addiction is not a thing to ridicule... its something that the most beautiful person in the world can be cursed with ... and random people, who just curse it, and move on ... cant be bothered
I' d say this is a rock n roll song of the pure variety. Folks think anything that's slowed down a little is country or some variation of country. Please show a little more appreciation of the width and depth of the rock genre.
I went through the dope scene in the '70's and finally got out of it in the '90's. Was reminded of this song today on another website where a young man finds he can no longer play bass (I'm a bass player too) due to lack of concentration after smoking "K2 Spice". I suspect he was told it was K2 spice when it actually was something else. Point is this song is still very relative in the 21st century.
BTW the instrumentation is amazing...all the usual with pedal steel and sitar. Great music.
i've been in that un-godly hall, digested the sum of that unholy wall, adjusted my mind ,pushed hard to the other side, much wiser for the experience and am certainly glad to have had this wonderful song along for the ride..just me being me:-)
Thanks for reminding me of something I have tried to forget for many years. An unpleasant trip down memory lane but if you was "there" , you understand the pain. Forgiveness from God is easy, forgiving yourself is tough.
Steppenwolf, a rock band, was so versatile that they could easily go in & out into the borderlands of other musical genres likes country (this one), or r& B (Sookie Sookie)
Steppenwolf is truely the best band ever! It feels to me like every song is about thesame, but that one song is so freaking awesome! The lyrics are true masterpieces, the guitar and bass are sweet, the drums very original, Kay's voice is raw but still beautifull.
Thanks for dropping this gem in...John Kay had such a rough sound, and Steppenwolf certainly fit the era of the Baby Boomers, Easy Rider, Hells Angels, the riots of Chicago, the torment we faced with the Vietnam War, the political upheaval, the ever changing landscape from earth to the moon. What a memory..thanks.
got news for all of you people its not country its not folk rock this is from his heart younger brother died from a drug overdose and he didnt know what to do to help him
i grew up in this and been on both side of the road to this song to me music is not country rock or any name you want to give it it just the spirit of the soul crying out some can feel it some can't and sadly some have no soul at all the first time i hear it i was in the arm 18 years old now i am 60 years old since that time i had friends who die that way and almost myself but i had friends who help and save me so any music that teach us something or make us grow as a person is good
I know, EL..Axton wrote the first song on ER with Capt. America...but I decided since it's Friday night I would do it WRONG since everyone is doing something anywway..peace
Had to listen to this song 3 times just to really get a feel of the lyrics. amazing song with an amazing background. It is really quite sad how people can lose control of their lives so easily. By the time you are ready to stop, its usually too late..
The last time I heard this song was the morning in 1989, after I had learned my dear friend was hooked up to 13 machines at MDA, Houston, dying with cancer...they had her on morphine, and I was wanting to go see her, they told me she wouldn't know who I was, to remember her as she was...I heard this, cried my eyes out and drove to Houston to see her one last time. She died the next day.
I love this song. A lot of these songs that came out in the 50's, 60's, and 70's are amazing. A lot better than any pop and hip hop and rap in my opinion. A lot of my friends are suprised that I like this stuff. Im only 14.
@Xshadowgirl That's awesome. Rock n Roll will live on, even through the clouded eyes of teens and Hip-Hop, Pop, and music that requires no instruments at all. I'm glad to see another young soul such as myself that is greatly influenced by so called "oldies" music. I am 16, and I swear I was born in the wrong generation. All of my favourite bands are dead, or are dying and its really quite frustrating.
@Xshadowgirl Songs from that era are so good, because many musicians pulled from something deep inside to make that music. Pop music today is just like the people who make it: shallow.
If I ever do "make it", I want to redo this song as a cover. My generation needs this sound and feel back. I'd say that's pretty apparent considering someone thought this was country. I can see why he thought that though. The Sitar and String Guitar, in the key of G (capo 2) then a key change (to A, reletively B) are very country-esque. Steppenwolf was the first heavy metal band. This song about cocaine screwing up lives was a ballad. It wasn't their first slow song but definately is my favorite
Hey guys, Steppenwolf was not country or just a rock band...they were an acid rock band. I was a teenager back then and Steppenwolf and Iron Butterfly were probably the two greatest acid rock bands ever....and if ya need acid rock explained, you just ain't old enough to remember the times...the comment from ricksmachinery is appropriate and just about says it all!!
