The Styrous® Viewfinder: Dennis Hopper

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February 23, 2025

20,000 vinyl LPs 380: Easy Rider Soundtrack & Peter Fonda

Easy Rider ~ poster

Today is the birthday of Peter Fonda, born on February 23, 1940, at the LeRoy Hospital in New York City. He was a member of the Fonda acting family, the son of actor Henry Fonda, the brother of actress and activist Jane Fonda, the father of actress Bridget Fonda and uncle of Troy Garity, son of Jane Fonda and political activist Tom Hayden.

Peter Fonda - 1970

promo photo

In 1969 Peter Fonda starred in and co-wrote, with Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern, the film Easy Rider; Hopper also directed the film.

Easy Rider ~ vinyl LP front cover detail

photo of album cover by Styrous®

Easy Rider ~ vinyl LP back cover

photo of album back cover by Styrous®

Through his friendships with members of the rock band The Byrds, whose song appears on the film soundtrack years later, Fonda visited The Beatles in their rented house in Benedict Canyon in Los Angeles in August 1965. While John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Fonda were under the influence of LSD, Lennon heard Fonda say, "I know what it's like to be dead." Lennon used the phrase in the lyrics for his song, She Said She Said, which was included on their 1966 album, Revolver.

Easy Rider ~ vinyl LP back cover

detail photos of album back cover by Styrous®

I've liked the Easy Rider soundtrack album as it is a small time capsule of the music of that long vanished period. It featured music by Steppenwolf, The Electric Prunes, The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix; greats of the era.

Easy Rider ~ vinyl LP back cover

detail photos of album back cover by Styrous®

The film itself is a time capsule of the world at that time. It explored the societal landscape, issues, and tensions towards adolescents in the United States during the 1960s, such as the rise of the hippie movement, drug use, and communal lifestyle. Real drugs were used in scenes showing the use of marijuana and other substances.

Easy Rider ~ vinyl LP back cover

detail photos of album back cover by Styrous®

An independent production, the film was released by Columbia Pictures on July 14, 1969, and earned $60 million worldwide compared to a modest filming budget of $400,000. Critics praised the performances, directing, writing, soundtrack, and visuals. It received two Academy Awards nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Jack Nicholson.

In 1998, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Easy Rider ~ vinyl LP back cover

detail photos of album back cover by Styrous®

Peter Fonda began his acting career in 1961 with the Broadway play, Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole, by James and William Goldman, for which he won a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and the Theatre World Award.

In 1964, Fonda impressed director Robert Rossen who cast him in the totally weird (on many levels) movie, Lilith, alongside Warren Beatty, Jean Seberg and Gene Hackman.

In 1966, Fonda appeared in The Wild Angels, the first of the outlaw biker films, produced and directed by Roger Corman, it also featured Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd. The film associated Fonda with Harley-Davidson motorcycles and 1960s counterculture and inspired the biker film genre that continued into the early 1970s.

The Wild Angels movie still

After the success of Easy Rider, both Hopper and Fonda were sought for film projects. In 1971 Hopper directed the film The Last Movie, in which Fonda co-starred with singer Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas.

He appeared in the 1999 television mini series, The Passion of Ayn Rand, one of my heroes, which starred Helen Mirren and Eric Stoltz, and in the sixties, a spot on the The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

In 2002, Fonda was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame. In 2000, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.

In 2011, Fonda and Tim Robbins produced The Big Fix, a documentary that examined the role of BP in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its effects on the Gulf of Mexico.

Peter Fonda died from respiratory failure caused by lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles on August 16, 2019, at the age of 79.

Easy Rider ~ vinyl LP side 1

photos by Styrous®

Easy Rider ~ vinyl LP side 2

photos by Styrous®

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A1 - Steppenwolf - The Pusher - 5:48

A2 - Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild - 3:29

A3 - Smith (3) - The Weight - 4:29

A4 - The Byrds - Wasn't Born To Follow - 2:03

A5 - The Holy Modal Rounders - If You Want To Be A Bird - 2:35

Side 2:

B1 - The Fraternity Of Man - Don't Bogart Me - 3:02

B2 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience - If Six Was Nine - 5:32

B3 - The Electric Prunes - Kyrie Eleison - 4:02

B4 - Roger McGuinn - It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) - 3:03

B5 - Roger McGuinn - Ballad Of Easy Rider - 2:13

Companies, etc.

    Record Company – ABC Records, Inc.
    Published By – Lady Jane Music
    Published By – Duchess Music Corp.
    Published By – Dwarf Music
    Published By – Screen Gems-Columbia Music, Inc.
    Published By – Obscure Music
    Published By – Terrible Tunes, Inc.
    Published By – Sea-Lark Enterprises, Inc.
    Published By – E.H. Morris & Co., Inc.
    Published By – M Wittmark & Sons
    Published By – Blackwood Music
    Published By – Patian Music
    Pressed By – Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Terre Haute

Credits:

Director: Dennis Hopper

Writers: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern

Producer: Peter Fonda

Cinematographer: Laszlo Kovacs

Editor: Donn Cambern

Production Designer: Jerry Kay

Production Companies: Raybert Productions, Inc. and The Pando Company, Inc.

