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((short description|1968 song performed by Steppenwolf))
((About|the song||Pusher (disambiguation)((!))Pusher))
((Refimprove|date=June 2021))
((Infobox song
| name       = The Pusher
| cover      = The Pusher.png
| border     = yes
| type       = single
| artist     = [[Steppenwolf (band)|Steppenwolf]]
| album      = [[Steppenwolf (Steppenwolf album)|Steppenwolf]]
| B-side     = Your Wall's Too High
| released   = January 1968 (album)<br/>March 1970 (single)
| recorded   = ((unbulleted list|Fall 1967|American Recording Co. Studio|<small>([[Calabasas, California|Calabasas]], [[California]], [[United States]])</small>))
| genre      = [[Blues rock]], [[acid rock]]
| length     = ((Duration|m=5|s=43))
| label      = [[ABC Dunhill Records|ABC Dunhill]]
| writer     = [[Hoyt Axton]]
| producer   = Gabriel Mekler
| prev_title = [[Born to Be Wild]]
| prev_year  = 1968
| next_title = [[Magic Carpet Ride (Steppenwolf song)|Magic Carpet Ride]]
| next_year = 1968
))

"'''The Pusher'''" is a [[rock music|rock]] song written by [[Hoyt Axton]], made popular by the 1969 movie ''[[Easy Rider]]'' which used [[Steppenwolf (band)|Steppenwolf]]'s version to accompany the opening scenes showing drug trafficking.

The lyrics of the song distinguish between a ''dealer'' in drugs such as [[marijuana]]—who "will sell you lots of sweet dreams"—and a ''pusher'' of [[hard drugs]] such as [[heroin]]—a "monster" who does not care "if you live or if you die".

==Steppenwolf version==
The song was made popular when rock band [[Steppenwolf (band)|Steppenwolf]] released the song on their 1968 album ''[[Steppenwolf (Steppenwolf album)|Steppenwolf]]''.

Organist Goldy McJohn, who recorded the original Steppenwolf version, said the version that appears on ''[[Early Steppenwolf]]'' performed by [[The Sparrows (band)|The Sparrows]], a predecessor band to Steppenwolf in 1967 at the Matrix came about when singer [[John Kay (musician)|John Kay]] and [[Jerry Edmonton]] were late for a performance:

:[[Nick St. Nicholas|Nick]] and [[Mars Bonfire|Mars]] and me started that long version of the Pusher. John and Jerry's flight was late one night at the Avalon Ballroom, so we started and then we perfected it at the "Arc" in Sausalito on New Year's Eve in 1966.<ref name="Favorite song Jerry sang">
((cite web |url= http://goldymcjohn.proboards25.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=jerry&thread=1190510147&page=2 |title= Favorite song Jerry sang |access-date=2007-12-06 |work= GoldyMcJohn.com))</ref>

==Other versions==
((more citations needed|section|date=August 2020))
* Songwriter [[Hoyt Axton]] did not place "The Pusher" on one of his albums until he included it on his 1971 Capitol LP ''Joy To The World''. His version of the song was originally released in May 1969 on a various-artists mail-order album called ''First Vibration''.((citation needed|date=August 2020))
* [[Nina Simone]] included a soulful version of this song on her 1974 album ''It Is Finished'' and on the RCA "Novus Series 70" titled "Nina Simone ~~ The Blues." Originally recorded June 1971.((citation needed|date=August 2020))
*[[Blind Melon]] released a version of "The Pusher" on their album "Nico", released 1996.
*[[The Flaming Lips]] & [[Deap Vally]]'s collaboration dubbed ''Deap Lips'' released a cover of "The Pusher" on their 2020 self-titled album, ''[[Deap Vally#Discography|Deap Lips]]''. It included slightly different lyrics from the Steppenwolf version.<ref>((Cite magazine|last=Kreps|first=Daniel|date=2020-03-13|title=Deap Lips Drop Colorful Video for Steppenwolf's 'The Pusher' Cover|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/deap-lips-flaming-lips-deap-vally-steppenwolf-the-pusher-video-966852/|access-date=2020-12-30|magazine=Rolling Stone|language=en-US))</ref>
*The song has also been covered by Monkeywrench, Young Flowers, Black League, The Substitutes, [[UFO (band)|UFO]], [[Helix (band)|Helix]], Negative Space, Emerson Parris, and Gideon Smith, The Dixie Damned, and Left Lane Cruiser. 
*The band [[Cowboy Mouth]] covered "The Pusher" on the 1998 movie Soundtrack for the movie ''[[Half Baked]]''.

==Publication==

Axton sometimes recalled in his shows how he discovered, many years after "The Pusher" had been a hit, that the song had never been published. He asked his mother, [[Mae Boren Axton]], who ran his publishing company, how it had been missed. His mother told him she had refused to publish it because of the "swearing" in the song. Hoyt told his mother, "Mom, it's a biblical curse! God... Damn the pusher man!" She said, "Oh, now I get it!" and published the song.

==References==
((Reflist))

==External links==
*[http://www.steppenwolf.com/lyr/thpshrr.html Lyrics from www.steppenwolf.com]

((Steppenwolf))
((Authority control))

((DEFAULTSORT:Pusher, The))
[[Category:1968 songs]]
[[Category:Steppenwolf (band) songs]]
[[Category:Nina Simone songs]]
[[Category:Hoyt Axton songs]]
[[Category:Songs written by Hoyt Axton]]
[[Category:Songs about cannabis]]
[[Category:Dunhill Records singles]]
[[Category:ABC Records singles]]

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