It’s somewhere between Peter Fonda’s jaw and Dennis Hopper’s moustache, but Easy Rider (1969) is probably one of the best movies with the least amount of anything going on, of all time. But that malaise and general non-specificity is what makes Easy Rider such a perfect token of the burn-out at the end of the 60’s. It is a tale everyone knows, regardless of whether you’ve seen the movie or not, and the soundtrack only serves to back up that realization. A smorgasbord of hippie-isms and folkie road songs, ranging from the psychedelic haze of the classic “Born to Be Wild” by Steppenwolf to the off-brand cover of The Band’s “The Weight”, done just enough justice by Smith. Jimi Hendrix makes an appearance with “If 6 was 9” and Roger McGuinn, who curated the soundtrack as a whole at the behest of Dennis Hopper, guests with a Dylan cover and some other classics. It is just that sort of “yeah, so what” stance that the soundtrack takes that helps to draw forth the message of the movie, like water from a well. At this point, the well has become dry with cliché, but at one point, this was all the stuff of revolution. But by the end of the film with Nicholson, Hopper, and Fonda dead, you remember the revolution never really got anywhere past just a hazy, marijuana-smoke dream. Perfect tunes to keep that dream alive.
Listen to “Born To Be Wild” and “Don’t Bogart Me”
Download “Soundtrack to the Motion Picture Easy Rider“
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