Krokus Singer on Recording 'Born to Be Wild'
Saturday, June 5, 2010 at 12:01AM Krokus recently released a fantastic new album called Hoodoo. On that album, they cover the Steppenwolf classic "Born to Be Wild." I asked Krokus singer Marc Storace why the band chose to do the cover.
"It's a song that takes us back to our teenage days when we had hair down to our waists or our hippie beads and listen to the Woodstock double album record," Storace recalls to Bring Back Glam! "And from Country Joe and the Fish to Jimi Hendrix and Joe Cocker and Steppenwolf. So it was something from way back and something which is like a part of our backbones, a part of our rock culture. And the lyrics obviously very fitting: "Born to be Wild." And it's also partly a dedication to so many bikers who are Krokus fans and we thought, 'Well it's been covered by X thousands of bands maybe, but hell, we have a right to cover it too!'"
In the end, it was more special connection than anything else. Krokus played "Born to Be Wild" at their Swiss reunion show a couple years back. The rest is history.
Continues Storace, "It was the magical concert which ended with the song, 'Born to be Wild' and our fans really dug it, you know. Everybody really got turned on by it. And we played it the following year at the next the big concert. And it really hit the jackpot. So we thought, 'Well, this is a Krokus song as good as 'American Woman' or 'Stay Awake All Night' or the other covers that we did, [like] 'Ballroom Blitz' or 'You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet.' Let's Krokusize it too and put it on the album. And there it is. It's got a different riff, kind of more energized and beefed up; Fernando [von Arb, guitarist] did a great job on that. And we created a new middle part. And actually that turns into a big sing-a-long in the live shows. And we have a nice climax finale where I hit the highest note -- one of the highest notes in the show. And then bang! The show is over and the kids leave with a good memory."
Read more of my interview with Marc Storace soon on Noisecreep.
Reader Comments (2)
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