Easy Rider
Music from the Soundtrack
MCA
Here’s an interesting fact: Dennis Hopper claims Easy Rider to be the first film to use existing music for its soundtrack. Easy Rider not only propelled Steppenwolf and “Born To Be Wild” to fame, but created one of the strongest cultural references in American culture today – you simply can’t play that song without implying biker freedom of some sort. Other artists featured are the Byrds (and a couple Roger McGuinn/Bob Dylan collaborations), the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “If Six Was Nine” and “If You Want to be a Bird” by the Holy Modal Rounders, who sound just as eerily out of place back then as they do now. Lesser-known classics from Fraternity of Man (“Don’t Bogart Me”) and the Electric Prunes round out the rest of the soundtrack for the ultimate ’60s biker music anthology. Does it sound cliche? You betcha – this is where the cliche got started.
MCA Records, 70 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, CA 91608; http://www.umusic.com/