Die2no, Steppenwolf was not a country band. They were a hard rock band of the 60's and 70's. This was among the few songs they did with a softer sound. Hoyt Axton's original version of it had more of a country sound. Typical of Steppenwolf's sound were their songs Born to Be Wild, Magic Carpet Ride, Monster, etc. Check out some of these. They are on Youtube as well. Check out Hoyt Axton too. He was not as well known as he should have been. He was a great musician and songwriter.
This song reminds me so much of my brother some years ago. Johnny got started on drugs early in his teenage years and it was along hard road he traveled for many years! Now his body is paying the price! Good luck my brother, I love you very much!
I'd say this song is more folk/rock, with a "ballad" quality to it. not country at all. Country, no matter how much it is "dressed up", it still has that twangy, almost corny sound to it. This song has none of those qualities.
Regarding the lyrics, it IS heart-wrenching that some people get pretty messed up. Always has been the case, and almost undoubtedly always will be. Having people close, in proximity and in spirit is the best medicine for the deeply addicted, I think.
That's one way of describing this song, but I wouldn't say that it's "not country at all". All that driving a truck full of chicken wire, whilst drunk trying to forget about a cheating wife and whatnot, is what I think of as 'country & western' ; the 'country' genre is wider than that. Is this a country rock song? Not that it matters that much, it sounds as it is, whatever it's called.....!
Yes, sadly the malady of spirit is more than some can cope with and recover from.
Take your hat off for the late great HOYT AXTON as he was the writer of this song and he was a mostly country folk singer. His mother wrote HEARTBREAK HOTEL for Elvis when Hoyt was a child. Good Genes for music in the family.
@freedhwy It's not easy, and it never goes away. 2 years clean, and still not a day goes by I don't think about getting high, or all the shit i did to get high. I will never do it again. Don't care if I accidently chop a limb off, I'll deal with pain before I deal with pain killers again.
I was a cop when this was popular and I saw what heroin was doing to lots of young people, hell I was only in my early 20's. I sure loved this song and album. Still do. Hard drugs are a losing proposition, just slow poison. The guys I left in Vietnam were just starting to use this shit when i left to come home in 68. We never did drugs of any kind over there contrary to the movies and the draftees who came later.
This song shows the power of music and how there's no better way to express the spirit...We all know Snowblind Friends and we've all lost some great souls, most of whom did a lot for others; they just couldn't help themselves..
even with its numerous personnel changes, steppenwolf is probably THE most underrated band of the '60's and '70's. listen to "monster", a true masterpiece.
die2no.... "country band"???? laff... I Hate to break your achy breaky heart but..... I DON'T think so.
Song brings me back to a day when I had lost a friend to the white death. Sad how people can loose themselves and all you can do watch and hope they smarten up and find their way back home.
Your comment isn't that off the wall to me ; it depends on what you count as country. Though they are rightly best recognised as a rock or hard rock band, some of their songs do strongly lean towards 'country'. We're NOT talking "achy breaky heart" 'country & western' here, just 'country' ; a different thing. The hard rock/country cross-over maybe more common these days, (judging from what I heard played on Canadian radio), then when the 'Wolf' were making their songs back in the day ;-j
@ELGROOVER You could make a whole country and western album with nothing but Beatles',Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin songs. Keith Richards said that while they were heavily influenced by the likes of Muddy Waters they also listened to people like Hank Williams and Johnny Cash.
@die2no Wow..country..ya gotta be kidding..look at the way they dress..we played thier songs back when I played music and they darn sure were not known for "country" "Born to Be Wild"..a country song? "Magic Carpet Ride", country? C'mon..about as stupid as saying obama has a brain.'
Great song, great band, but I don't like this mix at all. Too much keys, drums too prominent.
davercaldwell 2 hours ago
Yes, thanks El, great song. Also, thanks to the late/great Hoyt Axton for writing & Steppenwolf for such a great cover!
ragnorr2001 1 week ago
is how we care more for others than ourselves that makes us I was gonna say human but animals exhibit sacrifice also
Syzygy60 4 weeks ago
@pdorn777 u were right
Syzygy60 4 weeks ago
addiction is not a thing to ridicule... its something that the most beautiful person in the world can be cursed with ... and random people, who just curse it, and move on ... cant be bothered
ramfree27 4 weeks ago
Natures way of weeding out the stupid.
1911a1gizzy 1 month ago
I' d say this is a rock n roll song of the pure variety. Folks think anything that's slowed down a little is country or some variation of country. Please show a little more appreciation of the width and depth of the rock genre.
myhattrick 1 month ago
You never here this on the radio. Heres another one worth looking up...."Reflections Of Charles Brown" by Ruperts People.
paulypaulification 1 month ago
this song reminds me of a friend i lost
darklion789 1 month ago
I have this 45 RPM along with a bunch more of their singles. Great band!!!!
