20th Century Masters: The Best Of Steppenwolf (Millennium Collection)
Steppenwolf earned its place in the rock pantheon thanks to "Born to Be Wild," the deathless classic immortalized in the 1969 counterculture flickEasy Rider. But there was more to John Kay & Co. than a theme song for motorcycle rallies. Steppenwolf also offered social commentary in the form of "Snowblind Friend" and "The Pusher," prime psychedelia ("Magic Carpet Ride"), and plenty of good-time hard rock ("Hey Lawdy Mama," "Rock Me"). In some ways, they were the thinking person's hard rock band (a specialty niche, to be sure, with Kay's band taking their name, after all, from a Hermann Hesse novel). Alas, like so many examples of MCA's 20th Century Masters collection, this Steppenwolf set contains some fine music, but is inferior to a previous package--1999'sAll-Time Greatest Hits, which offers many more tracks for just a couple more bucks.--Daniel Durchholz