Easy Rider – SOUNDTRACK****

The Pusher/Born To Be Wild/The Weight/Wasn’t Born To Follow/If You Want To Be A Bird/Don’t Bogart Me/If Six Was Nine/Kyrie Eleison Mardi Gras/Its Alright Ma(I’m Only Bleeding)/Ballad Of Easy Rider

Easy Rider was an iconic film exploring the conflict between hippie idealism and mainstream straight society. Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper played the two bikers crossing America. The soundtrack includes some of the best known rock acts of the period. (US:6 UK:2)

“Part of the charm of the record is that it doesn't only have the heavyweights (Hendrix, Byrds, Steppenwolf), but it has the novelty songs that bring up memories of specific scenes in the film. If You Want To Be A Bird has little value out of context, but here it makes me smile with visions of the corresponding scene.”

“These songs fit perfectly the image and pictures of the movie. The movie without its songs and the songs without the movie are not what they are in this partnership. It's the soundtrack for all bikers and the soundtrack for a generation.”

“The juxtaposition between the easygoing and the more earnest songs is telling. Trying to act free and childlike, while simultaneously looking for respect is a difficult balance. The fact that America itself seemed to be going through an adolescent rebellious phase at the same time, has made both the film and soundtrack both dated and timeless.”

“As with the movie, the music was fresh and clean with some surprises and some old favourites to tie it all together. The music and the movie united members of the counter culture from across the country and new people into the fold.”

“It’s always struck me as how homogeneous the songs were, they all worked so well together despite the vast differences in musical styles, say Jim Hendrix compared to The Electric Prunes, or the beauty of The Ballad Of Easy Rider compared to If You Want To Be A Bird. These contradictions, similarities, intermixing of style and place were just as evident in the movie, making this one of the most important soundtracks of its day.”

“The soundtrack album is something of an innovation as it was among the first to feature artists as opposed to specifically written orchestral works. The music was as diverse and unexpected as the country they were travelling through.”