Can still remember sitting in one of my friend’s room listening to this when the album came out, we had to listen to it low.
In 68′ we were 11-years old wishing we were older and out in San Fran Haight/Ashbury with the real hippies. We turned into the latter ones in 70/71′.
Unfortunately later down the road from our teens into her 20s and beyond drugs consumed that friend and she disappeared. The song honestly does ring truth. It was only meant to be an early to mid teen blast that would become apart of the past, not ones entire life.
What started out as a fantasy trip turned out a nightmare for many.
Kathy slipped away from everybody….
You know, I’ve seen a lot of people walkin’ ’round – With tombstones in their eyes…..
No matter what came after this debut album of this Canadian band, in my mind nothing could ever touch the magic of this one. How could it be with “Born To Be Wild” as your introduction. Hard to improve on what turned out to be legendary.
Written by Hoyt Axton
Released off their self entitled 1st album 1968
John Kay – lead vocals, guitar
Rushton Moreve – bass
Michael Monarch – guitar
Goldy McJohn – hammond organ, piano, electric piano
Jerry Edmonton – drums
Longshot's Blog 
This song epitomized drug use in the day. We all hated The Pusher man. John Kay’s angry vocal says it all.
UFO had left the stage, and Tiny had fired up a few joints and began passing them around as a prelude to Steppenwolf. Smoky streams of green trails continued to crisscross the upper atmosphere even as the emcee announced the next act.
The announcer gave a rousing tribute to John Kay and his band. As he walked off, Steppenwolf amassed in unison and began a short instrumental as a overture to John Kay’s appearance. When the lead vocalist took the stage, the image was impressive—he was adorned in a silver leatherette spacesuit complete with helmet, like a biker on Mars. It rocked!
Especially when he sang the opening verses “heading out on the highway….” damn this moved the crowd. The band and Kay carried their sound out into the cosmos in masterful style and when the reverberations to “Magic Carpet Ride”, Kay and group showed their command of psychedelic flight beyond mere mind. Kay’s physical moves were akin to riding in space magic, along with every movement of his arms and body. I imaged a planet of space motor-cycles that floated in air.
It was at this junction that I began to feel extremely light, and lighter with “Sookie Sookie”, followed by “Pusher”, …However, as the beautiful rhythm of “Monster” had me and my friends, along with the rest of the crowd, reaching for the essence of this inner penetrating sound, my body once again began floating.
~Steppenwolf w UFO at San Bernadino, California 1974/5ish
Excerpt from; “The Incredible Adventures of Mischa”