The greatest songs to listen to on a motorbike, according to Josh Homme
Sun 2 June 2024 4:00, UK If the essence of rock and roll was distilled into a mode of transportation, it would probably be a motorbike. Whether you’re popping around the corner for groceries or tearing down the motorway, riding a bike evokes a timeless sense of cool that dates back to the 1960s, back to a time when Peter Fonda first considered his role in Easy Rider. Josh Homme[1], meanwhile, has crafted hard rock tunes that are perfect for blasting from two wheels, but he believes it all traces back to the influence of AC/DC and Judas Priest.
Then again, Homme’s musical upbringing felt like he was raised in the kind of motorbike-adjacent environment that rock and roll was based on. Before he even had Kyuss, Homme was known to be a part of the desert rock scene in Southern California, which generally involved getting in your car and going to the most secluded side of the desert to put on shows with the loudest music possible. While Kyuss had all those sonic trademarks in mind when making their first masterpieces, Queens of the Stone Age was the more commercial version of what Homme could do.
Say what you want to about how strange the harmony is, but ‘Go With the Flow’ is still one of the best driving songs to come out of the 2000s. When talking to BBC Radio 6[2], though, Homme said that he has a specific playlist in mind whenever he’s on a bike, saying, “There’s only two things that I will listen to on a motorcycle. It’s either AC/DC ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’ or ‘Rocker’ from that record, or it’s ‘Breaking the Law’ by Judas Priest”.
Granted, Homme could have hardly picked two better hard rock adjacent bands to put on his playlist. AC/DC have been known for making some of the brashest rock and roll known to mankind, both with and without Bon Scott[3], so hearing the sound of Angus Young’s guitar blaring out of the speakers works perfectly. Judas Priest goes pretty much without explanation since Rob Halford was known to ride a motorcycle onstage every time the band played live.
As much as it could have been considered a theatrical trick, seeing Halford roll in on a Harley isn’t that far off from what most of his fans were dreaming of doing when they were at home. Even Halford said that something about the bike imagery went hand in hand with their music, telling Classic Albums[4], “Motorcycles and metal music have a lot in common. It’s loud, it smells and it pisses people off”.
Then again, that kind of music already gives off a certain impression to anyone who happens to be in your general vicinity when you rev it up. From the moment a song like ‘Dirty Deeds’ or ‘Breaking the Law’ starts playing, you know you’re in the presence of one of two things: a true badass strutting in snakeskin boots and a leather jacket with no shirt or a disgruntled father trying to prove to his kids that he still knows what it’s like to be cool. This kind of music might be an acquired taste for some, but there’s no doubt that Josh Homme becomes one of the coolest men on Earth the minute he starts that engine.
[embedded content]
[embedded content]
Related Topics
References
- ^ Josh Homme (faroutmagazine.co.uk)
- ^ BBC Radio 6 (www.tiktok.com)
- ^ Bon Scott (faroutmagazine.co.uk)
- ^ Classic Albums (www.amazon.com)