Uneasy Rider Quest
Dad’s first hit single was a talking blues number called “Uneasy Rider” playing off the Peter Fonda movie, “Easy Rider.” It tells the tale of a young hippie driving to Los Angeles from parts unknown His route takes him through Jackson, MS where he suffers a flat tire and while waiting for it to be fixed at a local beer joint called the Dew Drop Inn. He panics after the bar’s regular crowd discovers his long hair that he had hidden under his hat revealing that he’s of a different mindset than the usual redneck patrons, so he kicks one of them in the kneecap and then rattles off an outlandish depiction of him as a Communist sympathizer send by the FBI to infiltrate the local Klan chapter.
After realizing that his plan to divide and conquer the bar’s regular customers has failed, the hippie sprints out of the bar and into his waiting car with the freshly changed new tire followed by the bar crowd, who then end up being chased by the hippie in his car through the gravel parking lot.
The hippie then ponders if people would think he was crazy for going as far away from the South as Nebraska in order to complete his journey to the West Coast.
It was a novelty song, but a successful one. It broke the top ten of Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart in 1973, peaking at #9.
Sometime in 1973 - I was seven years old - I remember seeing a filmed version of “Uneasy Rider” at the house of Dad’s then manager. This was 1973, so this was pre-music videos, pre-MTV and pre-VHS/Beta home video, so it was shown on a film projector. A whole bunch of folks were there to watch it. I don’t remember who all was there, but I’m guessing it was mostly people from Dad’s record label, Kama Sutra Records, a division of Buddah Records.
That was the only time I remembered seeing it, and over the years it slipped to the back of my mind.
Once I started working in the music business in the mid-1990s, I started wondering about the film I saw and where I might be able to get a copy of it.
I was surprised to find out that we didn’t have a copy, and more than that, nobody seemed to know who did it or where we might be able to locate a copy.
Dad had split with the manager whose house we had watched it at, but I reached out to someone who worked for him, and they didn’t think he had a copy. One of the attorneys we used inherited files from him and from the attorney who was representing Dad back then. I dug around in boxes looking for clues, but nothing was to be found.
This would have been around ten years ago when I really became obsessed with locating this film only to keep hitting dead ends repeatedly.
I asked Dad for details, but he could only remember so much, and he always figured it would turn up someday.
July 6, 2020 brought a new purpose to my quest. I was even more determined to locate this “Holy Grail” of lost treasures, especially when I realized that 2023 would mark 50 Years of Dad’s first hit single, so I really wanted to have that locked down by then.
I put it out on social media to see if anyone had any recollection about the film, lots of well-meaning people suggested YouTube but they didn’t understand the circumstances and how futile that was.
I did get a couple of people who thought maybe it was shown on one of the syndicated country music shows of the 70s, “POP Goes the Country,” “That Good Ole Nashville Music” or something of that nature, but I reached out to the companies that owned the rights to most of those shows and they didn’t have any record of “Uneasy Rider” being a part of it.
It was 2024, I had missed the 50th anniversary and I was running out of ideas, then I had a true “light bulb” moment. I had been researching Kama Sutra and Buddah, I was reminded that Neil Bogart (best known for founding the disco label Casablanca Records which also was the home for KISS) was at Buddah back in the early 70s, so I thought he might be a possibility for having a copy.
Sadly, Neil passed away in 1982 from lymphoma at the age of 39, so it seemed unlikely that I was going to be able to locate anything that way. But rather than completely give up, I found that he had a son named Timothy who was largely doing the same thing I am, trying keep his father’s legacy alive.
So, I reached out to Timothy, and we exchanged some emails and texts. I explained what I was looking for, and I finally got a glimmer of hope. He thought he knew what I was talking about, having remembered seeing an old 8MM film reel, and he was pretty sure it was somewhere in his Dad’s archives… but there were a couple of complications, first being that he is at least as busy as I am, and has hardly any staff to speak of, so finding the time to go through everything wasn’t going to be a speedy proposition. The other complication was the sheer volume of the files that his father had which was mind-boggling.
Over the next two years, I occasionally would reach out to Timothy to stay on his radar, because I knew he was covered up with projects, as was I. He directed a bio pic about his Dad and has traveled the world extensively in the last few years.
On September 18 of this year, I reached out to him again letting him know what we had done this year so far – The Legend of Charlie Daniels show, Best of the CDB VolJam and what we had planned, especially with what would have been Dad’s 90th birthday coming up.
I expected that I would reach back out to him around the first of the year and then on Sept. 24, I got a text from Timothy.
He apologized for the delay and explained that he had to search 39 hard drives with an AI assistant, literally millions of files which if finally narrowed down to a digital video transfer of an 8MM reel from 1973.
The haystack had finally given up its needle.
In his text, he included a link to a video and for the first time since 1973, I saw Dad driving an old Chevrolet across country through Jackson, MS to a beer joint only to run out a few moments later chased by an angry mob.
I finally had what I had been looking for… kind of.
It turns out that what we had was a one minute long commercial for “Uneasy Rider” rather than a proto-music video I had believed it to be.
I always thought there was a full-length version, but maybe I was wrong.
But I at least feel a modicum of satisfaction that we can finally bring fans a blast from the past, the 1973 commercial for “Uneasy Rider.”
Maybe there is a full-length cut out there somewhere, but if there is, I doubt I’ll get to see it. It took 53 years to discover this one, and I don’t think I’ll have another 53 to look for it.
But if something presents itself, I’ll be sure to share it.
One little ‘God Wink’ with regards to this story, Wednesday night I put on a CDB T-shirt to sleep in. I was wearing it when I got the text from Timothy. I had slept in an “Uneasy Rider” 50th Anniversary tee adorned on the front with a sign for “Dew Drop Inn Est. 1973” and “Jackson, MS."
