The importance of being wild

by Posted on

This is a high­ly enter­tain­ing, if breezy, col­lec­tion of anec­dotes that amounts to a teary-eyed bit of hero wor­ship. Hayes loves his superla­tives and nev­er miss­es a chance to point out that some things, like Amer­i­can lager, will nev­er be improved on.

Hayes seems stuck between two agen­das. It’s imper­a­tive to paint the Booze­fight­ers MC in as admirable and harm­less a light pos­si­ble, so that no one could doubt that «the media» wrong­ful­ly exag­ger­at­ed the events in Hol­lis­ter in 1947 and for­ev­er maligned the face of motor­cy­cling. As result, no mat­ter how many times Hayes refers to the Booze­fight­ers as «the real wild ones» (at least five times per chap­ter) they just nev­er come off as all that wild.

I find myself wish­ing that Hayes would let the sto­ries stand on their own. They’re amus­ing, but the com­bi­na­tion of Hayes’ con­stant reminders of how wild the Booze­fight­ers were and are with the boy­ish «aw, shucks» nature of the sto­ries make the sto­ries and the men seem dimin­ished. The Booze­fight­ers deserve the respect that comes from the truth of their sto­ries, not the rev­er­ence that comes from mythol­o­giz­ing and overinflation.

«Scar­face» aka «Flesh» will prob­a­bly want to kick my ass for crit­i­ciz­ing the book. I havent been rid­ing long enough to say shit about the BFMC. That’s true and I’ll glad­ly buy a round of bev­er­ages for the boys in Green and White. I have how­ev­er been read­ing for almost thir­ty-three years so I hope I’m enti­tled to my opin­ions about the book.

Published by splicer

7 Replies to “The importance of being wild”

  1. I just picked this book up
    I just picked this book up last night. I have a dif­fer­ent rea­son for read­ing it though. 

    The BFMC was labeled an “out­law” motor­cy­cle club because they did not fol­low the AMA rules for com­pe­ti­tion, not because they were always break­ing the law. The gen­er­al pub­lic has twist­ed the AMA def­i­n­i­tion of “out­law” motor­cy­cle club. Oth­er “out­law” clubs (i.e. Hells Angels) have per­pet­u­ate this twist. 

    I’m sure most of the sto­ries in this book have been embell­ished upon over the years. 

    If you’re look­ing for some good motor­cy­cle relat­ed read­ing mate­r­i­al, might I sug­gest Mon­key Butt by Rick Sie­man: http://www.superhunky.com/Monkey.htm

    Anoth­er one that may be of inter­est is Steve McQueen 40 Sum­mers Ago: http://shop.robertaugust.com/accessories/books/40summers.html

    1. As being one of the peo­ple
      As being one of the peo­ple who researched infor­ma­tion the book, I can assure you that the sto­ries were cross-referenced. 

      Also, you need to remem­ber, that these were the guys that start­ed every­thing. Don’t think in terms now. think in terms of just after the war. 

      What kind of met­tle do you think it takes to ride in the mid­dle of win­ter to Chica­go, after all?

      1. As Thom Stark likes to say,
        As Thom Stark likes to say, “orthog­o­nal.”

        The sto­ries were cross-ref­er­enced. Um. Thanks for shar­ing. So what? So they’re like­ly to be true? Well, I already believed them all. What’s your point?

        And no, they did­n’t fuck­ing start every­thing. Before them were hun­dreds of gen­er­a­tions of wild ones. Hayes goes on and on to point out that the orig­i­nal wild ones were just look­ing to have some fun. I can look to sto­ries from my father’s youth and from my grand­fa­ther’s youth that are just as “wild.” Hell, when the ABC­C­it group went up to Lost Coast to meet The Sur­vivors up there, Sad­dle­tramp fell off the back of Turnsignal Tim’s bike and every­one laughed. Why should I read a book of sto­ries like that when I could be out liv­ing them?

        What kind of met­tle it takes to ride in the mid­dle of win­ter to Chica­go? Yeah, some kind. I respect that. But it cer­tain­ly does­n’t make any­one myth­i­cal. Shit, I know peo­ple that have done that solo on a bicy­cle in the win­ter­time, and I know peo­ple who have walked from the Pacif­ic to the Atlantic, one who has done it six times since he was released from prison at age 50. That’s a sym­bol of free­dom that noth­ing in that book com­pares to.

        Ulti­mate­ly, it came down to this. I loved the sec­tions where the Booze­fight­ers were telling sto­ries of what hap­pened. I was­n’t that thrilled with Hayes’ edi­to­ri­al­iz­ing about them. All that “there’s a broth­er­hood of class, the true orig­i­nals” hero-wor­ship crap just watered down the impres­sive stuff that came from the mouths of the Boozefighters.

        I liked the sec­tion you were cred­it­ed with. You did­n’t edi­to­ri­al­ize, or if you did it did­n’t make it into the book. You gath­ered up what Dago, Jim Cameron, and Earl Car­los said and it stood on its own. Imag­ine how much bet­ter it would have been with­out being intro­duced as “the purest gold from an era of gold—biker gold.”

        The book would have been bet­ter with more Booze­fight­ers and less drool­ing over the Boozefighters.

        1. “The sto­ries were
          “The sto­ries were cross-ref­er­enced. Um. Thanks for shar­ing. So what? So they’re like­ly to be true? Well, I already believed them all. What’s your point?”

          I was­n’t refer­ing to you, defen­sive boy.

          “And no, they did­n’t fuck­ing start every­thing. Before them were hun­dreds of gen­er­a­tions of wild ones.”

          I did­n’t say they start every­thing. They start­ed the motor­cy­cle cul­ture as it exists today.

          “Shit, I know peo­ple that have done that solo on a bicy­cle in the wintertime”

          As you’ll soon find out, rid­ing in win­ter weath­er on a motor­cy­cle is not any­thing com­pa­ra­ble to rid­ing a bicy­cle in the win­ter. A ride up to Truc­k­ee should illus­trate this in about three weeks.

          “I liked the sec­tion you were cred­it­ed with”

          I did a lot more with ther book than that. Lots of research, and 3/4 of the pho­tos are mine.

  2. I’m six chap­ters into the
    I’m six chap­ters into the book and, so far, find the sto­ries amus­ing and humor­ous. Maybe it’s the fact I’ve been involved with motor­cy­cle clubs for a few years. The old guys always have some great sto­ries from some by-gone era. 

    In my, short, 21 years on two-wheels I’ve got some amus­ing sto­ries as well. Oh sure, at the time they did­n’t seem all that fun­ny. Now, look­ing back, they’re hilarious.

    1. The sto­ries? great. The
      The sto­ries? great. The edi­to­ri­al­iz­ing and sen­sa­tion­al­iz­ing of the sto­ries is what I can do with­out. With his “pure bik­er gold” and “stuff of leg­ends” and con­stant ref­er­ences to the Booze­fight­ers as “the orig­i­nal wild ones” (as opposed to “the orig­i­nal Wild Ones”) he’s done exact­ly the same thing that the reporters did about Hol­lis­ter in 1947.

      I def­i­nite­ly enjoyed the book and I hope not to ruin your enjoy­ment of it. I think that it’s a worth­while read, I just did­n’t like what I thought was an over­ly romanta­cized treat­ment of some great, oth­er­wise mat­ter-of-fact stories.

      1. “he’s done exact­ly the same
        “he’s done exact­ly the same thing that the reporters did about Hol­lis­ter in 1947.”

        The reporters showed up a day late, and made shit up, with no truth to what hap­pened what­so­ev­er. None

        How is that the same thing?