Veteran Rock Musician Bonds With Barrow, North Slope
By Earl Finkler
For The Arctic Sounder
February 19, 2004
Serving the Northwest Arctic Borough and the North Slope Borough

There are many veteran rockers from the 1960s still around, but folks in Barrow and across the North Slope now know Goldy a little more intimately from a number of morning interviews on KBRW, and from his donations of CD’s and art prints to the station’s membership drives.

Goldy is much more than just another classic rock keyboard player who wore a large Afro during his time with Steppenwolf He is Canadian, and was originally trained in classical music, which some of his peers say gives him a rather unique rock sound.

For example, Chicago blues band member Jim Christopulos said “Goldy deserves much credit for the classic sound of Steppenwolf. The style with which he played the organs, as well as the sound he got out of them at different phases of his career, contributed greatly to the band’s legendary sound. He really was one of those rare players who, upon hearing only four bars of his playing on any album, you could say ‘That’s Goldy McJohn.”

Bob Thomas of Barrow plays the bass guitar in the local band “The Barrow Tones.” He said Goldy’s classical music training is evident in his work. “Steppenwolf was not the typical three-chord rock group of the 1960s, they were much more. And 90 percent of their songs were keyboard-driven --- by Goldy.”

Thomas noted that Goldy has had sporadic work as a musician since he left Steppenwolf, and has even worked recently as a ranger at a golf course in Seattle where he lives with his wife Sonja. “But he’s still a musician, no matter what. Music is uppermost in his life.”

I love hearing Goldy on the radio up here,” said Barrow musician and local band member Henry Gueco. I first heard him and band in the 1960s when I lived in Thailand with my father. Jefferson Airplane was also big over there, but not as big as Steppenwolf. We’d hear Steppenwolf all over the place in Thailand. “I’d love to talk to Goldy on the air, and to meet him in person sometime.”

Kathleen Murphy has moved from Barrow to Anchorage, but she still remembers hearing KBRW interviews with Goldy. “The mornings I would wake up to hear Goldy being interviewed on the radio were special occasions, and I was captivated – which is not easy at 7:30 a.m. I was astounded by the vast amount of knowledge on the 60s and 70s rock era that Goldy had gathered, from both a historical and technical perspective. But mostly I enjoyed Goldy’s unpredictable nature, and how he loved to recite colorful stories of long ago, often forgetting that he was on the radio.”

His stories about rock legends and fellow band members Nick St. Nicholas and John Kay, his struggles after leaving Steppenwolf and the inspirations he drew from Bob Dylan were fascinating and enlightening.” Murphy also noted Goldy’s support of KBRW, including during membership drives when he’d donate his CD’s for premiums. “In November, 2001, I pledged a donation and was lucky enough to receive a copy of “Goldy McJohn and Friends,” and found the collaboration and performance highly entertaining.”

In Goldy’s most recent interview on KBRW, on February 2, 2004, he expressed some frustrations about the lack of work opportunities as a rock performer. But he also shared memories of the technical problems of doing high-quality rock music in the 1960s.

“When the Beatles first came to town and played, you couldn’t hear anything but screaming, regardless of how loud they were playing, because the speakers were not up to par,” Mc John said. And in addition to technical problems, there were often internal disputes within the band, he added, including whether to do the extended opening to the song “Magic Carpet Ride.”

Thomas said “a clash of egos is common in artistic endeavors ---look at the Beach Boys who sued each other. And Steve Miller has had trouble keeping a band together. The list goes on and on. It can be the price a band pays for real creativity.”

After about 25 years of being separated from Steppenwolf, Goldy was invited back to a reunion in Nashville in 1999, and then again in 2002. But then, after he sharply criticized leader John Kay in an interview posted on web sites, Kay said he wanted nothing more to do with McJohn.

“It would be great if they could reunite for a tour and maybe a new CD and include former bass player Nick St. Nicholas who was also fired by Kay,” said Thomas, “but who knows if it will ever happen.”