Circa 1970 some friends and I bought tickets for a Steppenwolf concert in St. Louis.
We couldn't wait to hear "Born To Be Wild", "Magic Carpet Ride", "Rock Me", "It's Never Too Late", "Don't Step On The Grass, Sam", "Monster" etc.
Three Dog Night was the opening act for John Kay & 'The Wolf Pack'.
We were quite aware of this band. They didn't seem to know how to write their own songs.
Yep, it was Steppenwolf that, a bunch of young wanna be 'hippies' from an all-white conservative south St. Louis neighborhood*, came to see.
Steppenwolf had released four albums and Three Dog Night had two LP's on the shelves and had just released "Mama Told Me Not To Come" which had topped the US Pop Singles chart.
Big deal - another cover song.
My crowd were not impressed with bands that didn't write their own material ala The Beatles, The Stones, The Who andSteppenwolf.
Besides, what in the heck was a "Three Dog Night".
Ok - I'll cut to the chase.
Three Dog Night blew us away.
The vocals & harmonies of Hutton, Wells and Negron couldn't have been more in sync and the musicians playing behind them were tighter then my used to be 31" waist pair of blue jeans.
Steppenwolf was a complete let down.
In looking back, perhaps - just perhaps - partial blame must be placed on Gabriel Mekler's shoulder's.
There was just no way in Hades that just four musicians and a vocalist could reproduce the polished recording's of the studio.
But - then again - Mekler had also produced Three Dog Night for Dunhill Records.
Go figure, right.
Don't get me wrong seeing John Kay perfrom live was an absolute delight.
A musical baton of sorts was passed from Steppenwolf and the late sixties to Three Dog Night and the ushering in of the seventies at that concert.
Some 'Steppenwolf' fans might say, me included, that on that warm summer St. Louis day it was colder or hotter than a 3 Dog Night.
I would like to dedicate this shared public comment to the memory and family & friends ofJoe Schermie, Jimmy Greenspoon and Emil Lewandowski aka Cory Wells.
Thanks - you guys were awesome ☺
* I was born & raised here. I left in 1977 for 30 years. The area is much more diverse today.