Born to Be Wild
Ah, to be a rock icon of the 1960’s, standing astride the lower world-peopled by ordinary folks like the kids who glom onto your creations-and the higher realm, where the gods who tapped you to lead lost youth into the promised land hang out. Tempted, many a rock musician fell into the snares of narcissism and hubris. John Kay’s early experiences, however, helped him maneuver around these traps.
Kay, whose gravelly vocals cemented the sound of Steppenwolf, the band he continued to front for decades, was born Joachim Fritz Krauledat in East Germany during World War II. His father, killed on the Russian front a month before his birth, was therefore...a Nazi. Prepared to discuss the recording of “Born To Be Wild,” I wondered if Kay would be put off when asked if his perspective during the 60’s was influenced by his background, but the singer dived in without hesitation.
Standing on stage receiving the worship of thousands of unquestioning kids was gratifying, says Kay, but he understood both the dangers of deifying the individual and denying the humanity of an entire culture. How many in the throng understood that to rally public support in World War II the Allied Powers had to demonize not only the horrific Adolf Hitler, but also the soldiers, many of whom- like his father-were decent people who could find no way out of the terrifying situation they were thrust into?
“The Nazi period was, of course, horrific,” says Kay. “But there were distinctions within the German society, and it would have been inconvenient for the Allies to point them out. Americans, for example, didn’t hear much about resistance groups like the White Rose (a student movement whose members were routinely beheaded).
“Until Hitler and the Nazis, through the SS and Gestapo, superimposed themselves over what had been an un-besmirched military establishment, the German army had a long history of independence from politics. My father was the oldest of nine kids growing up on a farm in East Germany, and his options were limited. He joined the military as a teen ager, before Hitler came to power, hoping to spend twenty years in the military, retire with a good pension, and then go into the trucking business. Who could have envisioned the hideous outcome? Growing up in East, and later West Germany, imbued me with a predisposition to be on the look out for the early signs of fascism and totalitarianism.”
So what did Kay feel when he stood onstage, belting out “Born To Be Wild,” “Magic Carpet Ride,” and the rest of Steppenwolf’s catalogue to herds of the adoring? “Because of my background, I think had a grip on the complexity of things that many of my peers, and those in the audience, lacked. As an outsider I could see some of America’s shortcomings, that it had yet to realize its full promise. However, it’s easy to point the finger and demonize the “other” whoever the individual, or group might be-and I wasn’t willing to do that.”
A commitment to social justice, coupled perhaps with the isolation that comes with being an outsider, informed Kay’s vocals, and the Steppenwolf sound. With just about an album’s worth of songs, including “Born To Be Wild” (written by Dennis Edmunton, aka Mars Bonfire) Steppenwolf marched into United Western Studios one day in 1968 to record their first album. They were, however, not pleased with the results, says Kay. “The engineers kept telling us to turn down, but we wanted to play loud! The recorded sound was too tame. We had heard good things about American Recording Company, a studio on Sunset Boulevard, so went went over there and re-tracked everything with Richard Podolor, who owned the studio, and Bill Cooper. We immediately fell in love with the sound they captured.”
By the time Steppenwolf walked into his studio, Richie Podolor had already achieved a real measure of success in the music business. A session guitarist-both Podolor and Cooper played guitars on “Go Little Honda,” a hit for the Hondells Podolor was also an accomplished songwriter. Players themselves, Podolor and Cooper understood that rock musicians needed to interact at a high sound pressure level for them to be comfortable while tracking.
“American Recording was the first independent studio in LA,” says Podolor. “ My father and I built a console back in 1959, and it was the first solid state console in the business. We initially ran it on car batteries! We purchased a pair of LA 2A’s directly from Bill Putnam, who was the head of Urei at the time. We used them on John’s vocals.
We had a Scully eight track tape recorder. We’d roll off some of the high end wherever we could because the Scully had an oscillation that could be disturbing. With Steppenwolf we were dealing mostly with the fundamental frequencies, so we weren’t looking for the upper harmonics! When we got a bass drum sound, or even a piano in some cases, we’d filter out some of the lows as well as the highs and pin point in on the frequency that we wanted.
“Our policy was that we wanted a band to sound as big on play back as they would on stage. Steppenwolf had Fender Dual Showman amps that they turned up to 10. That was fine with us! We were the first guys to throw a mic on the bass drum to isolate it. Back then we’d use a Shure 556 on the kick, and a Syncron ST-the first solid state cardoid mic- on the rest of kit.
“The Syncron ST had a tremendous of rejection on the back side, so it let us get a great amount of seperation when we were recording a band like Steppenwolf live. We’d put somebody else behind the drums. A total of four or five ST’s were used on the Steppenwolf sessions, on drums, guitars, even vocals.
