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Nick St. Nicholas

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Nick St. Nicholas

Nick St. Nicholas (born Klaus Karl Kassbaum September 28, 1943, in Plön, Germany) is a bassist, and is best known for his membership in Steppenwolf from 1968 to 1970, and then again from 1976 to 1980. After World War II, his family moved to Toronto and became Canadian citizens. Sister Maren joined the Canadian Ballet Company & Conservatory of Music as pianist. He also has a younger brother, Gary who went into the Merchant Marine.

Early career

Nick spent a brief period as bassist with the Epics, then Shirley Matthews and the Big Town Boys before joining a set of musicians who eventually coalesced as the Mynah Birds, featuring singers Rick James and Jimmy Livingston. In 1965, he replaced Bruce Palmer as bassist with Jack London and the Sparrows, and played on most of the tracks on their only LP, which was released in 1965. In the space of the next year or so, the group lost Jack London and became the Sparrows. Nick then added new German-born frontman John Kay and became The Sparrow, and moved south to New York, then Nick drove them non-stop to California.

Steppenwolf

In 1967, The Sparrow folded and St. Nicholas joined a Los Angeles-based group called The Hardtimes, who soon renamed themselves T.I.M.E., which supposedly stood for Trust In Men Everywhere. After only one album, St. Nicholas left T.I.M.E. and rejoined his former Sparrow bandmates (vocalist/guitarist John Kay, drummer Jerry Edmonton and organist Goldy McJohn), by replacing original bassist Rushton Moreve in Steppenwolf at the height of the band's popularity.

St. Nicholas has several Gold and Platinum records to his credit playing and contributing on four Steppenwolf albums: At Your Birthday Party, Early Steppenwolf, Monster, and Live. He appears in many of the band's early videos including an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. St. Nicholas left Steppenwolf in 1970 and was replaced by new bassist George Biondo.

In her autobiography .[1] Groupie Pamela Des Barres credits St. Nicholas with relieving her of her virginity.

Although John Kay's autobiography, Magic Carpet Ride largely attributes St. Nicholas' firing to sneaking on stage in nothing but bunny ears and a jockstrap at a 1970 show at the Fillmore East, according to Steppenwolf keyboardist Goldy McJohn, St. Nicholas was dismissed for a number of reasons:

The fuehrer (Kay) fired him [for] wearing dresses in Steppenwolf with that bleached blonde hair, being out of tune at gigs ... lots of reasons. I liked the bunny ears, but John made such a stink about it at the Fillmore East, you'd think he was in charge. Everyone else was on acid in the audience and this great big guy got up and told Kay to let Nick tune up and everybody cheered. Stealing John Kay's limelight has and always will be his modus operandi, in other words.[2]

During St. Nicholas' hiatus from Steppenwolf, he replaced Dickie Peterson in Blue Cheer alongside Ruben De Fuentes on guitar and Terry Rae on drums. The band both toured and recorded during this time, but the songs weren't released until Live & Unreleased '68/'74 was released in 1996.

After Kay and Edmonton's version of Steppenwolf disbanded in 1976, St. Nicholas reformed the group with McJohn and guitarist Kent Henry, who had recorded the guitar tracks on the For Ladies Only album in 1971. There were several versions of this band touring at the same time for which St. Nicholas was not responsible. During this turn, St. Nicholas' Steppenwolf included drummers such as Steve Riley and Frankie Banali. St. Nicholas stopped touring with Steppenwolf when his lease on the band's name expired in 1980.

Post-Steppenwolf

After St. Nicholas' second tour with Steppenwolf ended, he formed a band called "Starwolf" in 1980 with keyboardist Steve Stewart. Stewart left in the late 1980s to be replaced by Randy Carr about the same time guitarist Dave Olsen joined the band. At this point, "Starwolf" became "Lone Wolf". In 1988, Kurt Griffey was added as a second guitarist and Chris Sweeney joined as the band's drummer. After "Lone Wolf" became "The Wolf", Sweeney was replaced by Ronnie Carson and Olsen was fired, leading to the band's dissolution in 1989. In the early 1990s, St. Nicholas formed a new "Lone Wolf" with Griffey, singer Richard Ward, and drummer Daryl Johnson, which played bike rallies and clubs. In 1997, the band split as St. Nicholas launched the supergroup World Classic Rockers, bringing Griffey with him into the new venture along with former Steppenwolf bandmate Michael Monarch. St. Nicholas has two sons, Jesse and Devin.

World Classic Rockers

World Classic Rockers (website) is a supergroup formed in 1997. Members include former members of Steppenwolf, Santana, Toto, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Boston and others.

Studio albums

Live albums

  • Early Steppenwolf
    1969 (recorded in 1967 as The Sparrow)
    U.S. #29
    Dunhill Records
  • Steppenwolf Live
    1970
    U.S. #7
    U.K. #16
    Gold
    Dunhill Records
  • World Classic Rockers: Live (1st edition)
    WCR Records
  • World Classic Rockers: Live (2nd edition)
    WCR Records
  • World Classic Rockers: Live (3rd edition)
    WCR Records
  • World Classic Rockers: Live (4th edition)
    WCR Records
  • World Classic Rockers: Live (5th edition)
    WCR Records
  • World Classic Rockers: Live (6th edition)
    WCR Records

Compilations

Singles

Release date A-side B-side US Chart Peak UK Chart Peak
1968 "Make It Alright "Take Me Along"
"What Would Life Be Without It" "Tripping Into Sunshine"
1969 "Rock Me" (Kay) "Jupiter Child" (Monarch/Kay/Edmonton) 10
"It's Never Too Late" (St. Nicholas/Kay) "Happy Birthday" (Mekler) 51
"Move Over" (Kay/Mekler) "Power Play" (Kay) 31
"Monster" (Kay/Edmonton/St. Nicholas/Byrom) "Berry Rides Again" (Kay) 39
1970 "Hey Lawdy Mama" (Kay/Byrom/Edmonton) "Twisted" (Kay) 35


Preceded by Steppenwolf Bass Guitarist
1969-1970 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Steppenwolf Bass Guitarist
1976-1980 		Succeeded by

References

  1. ^ "I'm With the Band",Pamela DesBarres
  2. ^ "Nick's outster and the bunny ears" (HTML). GoldyMcJohn.com. Retrieved 2007-12-04.
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