Isn’t God amazing!
Very special thanks to Timothy Bogart. I’m eternally grateful for your efforts.
What do you think?
Let’s all make the day count!
Pray for our troops, our police, the Peace of Jerusalem and our nation.
God Bless America!
- Charlie Daniels Jr.
Check Out the 1973 Commercial for "Uneasy Rider!"
After realizing that his plan to divide and conquer the bar’s regular customers has failed, the hippie sprints out of the bar and into his waiting car with the freshly changed new tire followed by the bar crowd, who then end up being chased by the hippie in his car through the gravel parking lot.
The hippie then ponders if people would think he was crazy for going as far away from the South as Nebraska in order to complete his journey to the West Coast.
It was a novelty song, but a successful one. It broke the top ten of Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart in 1973, peaking at #9.
Sometime in 1973 - I was seven years old - I remember seeing a filmed version of “Uneasy Rider” at the house of Dad’s then manager. This was 1973, so this was pre-music videos, pre-MTV and pre-VHS/Beta home video, so it was shown on a film projector. A whole bunch of folks were there to watch it. I don’t remember who all was there, but I’m guessing it was mostly people from Dad’s record label, Kama Sutra Records, a division of Buddah Records.
That was the only time I remembered seeing it, and over the years it slipped to the back of my mind.
Once I started working in the music business in the mid-1990s, I started wondering about the film I saw and where I might be able to get a copy of it.
I was surprised to find out that we didn’t have a copy, and more than that, nobody seemed to know who did it or where we might be able to locate a copy.
Dad had split with the manager whose house we had watched it at, but I reached out to someone who worked for him, and they didn’t think he had a copy. One of the attorneys we used inherited files from him and from the attorney who was representing Dad back then. I dug around in boxes looking for clues, but nothing was to be found.
This would have been around ten years ago when I really became obsessed with locating this film only to keep hitting dead ends repeatedly.
I asked Dad for details, but he could only remember so much, and he always figured it would turn up someday.
July 6, 2020 brought a new purpose to my quest. I was even more determined to locate this “Holy Grail” of lost treasures, especially when I realized that 2023 would mark 50 Years of Dad’s first hit single, so I really wanted to have that locked down by then.
I put it out on social media to see if anyone had any recollection about the film, lots of well-meaning people suggested YouTube but they didn’t understand the circumstances and how futile that was.
I did get a couple of people who thought maybe it was shown on one of the syndicated country music shows of the 70s, “POP Goes the Country,” “That Good Ole Nashville Music” or something of that nature, but I reached out to the companies that owned the rights to most of those shows and they didn’t have any record of “Uneasy Rider” being a part of it.
It was 2024, I had missed the 50th anniversary and I was running out of ideas, then I had a true “light bulb” moment. I had been researching Kama Sutra and Buddah, I was reminded that Neil Bogart (best known for founding the disco label Casablanca Records which also was the home for KISS) was at Buddah back in the early 70s, so I thought he might be a possibility for having a copy.
Sadly, Neil passed away in 1982 from lymphoma at the age of 39, so it seemed unlikely that I was going to be able to locate anything that way. But rather than completely give up, I found that he had a son named Timothy who was largely doing the same thing I am, trying keep his father’s legacy alive.
So, I reached out to Timothy, and we exchanged some emails and texts. I explained what I was looking for, and I finally got a glimmer of hope. He thought he knew what I was talking about, having remembered seeing an old 8MM film reel, and he was pretty sure it was somewhere in his Dad’s archives… but there were a couple of complications, first being that he is at least as busy as I am, and has hardly any staff to speak of, so finding the time to go through everything wasn’t going to be a speedy proposition. The other complication was the sheer volume of the files that his father had which was mind-boggling.
Over the next two years, I occasionally would reach out to Timothy to stay on his radar, because I knew he was covered up with projects, as was I. He directed a bio pic about his Dad and has traveled the world extensively in the last few years.
On September 18 of this year, I reached out to him again letting him know what we had done this year so far – The Legend of Charlie Daniels show, Best of the CDB VolJam and what we had planned, especially with what would have been Dad’s 90th birthday coming up.
I expected that I would reach back out to him around the first of the year and then on Sept. 24, I got a text from Timothy.
He apologized for the delay and explained that he had to search 39 hard drives with an AI assistant, literally millions of files which if finally narrowed down to a digital video transfer of an 8MM reel from 1973.
The haystack had finally given up its needle.
In his text, he included a link to a video and for the first time since 1973, I saw Dad driving an old Chevrolet across country through Jackson, MS to a beer joint only to run out a few moments later chased by an angry mob.
I finally had what I had been looking for… kind of.
It turns out that what we had was a one minute long commercial for “Uneasy Rider” rather than a proto-music video I had believed it to be.
I always thought there was a full-length version, but maybe I was wrong.
But I at least feel a modicum of satisfaction that we can finally bring fans a blast from the past, the 1973 commercial for “Uneasy Rider.”
Maybe there is a full-length cut out there somewhere, but if there is, I doubt I’ll get to see it. It took 53 years to discover this one, and I don’t think I’ll have another 53 to look for it.
But if something presents itself, I’ll be sure to share it.
One little ‘God Wink’ with regards to this story, Wednesday night I put on a CDB T-shirt to sleep in. I was wearing it when I got the text from Timothy. I had slept in an “Uneasy Rider” 50th Anniversary tee adorned on the front with a sign for “Dew Drop Inn Est. 1973” and “Jackson, MS."
Isn’t God amazing!
Very special thanks to Timothy Bogart. I’m eternally grateful for your efforts.
What do you think?
Let’s all make the day count!
Pray for our troops, our police, the Peace of Jerusalem and our nation.
God Bless America!
- Charlie Daniels Jr.
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