{"id":503,"date":"2007-04-19T12:47:43","date_gmt":"2007-04-19T16:47:43","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-12-15T16:58:43","modified_gmt":"2008-12-15T16:58:43","slug":"the-motorcycle-in-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/the-motorcycle-in-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unfulfilled Promise of the Motorcycle in Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/users\/frankenslade\/brando.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"336\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">Only the hat failed to catch on<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In rock&#8217;s nascent days, lurking not too far in the shadows behind the leather jacket, the DA, the hot rod, and the hot chick, was the <strong>motorcycle<\/strong>. Like the leather jacket, the cycle&#8217;s iconic power can be traced back to Marlon Brando&#8217;s role in <em>The Wild Bunch<\/em>.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-zhr-pjnL4g?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nHot rods remained the vehicle of choice through the years when Chuck Berry was <em>motovatin&#8217;<\/em>, while soul and British Invasion artists of the first half of the &#8217;60s did most of their commuting by foot and train. In the second half of the &#8217;60s, however, thanks to <strong>Roger Corman<\/strong>&#8216;s exploitation flicks and hippie-era interest in exploring the wide-open spaces of the United States, the motorcycle came to light as the vehicle of choice for rock &#8216;n rollers. <\/p>\n<p>The opening images of one of the two <strong>most influential movies of my lifetime<\/strong> was accompanied by rock&#8217;s finest motorcycle song ever!<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/V7tuUG6dLv4?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>For reasons still unclear to me to this day, my parents and the parents of friends of mine from down the block took us all to see a drive-in double feature of <em>Hell&#8217;s Angels on Wheels<\/em> with <em>Easy Rider<\/em>. I must have been 5 or 6 years old. This was in the days when your could shove 8 people into a station wagon, with kids fighting for the highly valued seats that flipped up and faced looking out the back window. I still recall a bad biker dude in a WWI German helmet and a guy getting shot right between the eyes &#8211; shattering his rectangular Granny glasses &#8211; to end <em>Hell&#8217;s Angels on Wheels<\/em>. <em>Yes!<\/em> Then came <em>Easy Rider<\/em>, with choppers, kick-ass sideburns and facial hair, the leather football helmet, and &#8220;Born to Be Wild&#8221;. <strong><em>Yes!<\/em><\/strong> From that night forward I developed a crystal clear lifetime goal that, to be honest, exists in some form to this day: I wanted to be a hippie.*<\/p>\n<p><small>*As part of this plan, I wanted to ride a chopper. Over the next couple of years I saved money to buy a mini-bike. My Mom was totally against it, but I kept saving. I was a week away from trying to get my Dad to make the case that I should be allowed to get one when a motocycle-riding neighbor from around the corner flipped his bike and died instantly. Just as fast I decided to cap my hippie accoutrements at big sideburns, a Fu Manchu, and a fringed suede jacket.<\/small><br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<strong>Peter Fonda<\/strong> has said numerous times, whenever anyone remembers he&#8217;s around, that <strong><em>Easy Rider<\/em><\/strong> was conceived as a hippie Western on choppers. As hippie westerns go, you&#8217;d think the last stand would have been at <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Altamont_Free_Concert\" title=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Altamont_Free_Concert\" target=\"_blank\">Altamont<\/a><\/strong>, but despite the biker-led tragedy at Altamont, the influence of <em>Easy Rider<\/em> wouldn&#8217;t die! Check out this 1971 promo film by Iron Butterfly.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2MgblEtpuEc?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>What started to dash the hopes of <strong>biker rock<\/strong> wasn&#8217;t much different than what dashed my own: the hogs started killing folks.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/users\/frankenslade\/allmanoakly.gif\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"246\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">Before<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Richard Farina<\/strong> died on a cycle in 1966, but he was a folkie. <strong>Bob Dylan<\/strong> had his legendary motocycle crash a few years later, but we know that was an excuse for something else. The <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Duane_Allman#Death\" title=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Duane_Allman#Death\" target=\"_blank\">deaths of Duane Allman and Berry Oakly<\/a>, almost a year to the day and only a few blocks apart, scared off countless rockers from straddling a hog and led to Lynyrd Skynyrd writing rock&#8217;s most painful epic, &#8220;Freebird&#8221;. <\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/users\/frankenslade\/allmanoaklygraves.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"135\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">After<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>But not every rocker gave up on the biker rock dream. Heavy metal guys, of course, were always tougher and more manly than the competition, even hairy Southern Rockers. <strong>Judas Priest&#8217;s Rob Halford<\/strong> was about a tough and manly as they came. The guy was dressed in leather from head to toe, and he was known to straddle a hog at any given opportunity. Not even my boys Steppenwolf posed for band shots with singer John Kay&#8217;s thighs wrapped around all that chrome, steel, and leather. Here&#8217;s the key shot from the band&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/judaspriest.com\/home\/default.asp\" title=\"http:\/\/judaspriest.com\/home\/default.asp\" target=\"_blank\">homepage<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/users\/frankenslade\/JudasPriestBike300.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"287\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">Born to be wild<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>I should note that aside from Priest and some other early metal acts, Brits tend not to rely on the iconic motorcycle power of the motocycle, favoring scooters, bikes, buses, and &#8220;lorries&#8221; instead. <\/p>\n<p>Aside from the work of Halford, perhaps rock&#8217;s last great claim to the dream of the hog in rock was made by my friends <strong>The Dead Milkmen<\/strong>, in their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.deadmilkmen.com\/video\/smokin_g2_fat.ram\" title=\"http:\/\/www.deadmilkmen.com\/video\/smokin_g2_fat.ram\" target=\"_blank\">video for <strong>&#8220;Smokin&#8217; Banana Peels&#8221;<\/strong><\/a>. I&#8217;m hopeful that we&#8217;ll get at least one of them to chime in with their memories of re-creating that legendary scene from <em>Easy Rider<\/em>. What staged, open-road sense of freedom and power they must have felt!<\/p>\n<p>Today, the hopes of the motorcyle in rock are sadly unfulfilled. There is a newer band called <strong>Black Motorcycle Rebel Club<\/strong>, which has more of a gelded Fonzie ring to it than Brando in <em>The Wild Bunch<\/em>. Then there&#8217;s this guy:<br \/>\n<strong>Bob Seger<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/users\/frankenslade\/segercycle.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">Still the same<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Only the hat failed to catch on In rock&#8217;s nascent days, lurking not too far in the shadows behind the leather jacket, the DA, the hot rod, and the hot chick, was the motorcycle. Like the leather jacket, the cycle&#8217;s iconic power can be traced back to Marlon Brando&#8217;s role in The Wild Bunch. Hot <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/the-motorcycle-in-rock\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[77],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}