The Story Behind Steppenwolf’s ‘Magic Carpet Ride’
John Kay and Michael Monarch discuss the origins of 1968’s ‘Magic Carpet Ride’
Released in September 1968, Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride” became one of rock’s first songs to open with an extended passage of guitar distortion. The eerie prologue lasts 20 seconds and includes chugging electronic tones before dissolving into the song’s rhythmic power chords and blues-rock vocal.
Though the song came out a year after Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxey Lady” with its shorter guitar distortion intro, “Magic Carpet Ride’s” thick guitar riff set the tone for hard rock and heavy metal bands that followed in 1969 and ’70. The single reached No. 3 on Billboard’s pop chart.
Today, John Kay, the band’s lead singer and the song’s co-writer, performs as John Kay and Steppenwolf to fund the Maue Kay Foundation, which supports wildlife protection and conservation. Mr. Kay, 72, and the recording’s lead guitarist Michael Monarch, 66, recently talked about the song’s evolution. Edited from interviews:
Released in September 1968, Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride” became one of rock’s first songs to open with an extended passage of guitar distortion. The eerie prologue lasts 20 seconds and includes chugging electronic tones before dissolving into the song’s rhythmic power chords and blues-rock vocal.
Though the song came out a year after Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxey Lady” with its shorter guitar distortion intro, “Magic Carpet Ride’s” thick guitar riff set the tone for hard rock and heavy metal bands that followed in 1969 and ’70. The single reached No. 3 on Billboard’s pop chart.
Today, John Kay, the band’s lead singer and the song’s co-writer, performs as John Kay and Steppenwolf to fund the Maue Kay Foundation, which supports wildlife protection and conservation. Mr. Kay, 72, and the recording’s lead guitarist Michael Monarch, 66, recently talked about the song’s evolution. Edited from interviews:
John Kay: In 1948, when I was 4, my mother and I escaped from East Germany. We eventually made our way to Toronto in 1958, where I listened to rock ’n’ roll on the radio and began playing guitar. When I was 20, I moved to Los Angeles, and from 1964 to ’65 played folk-blues guitar at coffee houses. I played my way back to Toronto in 1965 and joined a rock group called the Sparrows.
In early ‘66, the Sparrows left for New York and spent the spring playing there. We got our chops together, but none of it was really going anywhere. Then we moved to Los Angeles before heading to San Francisco in the fall.
One night, after an argument with a club owner there, the Sparrows broke up. At this point, my Toronto girlfriend Jutta received her U.S. immigration visa and joined me in L.A. We moved into a tiny apartment above a garage at 7408 Fountain Ave. Our organist Goldy McJohn and drummer Jerry Edmonton moved into a place a few minutes away. The three of us were trying to figure out our next move.
Then a girlfriend of Jutta’s from Toronto moved in next door with her new husband, Gabriel Mekler, who happened to be a producer at ABC/Dunhill Records. Gabriel urged me to contact Goldy and Jerry and to get a bass player and lead guitarist from local sources. He said if I did, Dunhill would likely pay for some demos.
Goldy and Jerry were all for re-forming. I called Michael Monarch, the 17-year-old guitarist who had sat in with us at clubs on the Sunset Strip. He came aboard.
Released in September 1968, Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride” became one of rock’s first songs to open with an extended passage of guitar distortion. The eerie prologue lasts 20 seconds and includes chugging electronic tones before dissolving into the song’s rhythmic power chords and blues-rock vocal.
Though the song came out a year after Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxey Lady” with its shorter guitar distortion intro, “Magic Carpet Ride’s” thick guitar riff set the tone for hard rock and heavy metal bands that followed in 1969 and ’70. The single reached No. 3 on Billboard’s pop chart.
Today, John Kay, the band’s lead singer and the song’s co-writer, performs as John Kay and Steppenwolf to fund the Maue Kay Foundation, which supports wildlife protection and conservation. Mr. Kay, 72, and the recording’s lead guitarist Michael Monarch, 66, recently talked about the song’s evolution. Edited from interviews:
John Kay: In 1948, when I was 4, my mother and I escaped from East Germany. We eventually made our way to Toronto in 1958, where I listened to rock ’n’ roll on the radio and began playing guitar. When I was 20, I moved to Los Angeles, and from 1964 to ’65 played folk-blues guitar at coffee houses. I played my way back to Toronto in 1965 and joined a rock group called the Sparrows.
In early ‘66, the Sparrows left for New York and spent the spring playing there. We got our chops together, but none of it was really going anywhere. Then we moved to Los Angeles before heading to San Francisco in the fall.
One night, after an argument with a club owner there, the Sparrows broke up. At this point, my Toronto girlfriend Jutta received her U.S. immigration visa and joined me in L.A. We moved into a tiny apartment above a garage at 7408 Fountain Ave. Our organist Goldy McJohn and drummer Jerry Edmonton moved into a place a few minutes away. The three of us were trying to figure out our next move.
Then a girlfriend of Jutta’s from Toronto moved in next door with her new husband, Gabriel Mekler, who happened to be a producer at ABC/Dunhill Records. Gabriel urged me to contact Goldy and Jerry and to get a bass player and lead guitarist from local sources. He said if I did, Dunhill would likely pay for some demos.
Goldy and Jerry were all for re-forming. I called Michael Monarch, the 17-year-old guitarist who had sat in with us at clubs on the Sunset Strip. He came aboard.
For a bassist, we posted a notice on a bulletin board at a record store. Rushton Moreve responded. He looked like a hippie, but he was a natural-born bass player. He understood instinctively the concept of grooves and melodic content, not just droning away on the root note of a chord.
We started rehearsing in the garage below my apartment. Every so often, Gabriel would stick his head in to give us input. At some point, Gabriel said we were ready to cut the demos. So we went into a studio and cut everything on a two-track recorder.
At the end of the session, a guy in the booth asked us the band’s name. Gabriel told me he had just read Herman Hesse’s “Steppenwolf,” which was popular on college campuses. Gabriel said he liked the sound of the title, so we told the guy “Steppenwolf.”
[Read entire article: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-story-behind-steppenwolfs-magic-carpet-ride-1468347778]