“Real women ride!”

The motorcycle and the open road have always been metaphors for freedom. Between Kerouac’s “On the Road” and Persig’s “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, the counterculture embraced that ideal and roared with it. Shocking Blue did two B-sides, “Harley Davidson” (1969) and “Get It On” (1975), that tread that path.

For women, whose lives were locked up in farms or drawing rooms in the 1800’s, the bicycle, the car, and the plane were transports of liberation in the 20th century. Amelia Earhart and black aviatrix Bessie Coleman opened up the skies. Linda Gudeau (The Motor Maids) and Louise Scherby (Women’s International Motorcycle Association) scorched the tarmac. The cycle helped them to explore new gender roles, sensuality, self-reliance, equity, and the land in vaster vistas. This proud, rich heritage extends today from Motorcycle Clubs like the Amazon WMC and the Cycle Sisters, to the ultra-hellions, Dykes On Bikes. An open range is possibility, an open road is freedom.

Included here are varied angles like: vintage cycle ads, motorcyle mamas galore, Betty Page and pin-up art, Luciana Paluzzi (“Thunderball”), mod scooters, the Shangri-La’s, Batgirl, Marianne Faithfull, Bridget Bardot (who sang her own classic “Harley Davidson”), Ann Margaret, Crepax’s “Valentina” comics, Francoise Hardy and “Pravda” -the pop art comic she inspired, Janis Joplin, hippie hedonism, Black Canary, biker grrrl movies like “Hell’s Belles” vesus bike mag pin-ups, Betty Davis, and the Runaways. Everyone your mother warned you about or may have been!

About SHOCKING BLUE: They started as a male rocking quartet in Holland who had the good fortune to replace their lead singer with Mariska Veres. Doe-eyed and direct, Mariska belted it out with the best of them. They broke through worldwide with the #1 smash, “Venus,” in 1970. Time has borne out the depth of their work; their catalog is rich with strong melodies in varied styles which have given them a cult following. Artists as diverse as BANANARAMA (“Venus”) to NIRVANA (“Love Buzz”), the PRODIGY (“Phoenix” uses “Love Buzz”) and FATBOY SLIM (sampled “Send Me a Postcard”) have tributed them. Mariska’s tough wail was the foil for the deft guitar work of Robbie van Leeuwen, a tasteful and inspired player who is much underrated. Their work from 1968 to 1975 is great stuff. Even a few reunion singles in ’86 and ’94 hold the chemistry. Sadly, Mariska passed in December of 2006, and this is dedicated with respect to her.

Check out these great sites:
http://www.myspace.com/motorcyclegirls

http://www.harley-davidson.com/wcm/Content/Pages/Women/women_history.jsp?locale=en_US

http://www.realdivasride.com/home.htm

http://dykesonbikes.org/1_women_history.html

http://www.bessiecoleman.com/

Pravda:
http://www.thegenre.com/mov/pravda.html

http://worldofkane.blogspot.com/2007/09/guy-peellaert-b.html

Shocking Blue:
http://shockingblue.ning.com/

(All rights reserved by the copyright owners. Fan-made video to promote the artist and awareness.)
http://www.youtube.com/funknroll
tym stevens