Steppenwolf – Steppenwolf (1968) [Analogue Productions, Remastered 2013] Audio CD Layer

Steppenwolf have become synonymous with their huge Harley ridin’-hit, “Born to be Wild”, although in reality, their success was far broader, with sales totaling more than 25 million units worldwide. Now their eponymous debut album originally released in 1968 is back and on Hybrid SACD, stunning audiophiles everywhere — courtesy of Analogue Productions!

Their history is littered with a succession of band members, substance abuse issues and several break-ups and reformations, but Steppenwolf endures.

Steppenwolf started life in Canada in the early ’60s as The Sparrows, but did not find fame until they had changed their name and released their rockin’ album debut in 1968. When two tracks, “Born to be Wild” and “The Pusher”, were used in the film “Easy Rider,” the success of the album was assured. It marked the first of five consecutive gold certified albums but after the release of For Ladies Only in 1971, the band split.

They were back together by 1974 and started to release albums again, beginning with 1974’s Slow Flux; but their heyday was past, and this album was to contain their last Top 40 hit, “Straight Shootin’ Woman.” They tried to split after 1975’s Hour of the Wolf but contractual commitments to the record label made them stick it out for 1976’s Skullduggery. Another split followed, and yet another reformation followed that. The band’s last album of new material was Summerdaze released in 1997.

Steppenwolf entered the studio for their recording debut with a lot of confidence – based on a heavy rehearsal schedule before they ever got signed – and it shows on this album, a surprisingly strong debut album from a tight hard rock outfit who was obviously searching for a hook to hang their sound on. The playing is about as loud and powerful as anything being put out by a major record label in 1968, though John Kay’s songwriting needed some development before their in-house repertory would catch up with their sound and musicianship. On this album, the best material came from outside the ranks of the active bandmembers: “Born to Be Wild” by ex-member Mars Bonfire, which became not only a chart-topping high-energy anthem for the counterculture (a status solidified by its use in Dennis Hopper’s movie Easy Rider the following year), but coined the phrase heavy metal, thus giving a genre-specific name to the brand of music that the band played (and which was already manifesting itself in the work of bands like Vanilla Fudge and the just-emerging Led Zeppelin); the Don Covay soul cover “Sookie, Sookie,” which, as a single by the new group, actually got played on some soul stations until they found out that Steppenwolf was white; two superb homages to Chess Records, in the guise of “Berry Rides Again,” written (though “adapted” might be a better word) by Kay based on the work of Chuck Berry, and the Willie Dixon cover “Hoochie Coochie Man”; and Hoyt Axton’s “The Pusher,” an anti-drug song turned into a pounding six-minute tour de force by the band. The rest, apart from the surprisingly lyrical rock ballad “A Girl I Knew,” is by-the-numbers hard rock that lacked much except a framework for their playing; only “The Ostrich” ever comes fully to life among the other originals, but the songs would catch up with the musicianship the next time out.

Review by Bruce Eder, Allmusic.com

Tracklist:

01. Sookie Sookie (3:17)
02. Everybody’s Next One (2:59)
03. Berry Rides Again (2:51)
04. Hoochie Koochie Man (5:15)
05. Born to Be Wild (3:31)
06. Your Wall’s Too High (5:47)
07. Desperation (5:46)
08. The Pusher (5:50)
09. A Girl I Knew (2:41)
10. Take What You Need (3:30)
11. The Ostrich (5:48)

Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016

EAC extraction logfile from 22. July 2017, 15:19

Steppenwolf / Steppenwolf (2013 AP)

Used drive : PLEXTOR CD-R PREMIUM Adapter: 1 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 30
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:Program Files (x86)Exact Audio CopyFLACFLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -6 -e -p -V -T “ARTIST=%artist%” -T “TITLE=%title%” -T “ALBUM=%albumtitle%” -T “DATE=%year%” -T “TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%” -T “GENRE=%genre%” -T “PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%” -T “COMPOSER=%composer%” %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS=”%lyricsfile%”%haslyrics% -T “ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%” -T “DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%” -T “TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%” -T “TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%” -T “COMMENT=%comment%” %source% -o %dest%

