The last time I ever remember riding a motorcycle, I was about
\n12 years old, sitting on the back of my uncle’s Harley-Davidson as
\nhe drove through my neighborhood on a family holiday (I think it
\nwas the Fourth of July). It’s been a long time since that ride, and
\nmy uncle has long since sold that bike, as well as a Honda GoldWing
\n(which I never thought he’d part with) and another Harley.<\/p>\n
While I can not say I ever developed an affinity for motorcycles
\n(assuring me that I’ll never meet Jay Leno), I have always loved
\nclassic rock, no matter how overplayed it gets on the radio here in
\nthe Chicagoland area. And as many bikers will tell you, classic
\nrock seems to be the music of the road. Some marketing genius
\nrealized this, and put out
\nHarley-Davidson Road Songs<\/i>, a two-disc set, a few years
\nago.<\/p>\n
Now, the latest volume in that series,
\nHarley-Davidson Road Songs Volume 2<\/i>, is out (for the biker
\non your Christmas list, you can get it in a special leather CD
\nwallet that can hold twelve discs total), and while I honestly
\ncan’t make a connection between some of these songs and riding a
\nmotorcycle, I’ll gladly welcome any chance to listen to some of the
\nmusic I grew up with again.<\/p>\n
Granted, many of these songs are available in some type of
\ncompilation or another. But the selection that the producers of
\nthis set have laid out, for the most part, is a real smorgasbord of
\nrock and roll. From the songs that anyone can see themselves
\nmotoring down the road to (“Bad To The Bone” from George Thorogood
\n& The Destroyers, Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell,” Montrose’s “Bad
\nMotor Scooter”) to the songs that many of us might have forgotten
\nabout (Foghat’s “Drivin’ Wheel”, Alice Cooper’s “Under My Wheels”),
\nthere is something on this set that will delight almost
\neveryone.<\/p>\n
What surprises me are the songs that I had all but forgotten
\nabout, such as Bad Company’s “Gone Gone Gone”. A subtle reminder
\nthat classic rock isn’t what you’re beaten over the head with
\ncourtesy of rock radio,
\nHarley-Davidson Road Songs Volume 2<\/i> becomes a history lesson
\nfor the last 25 or so years of rock, no matter what the flavor of
\nit is. From Lynyrd Skynyrd and Blackfoot (“Highway Song” has more
\nthan its share of “Free Bird” influence in it) to Judas Priest
\n(makes sense – Rob Halford used to ride a cycle onstage) and Pat
\nBenatar, this disc rocks.<\/p>\n
All this aside, there are still one or two moments where the set
\nflounders a bit. I don’t see Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again” as
\nbeing a great rock-down-the-highway song, and of all the Rainbow
\nsongs out there, why they selected “Street Of Dreams” (which
\nadmittedly I hadn’t heard in years) I don’t understand. In
\naddition, I would have substituted Gregg Allman’s sleepy version of
\n“Midnight Rider” for the more lively version the Allman Brothers
\nBand did. (Then again, I’m not the one programming this set.)<\/p>\n
Okay, so you’re not a motorcycle man (or mama); doesn’t matter,
\nas long as you like good rock music. Listening to this set is like
\nlistening to the radio, without the commercials. Not bad for over
\ntwo hours of straight-out rock that should have everyone’s feet
\ntapping at some point. (And I still get chills when I here Ronnie
\nVan Zant start singing “Free Bird”.)<\/p>\n
My uncle (who will become a father sometime in January) would
\ndefinitely love this set – even if he doesn’t ride a ‘cycle
\nanymore. Guess experiencing a set like
\nHarley-Davidson Road Songs Volume 2<\/i> is the next best
\nthing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5827],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-36058","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-various-artists","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36058"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36058"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}