Mars Bonfire ● Faster Than the Speed of Life

I wish I were Mars Bonfire. I’d have a really cool name, of course, and I’d be collecting songwriting royalties on “Born to Be Wild,” a song I wrote for Steppenwolf. Oh, and some oddball would be reviewing the cd reissue of my one and only solo album on his blog. Faster Than the Speed of Life, a late ‘60s slice of organ-heavy pop/rock, first appeared as a self-titled project in 1968 on UNI Records (the album was re-titled, repackaged and reissued a year later by Columbia). It’s a relaxed affair, a far more laid-back effort than one might expect from someone with connections to the Steppenwolf name. Understand, for example, that Bonfire’s own version of “Born to Be Wild”—complete with acoustic guitars(!)—is hardly reminiscent of the hard-hitting heavy metal version that appears in Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider. So it goes—lightweight fare with nary a hint of the era’s psychedelic heaviness. “Sad Eyes” sounds a bit like the Association, for example, and “How Much Older Will We Grow?” conjures up images of the Beatles (I probably don’t need to remind you that neither of these bands qualifies as a hard rock ensemble). Ultimately, Faster Than the Speed of Life is best described as easy listening for the biker set. Go figure.

Notes: Bonfire’s real name is Dennis Eugene McCrohan, which he initially changed to Dennis Edmonton. His brother, Jerry, was the drummer for Steppenwolf until 1976.