All he wanted was to be free (Roger McGuinn) (LP 299)

The Byrds, The Electric Prunes, The Fraternity Of Man, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Holy Modal Rounders, Roger McGuinn, Smith, Steppenwolf  Easy Rider (Vinyl - EMI Stateside, 1969) *****

Genre: Soundtracks  

Places I remember: Chaldon Books and Records (Caterham on the hill)  

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: If Six Was Nine (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)




Gear costume: Wasn't Born To Follow (The Byrds); The Pusher (Steppenwolf), Ballad Of Easy Rider (Roger McGuinn) 

Active compensatory factors: I'm breaking my own guidelines again by featuring a soundtrack album comprised of a variety of groups and artists.

But I just couldn't go past this one this week, as you will understand if you peek into my Jewels For The Thirsty blog.

My memories of the Easy Rider movie and record are all gold plated. 

My first viewing was during a weekend poetry camp while I was at Auckland University. Our lecturer, Roger Horrocks, had a print of it which he projected onto the wall in a communal area we all shared.

There were no artificial stimulants - I just simply had a magical experience. 

Shortly afterwards, I bought the soundtrack. 

It's a weirdly compiled sequence of songs - apparently they appear in the movie in this order, so we get two Steppenwolf songs leading us off (The Pusher and Born To Be Wild) and two Roger McGuinn performances to finish (a Dylan song, then the majestic Ballad Of Easy Rider). 

As each song was carefully selected to accompany sections of the film, the whole thing makes sense (apart from Smith going The Band song for contractual reasons) and gives a pretty instant version of the movie each time it's played.

Where do they all belong? Not sure, but it must be one of the first rock soundtracks to compile the actual performances from the movie by various people (rather than incidental music or things like A Hard Day's Night). From around 1970 onwards this was pretty much how all soundtracks appeared.

Outside of society, that's where I wanna be.

13 Patti Smith, ‘Babelogue/Rock ‘n’ Roll Nigger’

One of my best friends at University, Linley Wood, introduced me to Patti Smith’s Horses album. I remember her telling me about the album and raving about it. When I got a chance I listened to the first track, Gloria, and wow. The opening statement – Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine – rocked my world. The songs on the album bare testimony to her Jehovah’s Witness upbringing, but clearly she was rebelling against that. I loved the songs and her delivery and bought Radio Ethiopia as well. And that, I thought, was that.

That was, until an American Poetry lecture in the bowels of the old Arts building, Auckland University, led by Wystan Curnow and Roger Horrocks. Wystan led off this particular session with a tape by, he said, an American poet – Patti Smith.

Babelogue started and the cosmos reached down and ripped my head off!! I had never felt such a rush of adrenalin as I felt at that moment, listening to Babelogue segue into Rock ‘n’ Roll Nigger. WHAT WAS THAT??????? I have no idea what the rest of the lecture was on. I was gone, daddy, gone. I became a zealot for Patti Smith at that moment, but, more than that, this moment of epiphany made me a zealot for poetry. My own writing was vindicated in that moment and I was now set to gorge myself on poetry. Wordsworth, Rimbaud, Coleridge, Shelley, Bly, Ginsberg, Dylan and on and on. When Babelogue snagged me I realised it was the lyrics that drew me in to experiencing the songs. Not the music. I’m still the same. That’s why nearly all of my posts are titled from lyrics.

Thanks Linley, wherever you are, for kicking me off!

Two versions of this for you to choose from. First is the original version on Easter and then a morphed 2006 version. She's still got it!