Easy Rider / The Weight

Revisited Easy Rider last night. God what a flick. Forget the hippie scene , the Sixties , the drugs , the desolation. Forget the Road Movie , the motorcycle ideal , the freedom mojo , the joy trip. Strip the movie of all of that and Easy Rider'd still touch deeply and speak wisely. For me , 40 years and 10,000 miles off epicentre, the movie's like some seismic tremor shaking the whole cultural terrain.

Magic movie-soundtrack moment. The whole movie pehaps ? It's almost imposs to pick any one track. The movie's intended to be that way after all i guess.But last night i really travelled miles on this one . The Band's The Weight.

Terrific choice. Look at the sequence , the twilight silhouettes especially , and you might well pick a West Coast psychedelia sound of back in the day to go with it , a Dead or an Airplane perhaps. The movie picks The Weight instead. As opposite of psychedelic as could be. And it gets it so damn right ! Because the whole no-frills-solid lightness of this track is what the scene's all about. Terrific. Oh and - here as it is through the movie - heartachingly beautiful cinematography,right.