Cast: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, and Toni Basil

Other cast members: Antonio Mendoza, Phil Spector, Mac Mashourian, Warren Finnerty, Tita Colorado, Luke Askew, Luana Anders, Sabrina Scharf, Sandy Brown Wyeth, Robert Walker Jr., Robert Ball, Carmen Phillips, Ellie Wood Walker, Michael Pataki, and George Fowler Jr.

Notes:

A3: The song is performed in the motion picture by "The Band" and is not available for this album. We have taken the liberty of including the song as recorded by "Smith" in this package.

The Byrds and Roger McGuinn appear courtesy of Columbia Records.
The Holy Modal Rounders appears courtesy of Elektra Records.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Electric Prunes appear courtesy Reprise Records.

Runouts are primarily etched. Stamped characters include A B 2 12.

Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Rights Society: ASCAP
    Rights Society: BMI
    Pressing Plant ID (Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Terre Haute): T
    Matrix / Runout (Side A Label): DS-50063-A
    Matrix / Runout (Side B Label): DS-50063-B
    Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, variant 1): DSX 50063 A -1D T I
    Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, variant 1): DSX 50063 B -1A T I
    Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, variant 2): DSX 50063 A -1A C 3 T Z
    Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, variant 2): DSX 50063 B -1J G V
    Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, variant 3): DSX 50063 A-1A C3 T Ƨ
    Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, variant 3): DSX 50063 B-1J A 9
    Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, variant 4): DSX 50063 A -1A 2 XT
    Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, variant 4): o DSX 50063 B -1C 12 2
    Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, variant 5): DSX 50063 A-1A B5 T 1
    Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, variant 5): DSX 50063 B -1A A 10 o T Ƨ
    Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, variant 6): DSX 50063 A -1B oO B
    Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, variant 6): DSX 50063 B -1L B
    Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, variant 7): DSX 50063 A -1A A8 T I
    Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, variant 7): DSX 50063 B -1D D T I
    Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, variant 8): DSX 50063 A -1A A6 T 1
    Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, variant 8): DSX 50063 B -1D A T 2
    Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, variant 9): DSX 50063 A -1A. T
    Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, variant 9): DSX 50063 B -1D. C T

Various – Easy Rider (Music From The Soundtrack)
Label: Dunhill – DSX 50063, ABC Records – DSX 50063
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo, Terre Haute Pressing
Country: US
Released: Aug 1969
Genre: Rock, Stage & Screen
Style: Soundtrack, Classic Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Folk Rock

Viewfinder links:

All things Beatles

The Byrds

Roger Corman

Bruce Dern

Henry Fonda

Jane Fonda

Peter Fonda

George Harrison

Dennis Hopper

John Lennon

The Mamas and the Papas

Helen Mirren

Jack Nicholson

Michelle Phillips

Nancy Sinatra

Ringo Starr

Steppenwolf

Eric Stoltz

Net links:

Criterion ~ Easy Rider

YouTube links:

The Byrds - Wasn't Born To Follow

The Electric Prunes - Kyrie Eleison

Peter Fonda - November night

The Fraternity Of Man - Don't Bogart Me

The Holy Modal Rounders - If You Want To Be A Bird

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - If Six Was Nine

Roger McGuinn -

Ballad Of Easy Rider

it's alright ma

Steppenwolf ~

Born To Be Wild

The Pusher

The Weight ~

The Band

A Group Named Smith

Styrous® ~ Sunday, February 23, 2025

20,000 Vinyl LPs Archive
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November 18, 2021

Bruce Conner ~ photographer & so much more

Bruce Conner
date & photographer unknown

Bruce Conner was an American artist who was born in McPherson, Kansas, on November 18, 1933; he worked with assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography. I could have put him in any of those categories but it is his photography that I love, so, here he is.

In 1959, Conner founded what he called the Rat Bastard Protective Association. Its members included Jay DeFeo, Michael McClure (with whom Conner attended school in Wichita), Manuel Neri, Joan Brown, Wally Hedrick, Wallace Berman, Jess Collins, Carlos Villa and George Herms. Conner coined the name as a play on 'Scavengers Protective Society'.

He and his wife were living in Massachusetts in 1963, when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Conner filmed the television coverage of the event and edited and re-edited the footage with stock footage into another meditation on violence which he titled Report. The film was issued several times as it was re-edited.

