and formed Steppenwolf, named after the Herman Hesse novel. "Born to Be Wild," their third single on ABC-Dunhill, was immortalized on the soundtrack of Dennis Hopper's underground film classic Easy Rider. The song's reference to "heavy metal thunder" finally gave an assignable name to an emerging genre. Steppenwolf's second monster hit that year, the psychedelic "Magic Carpet Ride," and the follow-ups "Rock Me," "Move Over," and "Hey Lawdy Mama" further established the band's credibility on the hard rock circuit. By the early '70s, Steppenwolf ran out of steam and disbanded. Kay continued to record solo, as other members put together ersatz versions of the band for touring purposes. During the mid-'80s Kay re-formed his own version of Steppenwolf, grinding out his hits (and some new songs) at oldies shows. Nevertheless, they'll be remembered for generations to come for creating one of the ultimate gas'n'go rock anthems of all time.
********************
BIOGRAPHY/WIKIPEDIA
********************
WEBSITE
********************
TO THE TOP
********************
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