PaBasser 2 months ago
Abominable abominable snowman '*8' would you say you think he's blind.
divisorplot 2 months ago
Soulful...Great vocal performance by John Kay. Soulful..Should be in rnr Hall of Fame...
JWirtel 2 months ago
@JWirtel Along with "Reflections Of Charles Brown" by Ruperts People.
paulypaulification 1 month ago
you could buy drugs back then for a dollar that last you till next monday.. i spend 50 on an 8th and it lasts me about 4 days
xjustin523x 2 months ago
I went through the dope scene in the '70's and finally got out of it in the '90's. Was reminded of this song today on another website where a young man finds he can no longer play bass (I'm a bass player too) due to lack of concentration after smoking "K2 Spice". I suspect he was told it was K2 spice when it actually was something else. Point is this song is still very relative in the 21st century.
BTW the instrumentation is amazing...all the usual with pedal steel and sitar. Great music.
TheOldskier 3 months ago
i sure miss my old friends, rest in peace brothers. 1%
JonsCars1 3 months ago
i also miss my brothers
danzappa7 1 month ago
this is a biker song and a few coke heads to go along with it''''
TheVermont420 3 months ago in playlist STEPPENWOLF
@pdorn777 good for you, guy, wish I would have done the same. But we all must reap what we sow, ey?
mjpsails 3 months ago
i've been in that un-godly hall, digested the sum of that unholy wall, adjusted my mind ,pushed hard to the other side, much wiser for the experience and am certainly glad to have had this wonderful song along for the ride..just me being me:-)
1952FMS 3 months ago
not ther now lol.
pattycampbell75 3 months ago
been there still
amazinchick69 4 months ago
Comment removed
68beano 5 months ago
Thanks for reminding me of something I have tried to forget for many years. An unpleasant trip down memory lane but if you was "there" , you understand the pain. Forgiveness from God is easy, forgiving yourself is tough.
ddd3240 6 months ago 2
To pdorn777 ~ I hear that! Their song 'The Pusher' had a similar effect on me ☼ ;-j
ELGROOVER 6 months ago
yeh we all know a drug addict
Syzygy60 6 months ago
I can relate! prayin's too slow, flyin low,,dyin slow.
1952FMS 6 months ago
Not enough people have heard this one.
SgtPepper96034 6 months ago
Steppenwolf, a rock band, was so versatile that they could easily go in & out into the borderlands of other musical genres likes country (this one), or r& B (Sookie Sookie)
1Urganda1 7 months ago
R.I.P my friend, you will be missed :'-(
KSMF3B 7 months ago
My favorite wolf song of them all!
Frostbyte380 7 months ago
This is such a powerful song.
nholt 8 months ago
The People that you love the Most, are the people you LOVE. !
Gina0071000 8 months ago
Steppenwolf is truely the best band ever! It feels to me like every song is about thesame, but that one song is so freaking awesome! The lyrics are true masterpieces, the guitar and bass are sweet, the drums very original, Kay's voice is raw but still beautifull.
4difference 9 months ago
I don't believe I have ever met the person that didn't like this song. Thanks EL.
TheWick53 9 months ago 5
To TheWick53 ~ You're welcome ☺ ;-j
ELGROOVER 9 months ago
@ELGROOVER Great trip down memory lane!! thanx much El. awesome tribute to great band and to Hoyt (RIP)
ragnorr1 6 months ago
@TheWick53
Thanks for dropping this gem in...John Kay had such a rough sound, and Steppenwolf certainly fit the era of the Baby Boomers, Easy Rider, Hells Angels, the riots of Chicago, the torment we faced with the Vietnam War, the political upheaval, the ever changing landscape from earth to the moon. What a memory..thanks.
