For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, as he tells us in his post, Matching Song And Movie Titles,  Jim is inviting us to play a song that was used as the title of a movie. The one I’m going for is ever so slightly off target, as the movie title was a shorter version of the song’s name, but it was in the movie so that’s good enough for me! It is probably an obvious choice for someone of my vintage, but it was a great movie and I really like the song, so what’s to lose?

This is my tune for today:

The Byrds, with Ballad of Easy Rider, as the clip demonstrated very well. And here are its lyrics:

The river flows
It flows to the sea
Wherever that river goes
That’s where I want to be

The movie Easy Rider first hit cinemas in July 1969. To say that it was a success is something of an understatement: it cost around $400k to make and grossed more than $60m worldwide. I saw it when it first came out – illegally, as I was only 16 and its certificate here meant that you had to be 18 – but I guess they were happy to take anyone’s money. I loved it then and still do, though it does feel a little dated these days: very much a piece of its time. The movie has become something of a cult, and is credited with being at the forefront of a counterculture movement in American filmmaking at the time, as distinct from the Hollywood mainstream. It won several awards, and in 1998, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

If you haven’t seen it I won’t include any spoilers, just the recommendation that you seek it out: if nothing else it has a great soundtrack! Bob Dylan was asked to contribute music, but was reluctant to use his own recording of “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”, so a version performed by Roger McGuinn of The Byrds was used instead. Also, instead of writing an entirely new song for the film, Dylan simply wrote out the first verse of what became Ballad of Easy Rider and told the filmmakers, “Give this to McGuinn, he’ll know what to do with it.” Mr McGuinn duly completed the song and performed it in the film.

As well as the movie version, The Byrds also recorded their own take on the song: The clip I am playing is a mash up of scenes from the movie backed by The Byrds’ version of the song. They released that as a single and it later became the title track of their eighth album: released in the US in November 1969, peaking at #36, and in January 1970 in the UK, where it reached #41. The single got to #65 in the US and #68 in Canada, but didn’t make the charts anywhere else. Despite his contribution, Bob Dylan didn’t receive a songwriting credit for the record: he would have done, but after seeing a private screening of the movie before it was released, on which he was credited, he demanded that his name be removed, and it duly was. Speculation as to why he did that suggests that he might have felt that his name was being used to give the movie credibility, or that he just didn’t like it.

I usually like to play a couple of tunes for SLS, and could have given you the cover of this song by Fairport Convention in their early, pre-English folk days. That would have been an opportunity to share again the wonderful voice of Sandy Denny, but I’m not taking that route. Instead I’m going left-field, with another song released in 1969 which has Easy Rider in its title. This one:

That was Brewer And Shipley with Rise Up (Easy Rider) from their album Weeds. As I said, that was also a 1969 release, and makes me wonder if there is any connection with the movie. The Songfacts website has a suggestion of a link, as this song has a theme of disagreement between Rednecks and Hippies, which is a good fit for the movie. But given the timescales involved in recording songs and releasing albums I’m not convinced, so it might just be a coincidence. Or it might not. It’s a lovely tune, though, from a fantastic album.

And there you have it from me for today. Thanks as always to Jim for hosting this feast of music, and I’ll see you again for some more Tuesday Tunes. Take care 😊