“We liked the Sony C37 tube mics, and tracked John’s vocals with them. Later on, when I produced Three Dog Night, we’d pull out a C37 all the time. That was a warm mic, quite forgiving, with more presence than a U47, and less sibilance. We had a trick we used to use all the time with singers, where we’d have them sing into a mic that wasn’t turned on! We’d set up a C37 about two inches off to the right and track it without the singer knowing it was being used! John had no trouble getting his sound, though, and so we didn’t have to use that ruse!
“John had so much style. He actually could produce a very beautiful tone, and if he had had a good night’s sleep could sing a ballad with the best of them! But during those early sessions (the group tracked 11 songs in two days) we encouraged John to go for the gravel. His voice actually had a bit of a fuzz tone effect to it, and that blended perfectly with the instruments-particularly the Lowry organ the group used, which had a cracked speaker! People think we used a Hammond B3 with the Leslie cranked up, and in fact the studio did have a B3, but the sound of that Lowry was perfect for the group!”
Bill Cooper remembers being immediately impressed with Steppenwolf. “It’s rare when all of a group’s members contribute something unique to create an identifiable sound, and Steppenwolf had that. It wasn’t about virtuosity. There was a collective sense of what their sound should be, and all of the players helped define it. Richie and I then added out little bit.”
Podolor says that he and Cooper used the tools that were available to help the sound congeal. “For example, I mentioned that John’s vocals had a gravelly sound that seemed to have a touch of fuzz tone to them. Rushton Moreve played the bass quite loudly, and the guitars, particular Mike Monarch’s (then a 17 year old who’d been playing for about two years) were also loud. To make sure that the bass didn’t get muddy and become drowned out, and to create a blend in the sound, we sneaked a bit of fuzz tone onto it. Then we’d back the fuzz knob down. Going through the device was itself the effect we were going after, not actually using much of the fuzz sound. It was a trick that helped create a space for the bass and kept it from being eaten up by the guitars. We also Y’d out the bass and recorded both its direct and amped sound, using a UTC A11 transformer. The idea was to pick up the fundamentals from the A11 and the grunge from the amp.”
After two days of tracking the group sat down to mix with Podolor and Cooper. “We used Ampex 350’s as mix down decks,” says Podolor. “These were 1/4” machines running at 15 i.p.s. Ampex also had the 351 out at that time, but the 350 was fatter. When we mixed down we always A/B’d the console and the tape and we wouldn’t stop until you couldn’t hear the difference between the two.
“We never mixed in a single pass, and Bill was a wizard at cutting tape. We’d mix a bar at a time if we needed to, and generally made two mixes with different pannings. Today the bass and drums are normally sent up the middle, but back then it was routine to have the bass, drums and organ on the left, guitars on the right, and John’s vocal in the middle, so that nothing was competing with his voice for space. I was in a supermarket once and heard “Born To Be Wild.” Half of the record was in aisle 20 and the other was about 10 rows away! Still, that’s the way we worked back then, and the goal was that even if one side goes out you’d have a good record! Ultimately we provided the label with a mono version as well.”
After touring with Steppenwolf in a variety of incarnations, John Kay recently hung up his traveling shoes to concentrate on writing and the work of his foundation (www.mauekay.org). His memories of Steppenwolf’s first recording sessions, however, remain vivid. “No one had a clue that “Born To Be Wild” was going to be a hit. During the sessions it got no more or less of a response than anything else we were working on. “Sookie, Sookie” came out earlier and did fine, but it got no airplay in the South. It was vaguely suggestive, and our sound didn’t make it clear whether we were a black or white band. A song called “A Girl I Knew” was actually the first single off the album, but it got very little airplay.
“We knew we’d only have the opportunity to release one more single off the album before it got buried. The label was leaning towards “Everybody’s Next One,” a song that I’d co-written with our producer, Gabriel Meckler, but our manager, Red Foster was also a disk jockey at KRLA in LA, and he put feelers out to friends of his who were also jocks, and the consensus opinion was that “Born To Be Wild” was the strongest contender.”
“Born To Be Wild” made a rapid rise to #2 on the pop charts (“Magic Carpet Ride” would also crest at the second spot) and launched Steppenwolf into the pop stratosphere. The street cred of both the song and group received an additional boost when “Born To Be Wild” was incorporated into the sound track of Easy Rider, a year after its release. Countless musicians (and the fans who worship them) continue to be influenced by the rifle shots of “heavy metal thunder” that Steppenwolf set into motion.
