From: shoun@netcom.com (Lissa Shoun)
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles
Subject: The story behind the Motorcycle Song
Summary: Arlo tells how he came to write the song
Date: 31 Aug 92 02:00:58 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)


 "The Motorcycle Song" by Arlo Guthrie
from the out-of-print album "Simply Arlo" as played on the radio 
by Dr. Demento.

[Arlo plays the guitar and sings the "Motorcycle Song". He also plays
the guitar during the entire following monologue in which he
explains how he wrote the song.]

I don't want a pickle,
Just want to ride on my motorcycle.
And I don't want a tickle,
I'd rather ride on my motorcycle.
And I don't want to die,
Just want to ride on my motorcycle.

Late last night, the other day,
I thought I'd go up and see Ray.
So I went up and I saw Ray,
There was only one thing Ray could say, was

[chorus]

Everybody here ought to sing, tonight. You don't have to sing. And if
you're new here and you don't know the words, I'd even rather that you
didn't sing.
But it's not one of those difficult songs.
Quite simply it goes, "I don't want a pickle, just want to ride on
my motorcycle." And anything that rhymes after that is groovy. So you
don't have too much to sweat tonight. So try it now, in four part
harmony. Here it is.

[chorus]
 

That's great.
It wasn't as enthusiastic as it should 'o been, though.
Because of that lack of enthusiasm,
I'm gonna have to tell you 'bout how I wrote this song.
And maybe you'll get more enthusiastic about it.
Maybe you won't.
It was about the time that I was riding my motorcycle.
Going down a mountain road.
At a hundred and fifty miles an hour.
Playin' my guitar.
On one side of the mountain road, there was a mountain.
And on the other side, there was nothin'.
There was a cliff, in the air.
Now, when you're going down a mountain road at a hundred and fifty miles
an hour, you gotta be very careful.
Especially if you're playing a guitar.
Especially if that guitar is an acoustic guitar.
Because if it's an acoustic guitar, the wind pressure is greater on the
box side than on the neck side. Because there's more guitar on the box
side.
I wasn't paying attention.
Luckily, I didn't go into the mountain.
I went over the cliff.
I was going at a hundred and fifty miles an hour sideways and five
hundred feet down at the same time.
I knew it was the end.
I looked down. I said "wow".
Some trip.
I thought it, well, I knew it was my last trip and in my last
remaining seconds in the world I decided to write one last farewell
song to the world.
Put a new ink cartridge in my pen.
Took out a piece of paper.
I sat back and I thought awhile.
Then I started writin'.

I don't want a pickle,
Just want to ride on my motorcycle.
And I don't want a tickle,
I'd rather ride on my motorcycle.
And I don't want to die,
I just want to ride on my motor-cy-cle.

I knew that it wasn't the best song I ever wrote, but I didn't have
time to change it.
I was coming down mighty fast.
But as you all know, and as fate would have it, I didn't die.
I landed on the top of a po-lice car.
And he died.
I drove away on the road that he was on.
I came into town at a screaming hundred and seventy-five miles an
hour, playing the Motorcycle Song.
I came into town, jumped off the bike, the bike went around the corner
by itself, went up on the stand by itself, turned itself off.
I walked over to my friend. He was standing there, eatin' pickles.
I said, "Hi". "What's happenin'?"
He looked at me in the eye and said, "Nothin'"
You gotta sing it with that kind of enthusiasm.
Like you just squashed a cop.

[chorus]

-- 
Lissa
shoun@netcom.com     (408) 926-0812