Steppenwolf
Mars Bonfire wrote "Born to Be Wild" alone in his apartment, inspired by his Ford Falcon and a violent thunderstorm in the San Bernardino mountains. He pitched the demo to three or four publishers before Steppenwolf ever heard it, and nobody showed interest. Jerry Edmonton received the cassette when Bonfire slipped it through the mail slot of the front door. The band worried for a moment that their Great Dane might have gotten to it first. The phrase "heavy metal thunder" came to Bonfire while recalling the periodic table during the storm. Music historians later credited it as helping to popularize "heavy metal" as a genre name. Easy Rider gave the song its global reach in 1969.
In our deep dive into Born to Be Wild, we trace the song from a thunderstorm in the San Bernardino mountains to the film placement that changed everything, and what it reveals about a songwriter who accidentally named a genre.
