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What Happened to... (in this case Steppenwolf)?

parman said:
I wonder if there was anyone lelt from the original band but Kay when they performed in 2014.
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Nope. Jerry Edmonton and Goldy McJohn are dead and I don't think Kay is on speaking terms with any of the other members from earlier iterations of the band. They had a pretty high rate of turnover IIRC.
 
noogies said:
Saw them at the HIC Arena in Honolulu in 1970. I have a distinct memory that the live version of "Monster" went on forever.

Also, the hippie chick that tagged along with us reviewing the show: "It just wasn't good, y'know, because they didn't get into it."

She was right, but that doesn't mean they weren't one of the most underrated bands of the late '60s-early '70s ... John Kay conspiracy theories notwithstanding.
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I loved the cover art on the Monster album.
 
Just a theory, but many of those oldies bands aren't making a lot of money off sales or royalties. Touring and t-shirt sales is a way to make money.

It does allow folks to see their "favorite bands"* again. I was a Grand Funk fan. Around 1970 they were HUGE. Sold out Shea stadium faster than the Beatles had.
Two GFR versions still playing dates around the country. Mel and Don and their band and Mark and his band. I think I prefer Marks band more.
Once I saw CCR at a state fair. Oh, that's CC Revisted, not Revival. Evidently the drummer and the bass player were from the original band.

And then there are some who just plain love performing even though they could never spend the money they have already have. Yes Paul and Mick I mean you. Among others.



*Well, a percentage of their favorite bands.
 
I saw them 2/16/80 at My Fathers Place on LI NY. Great show but kind of odd opener Leon Redbone, enjoyed him too. Back to Steppenwolf John Kay complained a couple of times of other people using the name. The show was also broadcast live. I went to the show left a friend at my place to hit record on the deck. Told him he could leave after he did. He stayed for the whole show. This is why I remember the exact date and the complaints
 
From my previous post, perhaps my intent didn't match interpretation.

When I say John was all over the place, it wasn't as much in a "Conspiracy" vein, or some odd agenda, but rather almost a David Lee Roth stream of consciousness that didn't require prompting, or even another party to reply.

Clearly an intelligent man, well-read, and opinionated. When I said "bonkers" I really meant that in an impressively madcap personality kind of way.

I have almost all of their catalog, and hold him in high respect.
 
Someone mentioned a band that toured in two different versions with different members from the original band. That reminds me of two versions of the band Hawkwind, which I saw a few years apart. First I saw a band billed as "Hawkwind" in a pretty small venue. It seemed like the only original member was this guy Dave Brock, but the rest of the band were great, including a bass player/singer/front-man guy who had the perfect vibe for the music. A few years later I saw a show in a much larger venue that was really well attended too, of a band billed as "Nik Turner's Hawkwind." Nik Turner was the sax player in the original and not someone that I thought of as a really key member, like Dave Brock who wrote lots of the tunes. The Nik Tuner version was far louder and sloppier but the crowd really seemed to enjoy it and I liked it too, though not nearly as much as the far tighter, more musical version of the band that I had seen before... I have to wonder if Nik Turner just had better management with better connections and better promotion in order to fill bigger venues...?
 
Lavane said:
I bought that album when I was 10 years old, along with Grand Funk's red album. :music:
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The GFR stuff up to American Band was much more garage band type music. American Band and later albums were more pop music IMO.

Back when I thought I might have a funeral when I die I thought I'd like to have Closer to Home and Maxine Nightingale's Right Back Where we Started From playing as the funeral was ending.
Both seem rather appropriate for a funeral. One a bit slow and about heading towards the proverbial (not literal) home, and the other fast toe tapper to send me on my way back to dust.
 
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onwardjames said:
From my previous post, perhaps my intent didn't match interpretation.

When I say John was all over the place, it wasn't as much in a "Conspiracy" vein, or some odd agenda, but rather almost a David Lee Roth stream of consciousness that didn't require prompting, or even another party to reply.

Clearly an intelligent man, well-read, and opinionated. When I said "bonkers" I really meant that in an impressively madcap personality kind of way.

I have almost all of their catalog, and hold him in high respect.
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Thank you for clarifying. I agree too, well read and opinionated, different than arrogant. Look at his young life, quite the background for perspective. Loved the lyrics to his songs as well as the music, fit well together. The Pusher Man is rather intense but not outlaw, almost a prayer.
 
John Ess said:
Saw them at the Music Hall in Boston with Frijid Pink spring 1970...excellent show. Glad I did all this stuff then...
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Forget Steppenwolf... what I would have given to have seen Frijid Pink in 1969/70!!! :eek: Would have definitely came in some "GoGo" outfit. (I wanted to be a go-go dancer when I was 7 or 8), but that was in the early 90s :rflmao: Okay... Steppenwolf would have been awesome too...

Besides... John Kay (in 1968) was so incredibly hot!!! :angel:
 
I saw Steppenwolf sometime around the mid 90's at a summer fest put on by the city where I was living at the time.
Back then they called the fest Augustfest,now they call it Festival of the Lakes. An Indiana city outside of the Chicago area.
 
goodolpg said:
The GFR stuff up to American Band was much more garage band type music. American Band and later albums were more pop music IMO.

Back when I thought I might have a funeral when I die I thought I'd like to have Closer to Home and Maxine Nightingale's Right Back Where we Started From playing as the funeral was ending.
Both seem rather appropriate for a funeral. One a bit slow and about heading towards the proverbial (not literal) home, and the other fast toe tapper to send me on my way back to dust.
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GFR got horrible reviews. I liked the garage band sound of the earlier stuff.
 
I think we had GFR albums up through Survival, but mostly heard "Closer to Home." By the time "We're An American Band" came around it was like a band from the past that had mostly been forgotten. Somewhere along the line my Michigan thing shifted to the tunes "What A Way to Die," by the Pleasure Seekers, and "Kick Out the Jams," by the MC5.
 
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