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 3:17.02 | 0 | 14776
2 | 3:17.02 | 2:59.14 | 14777 | 28215
3 | 6:16.16 | 2:50.51 | 28216 | 41016
4 | 9:06.67 | 5:14.40 | 41017 | 64606
5 | 14:21.32 | 3:30.72 | 64607 | 80428
6 | 17:52.29 | 5:46.59 | 80429 | 106437
7 | 23:39.13 | 5:46.08 | 106438 | 132395
8 | 29:25.21 | 5:50.36 | 132396 | 158681
9 | 35:15.57 | 2:40.55 | 158682 | 170736
10 | 37:56.37 | 3:30.08 | 170737 | 186494
11 | 41:26.45 | 5:48.32 | 186495 | 212626

Track 1

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Peak level 81.2 %
Extraction speed 8.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC C2B967B3
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Accurately ripped (confidence 23) [0964D7E9] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename C:tmp0_RIPS2 – Everybody’s Next One.wav

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Peak level 85.3 %
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Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC F5D3B9DD
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Accurately ripped (confidence 21) [8B8409C3] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename C:tmp0_RIPS3 – Berry Rides Again.wav

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Peak level 81.1 %
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Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 9B5BC22F
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Accurately ripped (confidence 22) [F265C07D] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename C:tmp0_RIPS4 – Hoochie Koochie Man.wav

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Peak level 81.2 %
Extraction speed 10.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 44496052
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Accurately ripped (confidence 22) [41DBD67F] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename C:tmp0_RIPS5 – Born To Be Wild.wav

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Peak level 81.6 %
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Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC E1D5A785
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Accurately ripped (confidence 22) [E6BED8AB] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 6

Filename C:tmp0_RIPS6 – Your Wall’s Too High.wav

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Peak level 96.4 %
Extraction speed 12.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC A876F965
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Accurately ripped (confidence 22) [A44BE67F] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 7

Filename C:tmp0_RIPS7 – Desperation.wav

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Peak level 78.1 %
Extraction speed 13.1 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC E05AB6B3
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Accurately ripped (confidence 22) [79BA39BE] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 8

Filename C:tmp0_RIPS8 – The Pusher.wav

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Peak level 69.3 %
Extraction speed 13.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 03A8CCE8
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Accurately ripped (confidence 22) [9418C80A] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 9

Filename C:tmp0_RIPS9 – A Girl I Knew.wav

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Peak level 77.2 %
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Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC E4B52BC9
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Accurately ripped (confidence 21) [9F0085B1] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 10

Filename C:tmp0_RIPS10 – Take What You Need.wav

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Peak level 73.3 %
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Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 8C1C62A5
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Accurately ripped (confidence 21) [DA589BC0] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 11

Filename C:tmp0_RIPS11 – The Ostrich.wav

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Peak level 87.0 %
Extraction speed 13.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 0CF50C89
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Accurately ripped (confidence 22) [0494BD8B] (AR v2)
Copy OK

All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6

[CTDB TOCID: BRcMOdi.1n1yXrjuhSeB1SfC.JQ-] found
Submit result: BRcMOdi.1n1yXrjuhSeB1SfC.JQ- has been confirmed
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (19/19) Accurately ripped
2 | (18/19) Accurately ripped
3 | (18/19) Accurately ripped
4 | (18/19) Accurately ripped
5 | (18/19) Accurately ripped
6 | (18/19) Accurately ripped
7 | (18/19) Accurately ripped
8 | (18/19) Accurately ripped
9 | (17/19) Accurately ripped
10 | (17/19) Accurately ripped
11 | (17/19) Accurately ripped

==== Log checksum 17EFAC94F675D2D18A2D037B54FB96E71D3B3CCD65C0C2F7547DE862F067716C ====

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2017-09-25 15:57:31

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Steppenwolf / Steppenwolf
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR13 -1.80 dB -16.73 dB 3:17 01-Sookie Sookie
DR12 -1.37 dB -16.98 dB 2:59 02-Everybody’s Next One
DR13 -1.81 dB -16.92 dB 2:51 03-Berry Rides Again
DR13 -1.80 dB -17.96 dB 5:15 04-Hoochie Koochie Man
DR12 -1.76 dB -16.94 dB 3:31 05-Born to Be Wild
DR13 -0.32 dB -16.55 dB 5:47 06-Your Wall’s Too High
DR12 -2.14 dB -17.00 dB 5:46 07-Desperation
DR12 -3.18 dB -18.73 dB 5:50 08-The Pusher
DR13 -2.25 dB -18.91 dB 2:41 09-A Girl I Knew
DR11 -2.70 dB -15.60 dB 3:30 10-Take What You Need
DR12 -1.20 dB -17.79 dB 5:48 11-The Ostrich
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 11
Official DR value: DR12

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 810 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

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