Easy rider songs free#
The song is about breaking free from a life of restrictions, as one can gather from the lyrics: “If you want to be a bird/Why don’t you try a little flying … Why be shackled to your feet/When you’ve got wings/You haven’t used yet.” Like “The Pusher,” this song fits in well with Wyatt and Billy’s lifestyle, as they never allow themselves to be tied down to any one place. They use drugs to get by (both by selling and consuming them), and their only goal seems to be to experience as much as possible and live life without responsibility.Īnother example is from later in the film, when Wyatt, Billy, and George are riding down the highway, George on the back of Wyatt’s motorcycle, while the song “If You Want To Be A Bird” by The Holy Modal Rounders is playing. This song fits in perfectly with the beginning of the film because it introduces the audience to these two rebels who clearly do not have any desire to be chained down to a traditional lifestyle. There is a line that says, “Well, now if I were the president of this land/You know, I’d declare total war on The Pusher man, I’d cut him if he stands/Yes I’d kill him with my Bible and my razor and my gun.” These verses seem to be referencing the conservative part of society that abhorred the emerging hippy culture and their way of living. The song is about a drug pusher who cares little for anyone but himself. The first song of film, “The Pusher” by Steppenwolf, plays a few minutes in, right after Billy and Wyatt finish up a coke deal and are getting ready to set off on their bikes. The rock-heavy soundtrack uses the music of The Byrds, Steppenwolf, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, and other rock artists to set the tone and influence the audience’s reactions to what they’re seeing play out onscreen. Since the only non-diegetic music in the film is from the soundtrack, which consists of ten songs, all from the rock genre, the scenes in which music is played become all the more striking. Not only is the film unique because of its influence from French New Wave films, specifically Godard’s Breathless, and its subject matter, which previous filmmakers had been reluctant to focus on, Easy Rider features a brilliant soundtrack that adds meaning and agency to the film, specifically to the scenes in which these songs are played. One of the most iconic films of the sixties, Easy Rider (Hopper, 1969) explores the counterculture movement that involved a separation from traditional ways of living into a more liberal, free-spirited lifestyle that involved drugs, sex, and – you guessed it – rock ‘n roll. We were told to write about music in a film of our choosing, and I chose to write about Dennis Hopper's 1969 film Easy Rider. This is a mini paper (about 2 pages) that I wrote for my American Film History class.
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