Label: Universal Music (Japan), UICY-75561
Style: Rock, Classic Rock
Country: Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Time: 57:39
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 343 Mb
Steppenwolf
is like the football club that always wins more than it loses, and
perennially finishes second or third in its conference -- something like
Purdue. Sound in the skills but hardly ever brilliant. Always in
contention, but never the champ.
Steppenwolf does have a gifted
quarterback in John Kay, whose voice has always seemed to me to be the
growl of the archetypal lead singer. Kay normally writes or cowrites
most of the songs; he also directs the group in most of its
undertakings. Ironically, it is Kay, Steppenwolf's strongest component,
who has most often underlined the group's effectiveness as an
unsophisticated but hard-driving rock & roll band. He's never
statisfied with a more collection of good rock tunes -- he has to tie
them together under some over-all theme. Kay has always been a bit too
ambitious for his own good -- or the good of Steppenwolf as a whole.
That is what derailed a seemingly unstoppable Steppenwolf after two fine
straightforward albums in the form of an abominable pseudo-concept
album called Birthday Party. And it was ambition that caused Steppenwolf
to exploit the political cliche in Monster.
Well, it's happened
again. This time, however, the other four group members are equally
responsible, having shared the songwriting duties democratically with
the boss. After making a heartening comeback with a surprisingly
powerful live album and a spotty but much improved studio recording
(Steppenwolf 7), they've decided once again to sacrifice rock & roll
relevance on For Ladies Only. It's another critical setback, made even
sadder by the inclusion of a couple of great stinging rock songs, one of
which ranks with Steppenwolf's early best.
Good Steppenwolf is
usually short Steppenwolf: this is an excellent singles band when it
wants to be. Bad Steppenwolf is interminable: when this group makes one
of its "major statements," a 15-minute album side can seem endless. So
it follows that the monumental moments on For Ladies Only -- Mars
Bonfire's "Ride with Me" and "Sparkle Eyes," by Kay and George Biondo --
move swiftly, while the bad parts -- the title song and the cruddy
"Jaded Strumpet" -- hang in there tenaciously. "Ride with Me" is the
ultimate mythic biker-as-buccaneer anthem. It's ironic that Steppenwolf,
whose memorable work is romantically reactionary (Kay's publisher is
Black Leather Music), should make an album about the oppression of
women. But never fear, Steppenwolf fans -- the boys do it in a
gloriously reactionary way.
After listening to the album, I'm still
not certain whether the fellows are for or against, but the songs within
do little to dispel that feeling of steaming hostility toward women. I
must admit that I find myself without the burning desire to find out
where Steppenwolf stands in regard to women's liberation: the music
accompanying the group's politics isn't much more exciting than the
tired issues discussed in the lyrics. In the title song, for example, a
passable rocker is interrupted by a piano section that tries valiantly
for a "Layla"-like effect, but adds little to the song itself (except
for duration -- the piano bridge is longer than the song it surrounds,
blowing it up past nine minutes altogether). In Bonfire's "Tenderness,"
Kay attempts, not without some success, to sound like a country singer,
but there's little else notable about it. The group even does an
instrumental, "Black Pit," that is nothing of the sort -- somebody plays
vibes on it. "Jaded Strumpet" would be offensive if it weren't so dull,
and that's worse.
(superseventies.com/spsteppenwolf2.html)
01. For Ladies Only (09:15)
02. I'm Asking (04:27)
03. Shackles And Chains (04:59)
04. Tendermess (04:54)
05. The Night Time's For You (02:58)
06. Jaded Strumpet (04:43)
07. Sparkle Eyes (04:31)
08. Black Pit (03:48)
09. Ride With Me (03:25)
10. In Hopes Of A Garden (02:14)
11. For Madmen Only / Bonus Track (08:49)
12. For Ladies Only (Single Version) / Bonus Track (03:31)
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