Born to Be Wild

Another remembering post. This was written one year after my husband died and my cat Sid and I were just getting used to being alone together. 

“Born to Be Wild” by  Steppenwolf is one of the most popular and still liked songs today. It was released as a single in 1968 and can be said to refer to the motorcycle culture. Sometimes it is referred to as the first heavy metal song and in its second verse the lyric “heavy metal thunder” was the first time this kind of terminology was used in rock and roll music. The song was actually written by Mars Bonfire as a ballad but Steppenwolf sped it up and rearranged it. It soon became a radio classic. The song has taken its prominent place on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in a new category for singles.

The reason I have chosen this song to discuss today is that I have my own wild creature at home my dear cat Sid. It all began with a windy and very loud thunderstorm when Sid dashed about like a madman. He then calmed down and since it will soon come to the first anniversary of his Papa’s/my late husband’s death we have been visited several nights in a row. Cats are very sensitive to the world beyond and can see what we cannot. Roundabout 11:00 PM for some nights in a row he suddenly sits up in the window and his eyes get huge. He stares somewhere over my shoulder toward the door as I sit at my PC. At least twice I have felt a cold draft around me and round my legs.  It is a hard time for us both and the wild one feels it the most.