"Born to Be Wild" | ||||
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Single by Steppenwolf | ||||
from the album Steppenwolf | ||||
B-side | "Everybody's Next One" | |||
Released | May 9, 1968 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length |
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Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | Mars Bonfire | |||
Producer(s) | Gabriel Mekler | |||
Steppenwolf singles chronology | ||||
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Official audio | ||||
"Born To Be Wild" on YouTube |
"Born to Be Wild" is a song written by Mars Bonfire and first performed by the band Steppenwolf. Although the lyrics do not specifically mention motorcycles, the song is often invoked in both popular and counter culture to denote a biker appearance or attitude since being featured in the 1969 film Easy Rider. Sometimes, "Born to Be Wild" is described as the first heavy metal song, and the second-verse lyric "heavy metal thunder" marks the first use of this term in rock music (although not as a description of a musical style but rather a motorcycle).[5][6]
Steppenwolf's 'Born To Be Wild', a gritty, hard-rock song that quickly became an anthem for defiant individualism.
The brilliant soundtrack, including the Byrds' 'Wasn't Born to Follow', Steppenwolf's proto-metal 'Born to be Wild', and Jimi Hendrix's 'If Six Was Nine', helped to set the film in a kind of outlaw-rock'n'roll context.