Born to be Wild!

Just thinking about "Born to be Wild" by Steppenwolf. Here was a great band who were influential back in the mid to late 60's into the mid 70's.

The first album I bought came from a Capitol Records membership I had back then. I forgot to send the card in to change my monthly selection, and in came "Early Steppenwolf", a live album recorded back in 1967. The manager at the Matrix in San Francisco recorded the shows they played. (Steppenwolf was known as the Sparrows at the time) The result was a, rare indeed, recording of the group before they became well known. The album includes an early track of "The Pusher".

Well, I was hooked! Next came "Steppenwolf", "Steppenwolf the Second", "At your Birthday Party" and a bunch more. Of course, "Born to be Wild" was the all time classic by the group.

The guitarist on that track was Mars Bonfire. At the time I thought it was the coolest name! Didn't know his real name and didn't know what type of guitar he played. Remember, this was over forty years ago. No internet, no nothing as far as finding out information in any timely fashion.

His name is Dennis Edmonton and I believe he only wrote the song. Michael Monarch played guitar in the band from the beginning. He along with John Kay, Goldie McJohn, Rushton Moreve, and Jerry Edmonton (Dennis' brother) started the band, Steppenwolf, after the demise of Sparrow.

Now I noticed in a video of the band playing "Born to be Wild", that Michael Monarch is playing a Rickenbacker Combo 600 single "horse shoe"pick-up electric guitar through Selmer two speaker combo amps. I've also heard the song was played using a Fender Broadcaster. Whichever was used, it's difficult to recreate on todays guitars. I gotta find me one of those!

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