The Pusher

Last updated
"The Pusher"
The Pusher.png
Single by Steppenwolf
from the album Steppenwolf
B-side "Your Wall's Too High"
ReleasedJanuary 1968
Recorded
Genre Hard rock, blues rock, acid rock
Length5:43
Label ABC Dunhill
Songwriter(s) Hoyt Axton
Producer(s) Gabriel Mekler
Steppenwolf singles chronology
"Born to Be Wild"
(1968)
"The Pusher"
(1968)
"Magic Carpet Ride"
(1968)

"The Pusher" is a rock song written by Hoyt Axton in 1963, made popular by the 1969 movie Easy Rider which used Steppenwolf's version to accompany the opening scenes showing drug trafficking.

Contents

The lyrics of the song distinguish between a dealer in drugs such as marijuana—who "will sell you lots of sweet dreams"—and a pusher of hard drugs such as heroin—a "monster" who does not care "if you live or if you die".

Steppenwolf version

The song was made popular when rock band Steppenwolf released the song on their 1968 album Steppenwolf .

Organist Goldy McJohn, who recorded the original Steppenwolf version, said the version that appears on Early Steppenwolf performed by The Sparrows, a predecessor band to Steppenwolf in 1967 at the Matrix came about when singer John Kay and Jerry Edmonton were late for a performance:

Nick and Mars and me started that long version of the Pusher. John and Jerry's flight was late one night at the Avalon Ballroom, so we started and then we perfected it at the "Arc" in Sausalito on New Year's Eve in 1966. [1]

Other versions

Publication

Axton sometimes recalled in his shows how he discovered, many years after "The Pusher" had been a hit, that the song had never been published. He asked his mother, Mae Boren Axton, who ran his publishing company, how it had been missed. His mother told him she had refused to publish it because of the "swearing" in the song. Hoyt told his mother, "Mom, it's a biblical curse! God... Damn the pusher man!" She said, "Oh, now I get it!" and published the song.

References

  1. "Favorite song Jerry sang". GoldyMcJohn.com. Retrieved 2007-12-06.
  2. Kreps, Daniel (2020-03-13). "Deap Lips Drop Colorful Video for Steppenwolf's 'The Pusher' Cover". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2020-12-30.