‘The Bikeriders’ has the best rock and roll soundtrack of the summer

21 June, 2024

The Bikeriders

In partnership with Universal Pictures UK

Get your motor running, as Steppenwolf once sung, for The Bikeriders is about to roar into cinemas this summer. Jeff Nichols’ stunning look at a fictional Chicago biker gang across the 1960s and early ’70s boasts a stellar ensemble led by Tom Hardy, Austin Butler and Jodie Comer. But it also features the best soundtrack you’ll hear in a movie this year, one that’s destined to become your new favourite playlist.

The director was heavily involved

While Nichols was fastidious about ensuring every song was faithful to the time period of the story, he didn’t always know which songs were going to play when. “Half of them I had written the script to, but the other half were discoveries,” he says. A case in point was Gary U.S. Bonds’ ‘I Wanna Holler (But The Town’s Too Small)’, a sublime slice of Southern soul that was recorded by Bonds in the early ’60s, but remained unreleased until it popped up as the B-side to a reissue of his hit single ‘New Orleans’ (which also features on The Bikeriders’ soundtrack). With its strong vocals and psychedelic organ solo, for Nichols it became the perfect choice to accompany the opening titles of the film. “I hadn’t found that until we were in the editing room. And I love that song so freakin’ much,” he says.

The attention to detail is mind-boggling

Jeff Nichols doesn’t just use the music in The Bikeriders to accompany his images. The songs were a crucial part of establishing where in the narrative we are. “They are signposts that move us through time,” says Nichols, who constructed an extensive playlist while he was writing the screenplay. “We put a time signature next to every single song and a song never plays in a year that it wasn’t out. That was our rule. And it’s kind of fascinating. And it’s a great rule to have. Because it adds a bit of temperance. There are a lot of great songs, and you’re like, ‘Well, let’s just take this song and put it over here.’ We can’t, that song is not out yet! And so then you search for the most perfect song.”

It’s one for Shangri-Las fans

Sixties American girl group The Shangri-Las feature prominently in The Bikeriders, with two hits playing. The 1965 single ‘Out In The Streets’ can be heard, as well as ‘I’ll Never Learn’, one of the group’s final singles, which features in an emotional funeral scene in the film. Intriguingly, Nichols did not choose the band’s massive number one song ‘Leader of the Pack’, despite the sound of a motorbike engine roar famously heard at the outset. The Shangri-Las “became for me the spiritual musical centre,” says Nichols. “I just love their music. And obviously, they’ve written songs about motorcycles. But it’s more than that. They drench all of their music in reverb. And there’s this haunting, sad but beautiful thing… it kind of felt like the movie to me.”

There’s blues legends abound

The Bikeriders soundtrack plays like a homage to the sultry but urgent sound of classic blues numbers. Among them, Muddy Waters’ blues standard ‘Mannish Boy’ can be heard, a true American anthem with its distinct guitar slide and its groaning lyrics full of sexual abandon. Your ears will also get treated to Magic Sam’s sizzling 1957 version of ‘Mama – Talk To Your Daughter’, with its lyrics crying out: “She made me love her and I ain’t gonna leave her be.” If that’s not enough, the legendary Bo Diddley’s ‘Road Runner’ gets an airing, with its beep-beep chorus a nod to the classic cartoon character (a reminder of the speed demons in The Bikeriders).

You’ll be in needle-drop Nirvana

Trying to pick the best needle-drop moment in The Bikeriders is a bit like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack. So we’re going to select two. When Cream’s stunning ‘I Feel Free’ drops, it brings to mind the power of riding on the open road, as the bikers roar across the tarmac. And later The Stooges’ ‘Down On The Street’ plays loud and proud, a reminder that in 1974 Stooges’ lead singer Iggy Pop fought with angry bikers at one of his shows, and carried on regardless!