58jwalker 7 months ago
* * * * *
sirronald69 9 months ago
To sirronald69 ~ ♪♫♥²⁀⁀☼
☺ ;-j
ELGROOVER 9 months ago
Bittersweet!
jfcr88 10 months ago
got news for all of you people its not country its not folk rock this is from his heart younger brother died from a drug overdose and he didnt know what to do to help him
twotoneify 10 months ago
* * * * *
sirronald69 11 months ago
Comment removed
68beano 1 year ago
i grew up in this and been on both side of the road to this song to me music is not country rock or any name you want to give it it just the spirit of the soul crying out some can feel it some can't and sadly some have no soul at all the first time i hear it i was in the arm 18 years old now i am 60 years old since that time i had friends who die that way and almost myself but i had friends who help and save me so any music that teach us something or make us grow as a person is good
boblfinchjr 1 year ago
I know, EL..Axton wrote the first song on ER with Capt. America...but I decided since it's Friday night I would do it WRONG since everyone is doing something anywway..peace
spoildn8410 1 year ago
To spoildn8410 ~ No worries ☺ enjoy! ;-j
ELGROOVER 1 year ago
Thank you for the writing credits..same guy was born2bwild..
spoildn8410 1 year ago
To spoildn8410 ~ You're welcome ☼ ....actually BTBW was penned by Mars Bonfire ;-j
ELGROOVER 1 year ago
Had to listen to this song 3 times just to really get a feel of the lyrics. amazing song with an amazing background. It is really quite sad how people can lose control of their lives so easily. By the time you are ready to stop, its usually too late..
chris101ward 1 year ago
This was a great album, one of the greats, and sadly a song many can identify with!
borntrippin 1 year ago
The last time I heard this song was the morning in 1989, after I had learned my dear friend was hooked up to 13 machines at MDA, Houston, dying with cancer...they had her on morphine, and I was wanting to go see her, they told me she wouldn't know who I was, to remember her as she was...I heard this, cried my eyes out and drove to Houston to see her one last time. She died the next day.
MPAcosta7777 1 year ago
I love this song. A lot of these songs that came out in the 50's, 60's, and 70's are amazing. A lot better than any pop and hip hop and rap in my opinion. A lot of my friends are suprised that I like this stuff. Im only 14.
Xshadowgirl 1 year ago
@Xshadowgirl That's awesome. Rock n Roll will live on, even through the clouded eyes of teens and Hip-Hop, Pop, and music that requires no instruments at all. I'm glad to see another young soul such as myself that is greatly influenced by so called "oldies" music. I am 16, and I swear I was born in the wrong generation. All of my favourite bands are dead, or are dying and its really quite frustrating.
chris101ward 1 year ago
@chris101ward Pick up a guitar, and keep them alive :)
nate556 10 months ago
@Xshadowgirl Songs from that era are so good, because many musicians pulled from something deep inside to make that music. Pop music today is just like the people who make it: shallow.
nate556 10 months ago
this song is da shit we playd it at uncles funeral reminds me of him
fchsallday 1 year ago
If I ever do "make it", I want to redo this song as a cover. My generation needs this sound and feel back. I'd say that's pretty apparent considering someone thought this was country. I can see why he thought that though. The Sitar and String Guitar, in the key of G (capo 2) then a key change (to A, reletively B) are very country-esque. Steppenwolf was the first heavy metal band. This song about cocaine screwing up lives was a ballad. It wasn't their first slow song but definately is my favorite
tabguy14 1 year ago
Hey guys, Steppenwolf was not country or just a rock band...they were an acid rock band. I was a teenager back then and Steppenwolf and Iron Butterfly were probably the two greatest acid rock bands ever....and if ya need acid rock explained, you just ain't old enough to remember the times...the comment from ricksmachinery is appropriate and just about says it all!!
blaquebuss 1 year ago
Die2no, Steppenwolf was not a country band. They were a hard rock band of the 60's and 70's. This was among the few songs they did with a softer sound. Hoyt Axton's original version of it had more of a country sound. Typical of Steppenwolf's sound were their songs Born to Be Wild, Magic Carpet Ride, Monster, etc. Check out some of these. They are on Youtube as well. Check out Hoyt Axton too. He was not as well known as he should have been. He was a great musician and songwriter.
usaruss 1 year ago
85 % could kill u
xltoday 1 year ago
This song reminds me so much of my brother some years ago. Johnny got started on drugs early in his teenage years and it was along hard road he traveled for many years! Now his body is paying the price! Good luck my brother, I love you very much!
sfwb212 1 year ago
I lived through that time, in that way. how in the hell did any of us survive???
ricksmachinery 1 year ago
CAN U RELATE?
John45068 2 years ago
youth we wish grow in wisdom learn to deal with the day better days if you help someone beanomackarighaaeeeeiiiiiii
68beano 2 years ago
windy night down pines my good ole boy aftermath sky line not the same to the fire gods my snowblind friend
68beano 2 years ago
love this song going to the refrigee to get another brewwyskiiii im loaded feelin'alright wasted words
68beano 2 years ago
I'd say this song is more folk/rock, with a "ballad" quality to it. not country at all. Country, no matter how much it is "dressed up", it still has that twangy, almost corny sound to it. This song has none of those qualities.
