Steppenwolf is the first studio album by American rock band Steppenwolf, released in January 1968 on ABC Dunhill Records. The album was a successful debut for the band, featuring the songs “Born to Be Wild”, as well as “The Pusher”, both of which were used in the 1969 film Easy Rider. “Berry Rides Again” is a tribute to guitarist Chuck Berry. The spelling of track #4 on the vinyl is “Hootchie Kootchie Man”. (More from Wikipedia)
“Rollin’ Stone” by Muddy Waters is a bridge from the raw blues of Robert Johnson directly to rock and roll; while it is basically a straight blues song, there are startling changes in the beat and cadences over the course of “Rollin’ Stone”. Within the blues world, it is a direct antecedent to Muddy Waters’ 1954 recording of the Willie Dixon song “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man” (Steppenwolf included “Hoochie Coochie Man” on their 1968 debut album Steppenwolf, among numerous other covers by various rock musicians), Bo Diddley’s “I’m a Man” (1955), and Waters’ answer “Mannish Boy” (also in 1955). I suppose that Bo and Muddy had a pretty good rivalry going back then, but on several occasions, I saw a performance of “I’m a Man” by Muddy Waters in later life on a series of films on TV called Living Legends of the Blues – that rendition even leaves the cover of “I’m a Man” by the Yardbirds in the dust.