He was an active force in the San Francisco counterculture of the mid-1960s as a collaborator in light shows at the legendary Family Dog at the Avalon Ballroom. He also made a number of short films in the mid-1960s in addition to Report and Vivian. These include Ten Second Film (1965), an advertisement for the New York Film Festival that was rejected as being "too fast;" Breakaway (1966), featuring music sung by and danced to by Toni Basil . . .

Bruce Conner ~ Breakaway - 1966
Toni Basil film still

. . . The White Rose (1967), documenting the removal of the magnum opus by fellow artist Jay DeFeo from her San Francisco apartment, with Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis as the soundtrack; and Looking for Mushrooms (1967), a three-minute color wild ride with Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles as the soundtrack. (In 1996 he created a longer version of the film, setting it to music by Terry Riley).

Conner was among the first to use pop music for film soundtracks. His films are now considered to be the precursors of the music video genre. They have inspired other filmmakers, such as Conner's friend Dennis Hopper, who said, “Bruce’s movies changed my entire concept of editing. In fact, much of the editing of Easy Rider came directly from watching Bruce’s films." In 1966, Hopper invited Conner to the location shoot for Cool Hand Luke which starred Paul Newman; the artist shot the proceedings in 8mm, revisiting this footage in 2004 to create his film Luke.

Conner photographed many of the punk bands in San Francisco. During the 1970s he focused on drawing and photography, including many photos of the late 1970s West Coast punk rock scene. His 1978 film used Mongoloid by Devo as a soundtrack.

The Bruce Conner papers are held by the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. Conner's 1976 film short, Crossroads, was preserved by the Academy Film Archive, in conjunction with the Pacific Film Archive, in 1995. The film features 37 minutes of extreme slow-motion replays of the July 25, 1946, Operation Crossroads Baker underwater nuclear test at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. The event was captured for research purposes by five hundred cameras stationed on unmanned planes, high-altitude aircraft, boats near the blast, and from more distant points on land around the Atoll. The location was selected in part because the network of islands formed an almost complete ellipse around the detonation site, allowing for a comprehensive documentation of the event from numerous angles.

Bikini nuclear blast - July 25, 1946
photographer unknown

The documentary film featured music by electronic artist Patrick Gleeson and minimalist composer, Terry Riley.

Bruce Conner had twice announced his own death as a conceptual art event or prank; he died on Monday, July 7, 2008, of natural causes, the last survivor of the Bay Area Beat era art scene.

From 2016 to 2017, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art featured an exhibition of Conner's multimedia work entitled, It's All True, which was derived from a letter that the Conner wrote to his friend, collaborator and art collector, Paula Kirkeby, in 2000, listing the many ways he had been characterized in the media (link below).

Viewfinder links:

Toni Basil

all things Beatles

Bruce Conner

Miles Davis

Jay DeFeo

Devo

Patrick Gleeson

Dennis Hopper

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Michael McClure

Terry Riley

Net links:

Academia ~ Bruce Conner

The Brooklyn Rail ~ Tribute to Bruce Conner

Bruce Conner ~ Crossroads

KQED ~ Artist who Twice Declared Himself Dead

LA Times ~ Conner worked in assemblage, film, sculpture

The New Yorker ~ Bruce Conner’s Crusade of Reinvention

NY Times ~ Bruce Conner, SF Artist With 1950s Beat Roots dies

SF Gate ~ Prolific Beat era artist Bruce Conner dies

SFMOMA ~ It's All True

Smithsonian ~ Bruce Conner papers

University of Chicago ~ Bruce Conner’s thinking of you

YouTube links:

Atomcentral ~ Crossroads Baker

Bruce Conner -

Atomic bomb (edit)

Breakaway (documentary)

Mongoloid

A Movie (documentary)

It’s All True

Museum of Contemporary Art ~ Bruce Conner: Mongoloid documentary

Styrous® ~ Thursday, November 18, 2021

Photography

Photographers
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Dennis Hopper articles/mentions

mentions:
Bruce Conner ~ photographer & much more
Easy Rider

Dennis Hopper - 1955

photo by John Kobal

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Movie Articles

Movie People

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October 25, 2013

101 Reel-To-Reel Tapes 6: Steppenwolf ~ Gold

Steppenwolf - Gold

reel-to-reel box detail

detail photo by Styrous®

In addition to my vinyl collection I'm selling, I have hundreds of reel-to-reel, pre-recorded tapes I'm selling. This is an entry about one of them that sold on eBay (see link below for others). Interested? Interested? Contact me by email, please, not by a comment.

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Who can ever forget, Born to Be Wild? I remember it hitting me in the face in the opening of the 1969 film, Easy Rider, directed by Dennis Hopper. I had not bought my Beemer yet (see: Beemer Memories) and the life of a cycle rider was still a mysterious adventure I longed for (it was to come three years later). I will always remember the image of Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper riding along the highway with the wind whipping through their hair. WOW!