Regarding the lyrics, it IS heart-wrenching that some people get pretty messed up. Always has been the case, and almost undoubtedly always will be. Having people close, in proximity and in spirit is the best medicine for the deeply addicted, I think.
freedhwy 2 years ago 4
That's one way of describing this song, but I wouldn't say that it's "not country at all". All that driving a truck full of chicken wire, whilst drunk trying to forget about a cheating wife and whatnot, is what I think of as 'country & western' ; the 'country' genre is wider than that. Is this a country rock song? Not that it matters that much, it sounds as it is, whatever it's called.....!
Yes, sadly the malady of spirit is more than some can cope with and recover from.
ELGROOVER 2 years ago 4
@freedhwy I agree, country is just so cheesy.
uBeR1337gUy 1 year ago
@freedhwy
Take your hat off for the late great HOYT AXTON as he was the writer of this song and he was a mostly country folk singer. His mother wrote HEARTBREAK HOTEL for Elvis when Hoyt was a child. Good Genes for music in the family.
tubermier 1 year ago
@tubermier Hoyt also wrote The Pusher.
jarofants1 1 year ago
@jarofants1 He also wrote No No Song for Ringo Starr and The Pusher by Steppenwolf as well...
crowdog89 11 months ago
@freedhwy It's not easy, and it never goes away. 2 years clean, and still not a day goes by I don't think about getting high, or all the shit i did to get high. I will never do it again. Don't care if I accidently chop a limb off, I'll deal with pain before I deal with pain killers again.
nate556 10 months ago
so true so sad so real unless you have lived it youll never know. dying slow
creamofobia 2 years ago
This song means more to me than anyone could ever imagine. If PTSD has a song for it, this would be it.
69namvet1 2 years ago
I was a cop when this was popular and I saw what heroin was doing to lots of young people, hell I was only in my early 20's. I sure loved this song and album. Still do. Hard drugs are a losing proposition, just slow poison. The guys I left in Vietnam were just starting to use this shit when i left to come home in 68. We never did drugs of any kind over there contrary to the movies and the draftees who came later.
larrydh2 2 years ago 2
This song shows the power of music and how there's no better way to express the spirit...We all know Snowblind Friends and we've all lost some great souls, most of whom did a lot for others; they just couldn't help themselves..
JWirtel 2 years ago 4
From East Germany to Immortality !
BigAndTall666 2 years ago 3
I love it.. I'm only 16 and I apreciate this.. more then anyone can understand. I love this
RaverGuy2009 2 years ago 4
I have had this album since i was 15 i am now 41 love this song FLYING LOW DYING SLOW
MrISABELLAIS1 2 years ago 9
Comment removed
RaverGuy2009 2 years ago
even with its numerous personnel changes, steppenwolf is probably THE most underrated band of the '60's and '70's. listen to "monster", a true masterpiece.
ttuu01 2 years ago 4
die2no.... "country band"???? laff... I Hate to break your achy breaky heart but..... I DON'T think so.
Song brings me back to a day when I had lost a friend to the white death. Sad how people can loose themselves and all you can do watch and hope they smarten up and find their way back home.
Goregoon 2 years ago 10
@Goregoon
I'm with you my brother. I couldn't do a thing about it either. I guess they have to want your help, still hurts after almost 40 years.
maf5454 10 months ago
best country band ever/
die2no 2 years ago
die2no
Your comment isn't that off the wall to me ; it depends on what you count as country. Though they are rightly best recognised as a rock or hard rock band, some of their songs do strongly lean towards 'country'. We're NOT talking "achy breaky heart" 'country & western' here, just 'country' ; a different thing. The hard rock/country cross-over maybe more common these days, (judging from what I heard played on Canadian radio), then when the 'Wolf' were making their songs back in the day ;-j
ELGROOVER 2 years ago
@ELGROOVER You could make a whole country and western album with nothing but Beatles',Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin songs. Keith Richards said that while they were heavily influenced by the likes of Muddy Waters they also listened to people like Hank Williams and Johnny Cash.
zitlight73 1 year ago
@die2no Wow..country..ya gotta be kidding..look at the way they dress..we played thier songs back when I played music and they darn sure were not known for "country" "Born to Be Wild"..a country song? "Magic Carpet Ride", country? C'mon..about as stupid as saying obama has a brain.'
rickinnev 1 year ago
Thanks! Awesome song, awesome album...need I say it, awesome band.
kitcarson80 2 years ago 4