Customer Reviews

Easy Rider - Deluxe Edition

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I stumbled across this CD on Rhapsody today and have to say, I'm just stunned. I haven't heard these tracks sound so fresh since sitting in a movie theater, circa 1969. Even then, I don't believe the quality matched the listening experience this CD provides. I don't normally address other reviewers, but I stongly disagree with a reviewer who said to stick with the earlier, single CD. This is worlds better audially. Every instrument, vocal nuance, backup singer, etc. is crisply, distortion-freely rendered.

It's as good a job of remastering as I've ever heard. Even Blue
Cheer's "Summertime Blues," which sounds notoriously muddy and indistinct on most compilations, sounds as if it was recorded using contemporary, state of the art sound boards. Other tracks fare even better.

The discs are rather pricey (in comparison with the single CD compilation), but well worth the money. This is definitive Golden Age of Rock history here. Steppenwolf, Hendrix, Procol Harem, The Seeds (one of the most overlooked bands of the era), Richie Havens (I had forgotten he even contributed to the soundtrack, but a musical, twelve string guitar genius, nonetheless!), The Moodies, and on and on. I'm putting my order in today, as Rhapsody doesn't include all the tracks for listening or downloading. Ring up another sale, Mr Bezos! I've gotta have this one!!

BEK

The Easy Rider soundtrack was tainted from the very beginning for two reasons:1)the exclusion of The Bands version of "The Weight" replaced with the far inferior version by Smith 2)The exclusion of The Electric Flags "Flash,Bam, Pow". Despite these shortcomings the Lp worked. Now 30 odd years later it would seem that when and "Expanded" version was released the kinks would have been worked out. This however is not the case. The Bands version of "The Weight" is included--on side two with a bunch of songs that have a lot to do with the 60's and nothing to do with the movie. Why wasn't Smith's version of "The Weight" dropped alltogether and the Bands inserted in proper sequence as it should have been all along. Additionally The Electric Flag is still missing. What gives? The first disc is the same as what was released 36 years ago and disc two is nothing more than a 60's compilation of songs that aren't even in line with the feel of the movie as the original Lp was--the reason the soundtrack worked is that it coincided so well with the film. Overall this is a highly disappointing release.

When Easy Rider came out I was fresh out of high school and when we had nothing better to do we would hit the $1.00 early show, again and again. Played the heck out of the sound track on an 8 track until the 8 track finally ate the tape. As most of us do I continued growing up and maturing but still retained the songs and sounds of the music that played such an integral part of that era. I bought the deluxe edition just because and holy cow! Except for the Teeny Bopper song the second CD is outstanding. It is the best one CD compilation I have ever heard. Sky Saxon and the Seeds were one of my favorite groups back then and starting off with them set the proper tone and following that with the Electric Prunes and including the Flying Burrito Brothers, the Chambers Brothers and Thunderclap Newman cemented this as a true gem. This is a great selection of songs highlighting the eclectic best of the late 60s that deserves center stage on your play list. Highly recommended.

In some ways it's fitting that the soundtrack to this landmark film has suffered a series of legal hassles from The Man. In its original 1969 vinyl release, it was denied the film's use of The Band's "The Weight" (by the band's then-label Capitol), and a sound-alike cover by Smith was issued in its place. More recently, the soundtrack was withheld from domestic CD reissue, squeaking out a European version many years before MCA's 2000 digital issue. The latter reunited The Band with their film-mates, at the expense of altering the original Smith-bred artifact. Hip-O's deluxe two-disc reissue provides the best of both worlds - including both versions of "The Weight" - and filling out a second disc of contemporaneous radio hits.

The original soundtrack is a five-star release on its own, brilliantly capturing the flavor of the film and its times with a carefully selected set of music, and augmented with snippets of sound and dialogue. Many of these songs were, or became, period classics, burned into everyone's consciousness by endless radio play; but what really makes the album great are the non-hit tracks. Beyond the collection of well-worn hits are more unusual inclusions: The Holy Modal Rounders' lunatic old-timey "If You Want to be a Bird (Bird Song)," Fraternity of Man's stoner country "Don't Bogart That Joint" and The Electric Prunes' reverb-drenched psychedelic mass "Kyrie Ellison." Roger McGuinn's cover of Dylan's "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" and his original "Ballad of Easy Rider" close out the original track lineup with a helping of paranoia, dissolution and salvation.

Disc two adds 19 period selections that flesh out the country's growing acid-paranoia, from the independence-minded garage punk of The Seeds and psychedelic trippings of the Electric Prunes and Jefferson Airplane, to the reactionary folk of Richie Havens and The Youngbloods, and heavy-metal acid freak-out of Blue Cheer. Nearly all of this will be very familiar to those weaned on the era's radio, as well as those who've bought other late-60s anthologies. The Band's original version of "The Weight," omitted from the original soundtrack, is a bonus; the rest of the disc, which, unsurprisingly, plays more like an anthology than a film soundtrack, is superfluous in contrast to the original soundtrack.

Contains _most_ of the music from the film. But is missing one key track: "Flash, Bam, Pow" by Electric Flag (played in the film as Wyatt and Billy ride away from New Orleans after the LSD sequence and before Wyatt concludes, "We blew it" during the final campfire scene). The missing Electric Flag track can be found only on the CD soundtrack to "The Trip" -- a Peter Fonda film written by Jack Nicholson which itself contains some pretty cool music.

