Ezy Rider – Jimi Hendrix

From the first posthumous Jimi Hendrix release The Cry Of Love comes the studio version of Ezy Rider. Jimi had recorded the song for the studio release of the album that never came. The Cry Of Love was not quite the album Jimi had in mind when he left us. Some tracks were switched around and the various half finished versions of those songs have been rejigged and repackaged a thousand times since that tragic early exit.

The song was inspired by the counter culture classic movie which was still a relatively contemporary touch stone at the time of recording. Jimi had skin in the game on Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda’s Hippy Flick. He’d contributed If Six Was Nine to the soundtrack album.

This belated title song would have cast the whole movie in a different light. A more dynamic and exciting opening than the cool chill of Steppenwolf’s The Pusher. For me it’s a metal anthem in all but chronology. Ezy Rider is a blistering jam.

It’s as if we all arrive at our own version of Jimi if weren’t there to get it at the time. I got to know his work through compilation albums and knock offs and re-releases. I’m pretty sure a young Eddie Van Halen got his ears to Ezy Rider as well as all the British Invasion stuff.

This track is on Live At The Fillmore East, Third Stone From The Sun, Band Of Gypsies 2, Voodoo Soup and First Rays Of A New Rising Sun. However you get it, you get it.

Imagine the alternative universe where Jimi got this song together in time to make the cut of the movie. The Kinks and Steppenwolf be damned, Heavy Metal would be invented just a little earlier than reported.

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