The Charlie Daniels – Uneasy Rider

About The Song

“Uneasy Rider” is a 1973 song written and performed by American singer and multi-instrumentalist Charlie Daniels. It consists of a narrative spoken over a guitar melody, and is sometimes considered a novelty song. It was released as a single and appeared on Daniels’ album Honey in the Rock which is also sometimes known as Uneasy Rider.

The narrator protagonist of “Uneasy Rider” is a long-haired marijuana smoker driving a Chevrolet with a “peace sign, mag wheels, and four on the floor.” The song is a spoken-word description of an interlude in a trip from a non-specified location in the Southern United States to Los Angeles, California. When one of the narrator’s tires goes flat in Jackson, Mississippi, he stops at a “Redneck” bar and calls a gas station to come repair it. He is alone at first, to his relief, but several local residents soon arrive and question his manners, physical appearance, and choice of vehicle. In order to extricate himself from a potential physical altercation, the narrator accuses one man of being a federal agent working undercover to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan, who removes George Wallace bumper stickers, voted for George McGovern, and has a Communist flag on his garage wall. As the others begin to believe the narrator’s story, the man defends himself by saying he has lived in Jackson all of his life, has no garage, is a faithful Baptist, and adheres to the teachings of “Brother John Birch”. The distraction lasts long enough for the narrator to escape just as his tire is repaired. After chasing the rednecks around with his car for a short time, he speeds away quickly and resumes his journey to Los Angeles; already on a northward track to Arkansas, he decides on the fly to reroute through Omaha, Nebraska.

The lyrics reflect the cultural divisions in the Southern United States in the early 1970s between the counterculture of the 1960s and more traditional Southern culture. Unlike most country music of the time, Daniels’ protagonist is a member of the counterculture.

The song’s title, which does not appear in the lyrics, is a play on the title of the 1969 film Easy Rider, which follows two counterculture motorcyclists on a journey in the opposite direction, from Los Angeles to New Orleans, Louisiana, culminating in the sudden, violent deaths of the two bikers at the hands of two shotgun-wielding Southerners.

Daniels’ counterculture attitude was consistent with that of others in the outlaw country music movement but is in contrast to his later right-wing attitudes expressed in songs such as 1989’s “Simple Man”.

Video

Lyrics

I was takin’ a trip out to LA
Toolin’ along in my Chevrolet
Tokin’ on a number and diggin’ on the radio
Jes’ as I cross the Mississippi line
I heard that highway start to whine
And I knew that left rear tire was about to go
Well the spare was flat and I got uptight
‘Cause there wasn’t a fillin’ station in sight
So I jes’ limped down the shoulder on the rim
I went as far as I could and when I stopped the car
It was right in front of this little bar
A kind of a redneck lookin’ joint called the Dew Drop Inn
Well I stuffed my hair up under my hat
And told the bartender that I had a flat
And would he be kind enough to give me change for a one
There was one thing I was sure proud to see
There wasn’t a soul in the place ‘cept for him an’ me
And he just looked disgusted an’ pointed toward the telephone
I called up the station down the road a ways
And he said he wasn’t very busy t’day
And he could have somebody there in jest ’bout ten minutes or so
He said now you jes’ stay right where yer at and I didn’t bother
Tellin’ the durn fool
I sure as hell didn’t have anyplace else to go
I just ordered up a beer and sat down at the bar
When some guy walked in an’ said who owns this car
With the peace sign the mag wheels and four on the floor
Well he looked at me and I damn near died
And I decided that I’d jus wait outside
So I layed a dollar on the bar and headed for the door
Jes’ when I thought I’d get outta there with my skin
These five big dude come strollin’ in
With this one old drunk chick and some fella with green teeth
An’ I was almost to the door when the biggest one
Said you tip your hat to this lady son
An’ when I did all that hair fell out from underneath
Now the last thing I wanted was to get into a fight
In Jackson Mississippi on a Saturday night
‘Specially when there was three of them and only one of me
Well they all started laughin’ and I felt kinda sick
And I knew I’d better think of somethin’ pretty quick
So I jes’ reached out an’ kicked ol’ green-teeth right in the knee
He let out a yell that’d curl your hair
But before he could move I grabbed me a chair
And said watch him folks ’cause he’s a thouroughly dangerous man
Well you may not know it but this man’s a spy
He’s an undercover agent for the FBI
And he’s been sent down here to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan
He was still bent over holdin’ on to his knee
But everyone else was lookin’ and listenin’ to me
And I layed it on thicker and heavier as I went
I said would you beleive this man has gone as far
As tearin’ Wallace stickers off the bumpers of cars
And he voted for George McGoveren for president
Well he’s a friend of them long-haired hippie type pinko fags
I betcha he’s even got a Commie flag
Tacked up on the wall inside of his garage
He’s a snake in the grass I tell ya guys
He may look dumb but that’s jus a disguise
He’s a mastermind in the ways of espionage
They all started lookin’ real suspicious at him
And he jumped up an’ said jes’ wait a minute Jim
You know he’s lyin’ I’ve been livin’ here all of my life
I’m a faithfull follower of Brother John Burch
And I belong to the Antioch Baptist Church
And I ain’t even got a garage you can call home and ask my wife
Then he started sayin’ somethin’ ’bout the way I was dressed
But I didn’t wait around to hear the rest
I was too busy movin’ and hopin’ I didn’t run outta luck
And when I hit the ground I was makin’ tracks
And they were jes’ takin’ my car down off the jacks
So I threw the man a twenty an’ jumped in an’ fired that mother up
Mario Andretti woulda sure been proud
Of the way I was movin’ when I passed that crowd
Comin’ out the door and headin’ toward me in a trot
An’ I guess I shoulda gone ahead an’ run
But somehow I couldn’t resist the fun
Of chasin’ them jes’ once around the parkin’ lot
Well they’re headin’ for their car but I hit the gas
And spun around and headed them off at the pass
Well I was slingin’ gravel and puttin’ a ton of dust in the air
Well I had them all out there steppin’ an’ a fetchin’
Like their heads were on fire and their asses was catchin’
But I figured I oughta go ahead an split before the cops got there
When I hit the road I was really wheelin’
Had gravel flyin’ and rubber squeelin’
An’ I didn’t slow down ’til I was almost to Arkansas
I think I’m gonna re-route my trip
I wonder if anybody’d think I’d flipped
If I went to LA via Omaha!