Easy rider (slang)
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Easy rider is an archaic United States slang expression whose meaning has varied with time.
History
Origins
Easy rider originally meant an expert horseman or a horse that was easy to ride.[1][2]
1900s
In the early 1900s the term took on the meaning of
- Mr. Crump won't 'low no easy riders here,
- Mr. Crump won't 'low no easy riders here,
- We don't care what Mr. Crump don't 'low,
- We goin' to bar'l-house anyhow—
- Mr. Crump can go and catch hisself some air!
"Easy rider" in blues came to denote a lover, male or female.[3] If it refers to a man, it usually implies he is unscrupulous, is a prostitute's lover and lives off her earnings.[4] It can also mean a male lover whose movements are easy and satisfying.[5][6]
To the
Great Depression
During the
World War II
In the
Eventually young native women were hired to tend to individual living quarters and soon became lovers as well as maids.
When these men left and other G.I.s took their place, the women, accustomed to the workload, would remain to perform the same services, sometimes preparing gear or a living area for inspection better than the soldier could.
1960s
The term had a different meaning in the "free love" cultural era of the 1960s and was first applied to women who practiced free love. A man who lived with this type of woman had a free or easy ride, since the woman still did most of the chores even though Second-wave feminism began to have a major influence on women at this time.
The term soon acquired a negative connotation however as it became a derogatory way to describe a woman with whom a hippie could live, then leave abruptly and who would not get angry if he came back later. Soon it was applied to prostitutes whom it was easy to fool or steal from or who simply traded their charms for a small amount of food or drugs.
Effects on entertainment
The term appears in the famous "
The 1969 movie Easy Rider had wandering motorcycle riders as its characters, and due to the notoriety of the movie the term again acquired another meaning to fit into the cultural mores of the time to mean a good, usually Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
Dennis Hopper, the director of Easy Rider, said in the making-of documentary Shaking the Cage: "An easy rider is a person that is not a pimp, but he lives off a woman; he lives off a whore. He's her easy rider. He's the one that she loves and she gives money to. He doesn't pimp her, but he's her easy rider."
After contributing his own music to the motion picture Easy Rider, Jimi Hendrix was inspired to write a song of the same name on his album The Cry of Love originally released in 1971. The spelling of the song title was altered to "Ezy Ryder," possibly indicating that the person in the song is named Ezy Ryder.
Notes and references
- ^ Harris, Sullivan D. (ed.), The Ohio Cultivator, Columbus, Ohio, XIV:19 (October 1, 1858) p. 298: "With these hints as a basis, we presume our equestrian friends will do the same and with these remarks we dismiss the subject; for if the rider have not instinct of horse sense, no drumming upon principles and theories will ever make him an easy rider or a skilful horseman."
- ^ Tobie, Edward Parsons, History of the First Maine Cavalry, 1861-1865, Boston: Press of Emery & Hughes (1887) p. 443: "She was a trotter and an easy rider, and it just did him good to see the boys look at him and admire the horse as he rode by, and he was justified in enjoying this, also."
- ISBN 9781780235516.
- ISBN 978-1624071850.
- ISBN 9781558492066.
- ISBN 9780870233944.
- ISBN 9780252090714.