VARIOUS ARTISTS
''EASY RIDER SOUNDTRACK (EXPANDED), DISC ONE''
MARCH 23 2004
1969
104:54
DISC ONE
1/The Pusher
Hoyt Axton/Steppenwolf/5:51
2/Born to Be Wild
Mars Bonfire/Steppenwolf/3:39
3/The Weight
Robbie Robertson/Smith/4:36
4/Wasn't Born to Follow
Gerry Goffin / Carole King/The Byrds/2:05
5/If You Want to Be a Bird/The Holy Modal Rounders/2:40
6/Don't Bogart Me
Elliot Ingber / L. Wagner/Fraternity of Man/3:08
7/If 6 Was 9
Jimi Hendrix/The Jimi Hendrix Experience/5:35
8/Kyrie Eleison/Mardi Gras
David Axelrod/The Electric Prunes/4:01
9/It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Bob Dylan/Roger McGuinn/3:41
10/The Ballad of Easy Rider
Roger McGuinn/Roger McGuinn/2:14
DISC TWO
1/Pushin' Too Hard
Sky Saxon/The Seeds/2:36
2/I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night
Annette Tucker/The Electric Prunes/2:59
3/We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet
Ronald Gilbert / Ralph Scala/Blues Magoos/2:17
4/San Franciscan Nights
Vic Briggs / Eric Burdon / Barry Jenkins / Danny McCulloch / John Weider/Eric Burdon & The Animals/3:22
5/White Rabbit
Grace Slick/Jefferson Airplane/2:31
6/I Can See for Miles
Pete Townshend/The Who/4:07
7/A Whiter Shade of Pale
Gary Brooker / Keith Reid/Procol Harum/4:04
8/Groovin'
Eddie Brigati / Felix Cavaliere/The Young Rascals/2:28
9/High Flyin' Bird
Billy Edd Wheeler/Richie Havens/3:36
10/The Weight
Robbie Robertson/The Band/4:34
11/You Ain't Going Nowhere
Bob Dylan/The Byrds/2:35
12/The Time Has Come Today
Willie Chambers/The Chambers Brothers/4:57
13/With a Little Help from My Friends
John Lennon / Paul McCartney/Joe Cocker/5:12
14/Summertime Blues
Jerry Capehart / Eddie Cochran/Blue Cheer/3:47
15/Nights in White Satin
Justin Hayward/The Moody Blues/4:26
16/Mendocino
Doug Sahm/The Sir Douglas Quintet/2:44
17/Get Together
Chester Powers/The Youngbloods/4:37
18/My Uncle
Chris Hillman / Gram Parsons/The Flying Burrito Brothers/2:37
19/Something in the Air
John "Speedy" Keen/Thunderclap Newman/3:55
REVIEW
by William Ruhlmann
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.
''EASY RIDER SOUNDTRACK (EXPANDED), DISC ONE''
MARCH 23 2004
1969
104:54
DISC ONE
1/The Pusher
Hoyt Axton/Steppenwolf/5:51
2/Born to Be Wild
Mars Bonfire/Steppenwolf/3:39
3/The Weight
Robbie Robertson/Smith/4:36
4/Wasn't Born to Follow
Gerry Goffin / Carole King/The Byrds/2:05
5/If You Want to Be a Bird/The Holy Modal Rounders/2:40
6/Don't Bogart Me
Elliot Ingber / L. Wagner/Fraternity of Man/3:08
7/If 6 Was 9
Jimi Hendrix/The Jimi Hendrix Experience/5:35
8/Kyrie Eleison/Mardi Gras
David Axelrod/The Electric Prunes/4:01
9/It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Bob Dylan/Roger McGuinn/3:41
10/The Ballad of Easy Rider
Roger McGuinn/Roger McGuinn/2:14
DISC TWO
1/Pushin' Too Hard
Sky Saxon/The Seeds/2:36
2/I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night
Annette Tucker/The Electric Prunes/2:59
3/We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet
Ronald Gilbert / Ralph Scala/Blues Magoos/2:17
4/San Franciscan Nights
Vic Briggs / Eric Burdon / Barry Jenkins / Danny McCulloch / John Weider/Eric Burdon & The Animals/3:22
5/White Rabbit
Grace Slick/Jefferson Airplane/2:31
6/I Can See for Miles
Pete Townshend/The Who/4:07
7/A Whiter Shade of Pale
Gary Brooker / Keith Reid/Procol Harum/4:04
8/Groovin'
Eddie Brigati / Felix Cavaliere/The Young Rascals/2:28
9/High Flyin' Bird
Billy Edd Wheeler/Richie Havens/3:36
10/The Weight
Robbie Robertson/The Band/4:34
11/You Ain't Going Nowhere
Bob Dylan/The Byrds/2:35
12/The Time Has Come Today
Willie Chambers/The Chambers Brothers/4:57
13/With a Little Help from My Friends
John Lennon / Paul McCartney/Joe Cocker/5:12
14/Summertime Blues
Jerry Capehart / Eddie Cochran/Blue Cheer/3:47
15/Nights in White Satin
Justin Hayward/The Moody Blues/4:26
16/Mendocino
Doug Sahm/The Sir Douglas Quintet/2:44
17/Get Together
Chester Powers/The Youngbloods/4:37
18/My Uncle
Chris Hillman / Gram Parsons/The Flying Burrito Brothers/2:37
19/Something in the Air
John "Speedy" Keen/Thunderclap Newman/3:55
REVIEW
by William Ruhlmann
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.