". To this day, the image of Fonda and Hopper careening helmet less down the open highway to the tune of Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" defines the American biker motif more clearly than any Hell's Angel could ever hope to." Bart Zeigler

"Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Lookin' for adventure
And whatever comes our way" Steppenwolf- "Born To be Wild'

37 years after 'Easy Rider' was first shown and the soundtrack heard it has become a favorite again. I was prepared to think I remembered the music, the music of an American myth, with antiheroes riding from the West only this time on bikes into the evil of middle America. I thought the best thing about the film was the soundtrack. It was an important film but not a very good one. Then I watched it, and I was hooked from scene one.

Each and every one of the 29 songs brings back memories for me and for the hippies of that era. How can we forget the love, the flower power, the ecstasy and agony of the time? The soundtrack of Easy Rider reminds us of an easier time in some ways. A reflection of our souls and how we came to be shaped.

Easy Rider is a lengthy music video for the '60s culture. But it is also an honest perspective on the counterculture movement. Fonda and Hopper's portrayal of that experience is free of the romanticized tone that characterizes so many other films from this era. Fonda's dialogue the night before his death is a purveyor of things to come. Hopper is happy because they've made it to their destination with their drug money. "We blew it," Fonda tells him. "We blew it, man." Heavy.


"Easy Rider is the late 1960s "road film" tale of a search for freedom ( in a conformist and corrupt America, in the midst of paranoia, bigotry and violence. Released in the year of the Woodstock concert, and made in a year of two tragic assassinations (Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King), the Vietnam War buildup and Nixon's election, the tone of this 'alternative' film is remarkably downbeat and bleak, reflecting the collapse of the idealistic 60s. This is a reflection of the hopes of liberation and fears of the Establishment."
Roger Ebert

'Easy Rider' soundtrack took to me a place and time I knew intimately, and I was transported back to those not so innocent happy times. 'What a long strange trip it's been'.

'Truckin' Grateful Dead

"Sometimes the light's all shining on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me
What a long strange trip it's been "

Highly, Heartily, Recommended. prisrob 10-06-07

I like this collection even though most of the additional songs had little to do with the movie. The additional tunes were mostly good ones that haven't been played to death (with some exceptions like White Rabbit) and were good to hear again. This collection lost a full star in my estimation because it is way over priced. I can't enjoy it as much as I would otherwise because of this.

The sound quality isn't good. I'm listening in a professional studio, and some tracks have phonograph needle noise (dubbed from vinyl?) and the low end is severely rolled off.

I can say without a doubt, I don't relate to the mumbo jumbo jive these days, it's all pure garbage. Now this era, now that's some good sounding music right there. This whole album really captures the whole hippie genre, and that's what I kind of consider myself anyways, well maybe not dress like they did, but still enjoy this kind of music. Both cd's describe how real true music is suppose to sound, not this rap crap you call music today. Here's a list of songs I like on this album, try them out for size:
The Pusher-Steppenwolf
Born to be wild-Steppenwolf
Wasn't born to follow-The Byrds
Don't bogart me-The Fraternity of Man
If 6 were 9-Jimi Hendrix
It's alright ma- Roger McGuinn (The Byrds)
Pushin too hard-The Seeds
I had too much to dream last night-Electric Prunes
We ain't got nothin yet-Blues Magoos
San Franciscan nights-Eric Burdon & The Animals
White Rabbit-Jefferson Airplane
I can see for miles-The Who
Whiter shade of pale-Procol Harum
The weight-The Band
The time has come today-The Chamber Brothers
With a little help from my friends-Joe Cocker
Summertime blues-Blue Cheer
Nights in white satin-The Moody Blues
Get together-The Youngbloods
My uncle-The Flying Burrito Brothers
Something in the air-Thunderclap Newman
boy I tell you man, if there ever was a better sountrack done over again, let me know, I might get that one too. Technically, this whole album is good, and just what I listed here, isn't even the whole set, this is just what I think is worth picking this up with both hands and grip tightly. So don't bogart that decision of not getting this album, cause you'll be sorry, especially if you like this type of music, the hippy era of the 60's.

Perhaps when it was first released it might have been a 4 star album in comparison to all the brilliant other stuff being produced at the time, but 35 years later it has become as good as it gets.

Just go straight to The Byrd's "Wasn't Born To Follow" if you don't believe me. Or Hendrix's "If 6 Was 9". Or "It's Alright Ma(I'm Only Bleeding). These are must have songs.

But don't score this version with its 18 bonus tracks as they are completely out of place with this album. If you love the movie, the specific songs chosen to be in it carry all the emotional impact you need. It's like adding bonus tracks to Scorcese's Good Fellas. Heresy. Bonus tracks on this album are a pure marketing ploy. Trust me, get the original version only, and buy all those Kasey Kasem greatest hits tracks on a separate album. They are a total distraction here and a complete let-down.

Over and out
(The Professor recommends: The original movie "M*A*S*H", the song and movie "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones, and the song "All Along The Watch Tower" by Jimi Hendrix)