Steppenwolf – "Born To Be Wild" (1968)

I like smoke and lightnin’

Heavy metal thunder!

A couple of years ago, I told you about teaching the following lyrics from the Spiral Staircase’s 1969 hit, “More Today Than Yesterday,” to my oldest grandson, Jack – who was not quite three years old at the time:

I love you more today than yesterday

But not as much as tomorrow

I was surprised when my daughter sent me a video of Jack singing those lines to his little brother Hunter a few days later:

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Jack has picked up the lyrics to several other sixties pop hits from me since then – including Spanky and Our Gang’s “Lazy Day”:

Baby, you and me 

And the honey bee 

Lazy day, lazy day

But the song that he really latched on to is Steppenwolf’s stick-of-dynamite classic, “Born To Be Wild.”

What can I say?  The kid has good taste!

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Last night, Jack and Hunter were at my house for dinner and a bath.

When I heard Jack singing “Born To Be Wild” while playing with his toy cars, I called him into my home office so we could watch a Youtube video that featured the song accompanied by Easy Rider footage of Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholson riding motorcycles.

Today I got this message from my daughter (Jack’s mother):

Jack said he taught his whole [daycare] class the “Born To Be Wild” song today!  He told [his wonderful Polish-American daycare provider] what it was called so she could type it into her computer, and then they found the video with the motorcycles.  She had never heard the song.  Jack  said the whole class loved it, especially Mack. 

Jack – who will turn five in July – is the oldest child in his daycare group.  Mack is about a year younger.  There are two girls about Mack’s age, then Jack’s brother Hunter (who is two and a half) and a couple of younger kids.

I believe that Mack loved “Born To Be Wild” – Jack is a Pied Piperish figure for Mack – but I doubt that the youngest kids (at least one of them isn’t old enough to walk yet) were really into it.

Here’s Jack singing “Born To Be Wild” while playing in his basement: 

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Click here to see the Youtube video that I showed Jack, and that he had his daycare provider play for all his little friends.

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon: