All this talk about biker flicks and biker flick soundtracks inspired me to dig into my collection and come up with a few more cheesy, sleazy (cheazy?) examples of low-budget, boozy, drugged up debauchery on two wheels.
First up, 'The Hellcats' the story of a drug-dealing biker gang who work for an organized crime syndicate smuggling drugs from Mexico to the USA. The gang is infiltrated by a Vietnam veteran out to avenge the murder of his brother by a gang member...
The Hellcats (1967)
Looking at the movie poster above, you might think that it was a biker-chick flick about girls gone bad... you (like me) would be sadly mistaken.
While the film does feature a bevy of bad-ass beauties (the trailer below also plays up that aspect of the movie) it never quite lives up to the perverse potential suggested in the poster...
Movie Trailer - 1967 - Hellcats, The - YouTube
The soundtrack features Davie Allan & the Arrows, Davy Jones & the Dolphins, The Sunrays, and Somebody's Chyldren (misspelled as 'Children' on the album cover.) The first two tracks by Davie Allan & the Arrows are by far the best tunes on the album and, unfortunately, it's all downhill from there. Davy Jones & the Dolphins (not Davy Jones from The Monkees) sound like a wimpy psych/pop group, The Sunrays sound like a second rate Beach Boys impersonation (they were managed by Murry Wilson, the father of Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys), and Somebody's Chyldren sound like they are trying to capture the sound of The Byrds but just can't pull it off. With the exception of the first two tracks, the rest of the songs sound out of place in a rowdy, raunchy biker flick...
Next, 'Born Losers' the story of a half-Indian Vietnam War veteran who lives in solitude in the California Central Coast mountains. He leaves the peace and quiet of the mountains to venture into a nearby town where he crosses paths with a vicious motorcycle gang. This movie was the first installment of the 'Billy Jack' movies...
Born Losers (1967)
Born Losers (1967) Movie Trailer
http://youtu.be/4mlSyNZrmFY
The soundtrack features the music of Davie Allan & the Arrows, recording as 'Sidewalk Sounds' (an alias of theirs.) Despite the fact that it's Davie Allan & the Arrows, this is another album where the music (except for a couple of tracks) is just far too wimpy and doesn't even come close to matching the mood of the subject matter displayed on the screen...
And finally, 'Devil's Angels' the story of an outlaw motorcycle gang who hear about the story of Western outlaw Butch Cassidy and decide to go searching for a town to live in where there are no police to bother them...
Devil's Angels (1967)
Devil's Angels (1967) trailer - YouTube
The soundtrack to this one is also by Davie Allan, but this time he was teamed up with top-notch studio musicians Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel, Jerry Styner, and Carol Kaye. As a result, this album is one of the better of the biker soundtracks. The first track is a bit on the light side but the second track gets down and dirty with some very heavy, thick fuzz guitar. From there the album gets into gear and picks up speed, only slowing down briefly for a moment or two before speeding back up again...
California in 1967 may have been about "the summer of love" and the peace-and-love hippies in Haight-Ashbury, but it also seems to have been a rather prolific year for exploitation outlaw biker flicks featuring everything except peace and love (probably trying to cash in on the success of 'The Wild Angels' from the previous year) and certainly kept Davie Allan & the Arrows busy writing and recording the soundtracks to those trashy cinematic sleaze-o-ramas.
I can practically taste the cheap beer and smell the gasoline and burning rubber from here!
