Easy Rider [Music from the Soundtrack]

by EASY RIDER

Overview

Easy Rider was the surprise box-office hit of the summer of 1969, a low-budget film about a couple of hippies who use their profits from a drug deal to drive their motorcycles across the Southwest and attend New Orleans' Mardi Gras celebrations, encountering adventures and tragedy along the way. It turned out to be a telling portrait of America's cultural divide in the late '60s, and no small part of its impact was the soundtrack music, which eschewed a traditional score (the filmmakers couldn't have afforded that, anyway) in favor of rock music. Even then, director Dennis Hopper didn't have much special music written, instead mostly using songs he'd heard on the radio in 1968 while he was editing the film. (In the liner notes to the 2000 CD reissue, Hopper claims that he canceled a proposed Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young score when he became enamored with his own selections; other accounts claim the film studio insisted on the music used in the rough cut.) So, the film's music consisted of such 1968 rock radio favorites as Steppenwolf's "The Pusher" and "Born to Be Wild," the Band's "The Weight," the Byrds' "Wasn't Born to Follow," and the Jimi Hendrix Experience's "If Six Was Nine," with such humorous changes of pace as the Holy Modal Rounders' cosmic folk song "If You Want to Be a Bird" and Fraternity of Man's marijuana-smoking behavior guide "Don't Bogart Me." Hopper had little trouble persuading various record labels to grant the screen rights to these songs at a time when re-used rock wasn't heard much in movies. Roger McGuinn, making his solo performing debut, contributed new recordings of Bob Dylan's "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" and his own specially written "Ballad of Easy Rider," actually co-written with Dylan, who was not credited. When Easy Rider became a successful film upon release, a decision was made to release a soundtrack album, and most labels agreed to license their tracks to Dunhill/ABC. Only Capitol Records held out, so the Band's version of "The Weight" was replaced by a near-copy recorded by Dunhill act Smith. The soundtrack album also featured some dialogue and sound effects from the film. The result was a commercial bonanza: The album reached the Top Ten and went gold, becoming the second most successful soundtrack LP of the year, after the Nino Rota score to Romeo and Juliet. Just as the film transformed values in Hollywood, the soundtrack album helped give birth to a new business in which soundtrack albums became collections of various pop songs that sometimes out-grossed the films with which they were associated. Its very success ironically doomed the availability of the Easy Rider soundtrack album, however. By the CD era, the various labels that controlled the songs were no longer happy to license their material, and the album went out of print, although a CD was issued overseas in 1993. Finally, on June 13, 2000, MCA managed to bring the Easy Rider soundtrack album back into print in the U.S. Thirty-one years later, it still sounded like a good thematic collection, reflecting the film's values of drug use and open-road freedom. Songs like "Born to Be Wild" and "The Weight" had long-since been enshrined as rock classics, and the lighter material continued to amuse, confirming Easy Rider as both a historical document and an entertaining listen, especially to those who knew the film. ~ William Ruhlmann

Product Details

Release Date:	06/13/2000
Label:	Geffen / Mca
UPC:	0008811915322
Rank:	35218

Tracks

1. Pusher  - Hoyt Axton  -  Steppenwolf
2. Born to Be Wild  - Mars Bonfire  -  Steppenwolf
3. Weight  - Robbie Robertson  -  Smith
4. Wasn't Born to Follow  -  Byrds  - Gerry Goffin  - Carole King
5. If You Want to Be a Bird  - Antonia Duren  -  Holy Modal Rounders
6. Don't Bogart Me  -  Fraternity of Man  - Elliot Ingber
7. If 6 Was 9  - Jimi Hendrix  -  Hendrix
8. Kyrie Eleison/Mardi Gras (When the Saints)  - David Axelrod  -  Electric Prunes
9. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)  - Bob Dylan  - Roger McGuinn
10. Ballad of Easy Rider  - Roger McGuinn

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Young Rascals   Primary Artist
Jefferson Airplane   Primary Artist
The Band   Primary Artist
Smith   Primary Artist
The Chambers Brothers   Primary Artist
Blue Cheer   Primary Artist
The Holy Modal Rounders   Primary Artist
The Jimi Hendrix Experience   Primary Artist
The Electric Prunes   Primary Artist
Joe Cocker   Primary Artist
The Sir Douglas Quintet   Primary Artist
Richie Havens   Primary Artist
Procol Harum   Primary Artist
The Moody Blues   Primary Artist
The Seeds   Primary Artist
The Who   Primary Artist
Thunderclap Newman   Primary Artist
The Byrds   Primary Artist
The Youngbloods   Primary Artist
The Animals   Primary Artist
Blues Magoos   Primary Artist
Eric Burdon   Primary Artist
Fraternity of Man   Primary Artist
The Flying Burrito Brothers   Primary Artist
Eric Burdon & the Animals   Primary Artist
Roger McGuinn   Primary Artist
Steppenwolf   Primary Artist
London Festival Orchestra   Ensemble
Peter Knight   Conductor

Technical Credits

Matthew Fisher   Composer
Willie Chambers   Composer
Gram Parsons   Composer
Ralph Scala   Composer
Elliot Ingber   Composer
Nancie Mantz   Composer
Jim Phillips   Mastering
Meire Murakami   Reissue Design
Michael Diehl   Reissue Design
Tom Gundelfinger   Photography
L. Wagner   Composer
Beth Stempel   Production Coordination
Steppenwolf   Performer
Paul McCartney   Composer
Steve Barri   Producer
The Band   Performer
The Holy Modal Rounders   Performer
Bob Dylan   Composer
Keith Reid   Composer
The Jimi Hendrix Experience   Performer
Chester Powers   Composer
Chris Hillman   Composer
Joe Chambers   Composer
The Electric Prunes   Performer
Barry Jenkins   Composer
Eric Burdon   Composer
Vic Briggs   Composer
Annette Tucker   Composer
Steve Blauner   Producer,Interviewer
John Keen   Composer
Ronald Gilbert   Composer
Chet Powers   Composer
Antonia Duren   Composer
Lawrence Wagner   Composer
Johnnie Weider   Composer
Emil Theilhelm   Composer
John "Speedy" Keen   Composer
Hoyt Axton   Composer
Jerry Capehart   Composer
Jimi Hendrix   Composer
Michael Esposito   Composer
Mike Ragogna   Liner Notes,Reissue Producer
Justin Hayward   Composer
The Byrds   Performer
David Axelrod   Composer
Gerry Goffin   Composer
Danny McCulloch   Composer
Gary Brooker   Composer
Sky Saxon   Composer
Eddie Brigati   Composer
Felix Cavaliere   Composer
Fraternity of Man   Performer
Carole King   Composer
John Keene   Composer
Grace Slick   Composer
Doug Sahm   Composer
Victor Briggs   Composer
John Weider   Composer
John Lennon   Composer
Dennis Hopper   Interviewer
Joseph Chambers   Composer
Robbie Robertson   Composer
Billy Edd Wheeler   Composer
Mars Bonfire   Composer
Eddie Cochran   Composer
Roger McGuinn   Composer,Performer
Vartan   Reissue Art Director
Pete Townshend   Composer