words and music by Arlo Guthrie
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CHORUS:
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I don't want a pickle
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Just want to ride on my motorsickle
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And I don't want a tickle
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'Cause I'd rather ride on my motorsickle
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And I don't want to die
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Just want to ride on my motorcy...cle
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It was late last night the other day
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I thought I'd go up and see Ray
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So l went up and I saw Ray
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There was only one thing Ray could say, was:
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CHORUS
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This song is about the time that I was ridin' my motorcycle.
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Going down a mountain road, at 150 miles an hour, playin'
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my guitar. On one side of the mountain road there was a
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mountain, and on the other side there was nothin' - there was
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a cliff in the air.
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Now, when you're going down a mountain road at I50 miles
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an hour you gotta be very careful, especially if you're playin'
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a guitar. Especially if that guitar is an acoustic guitar.
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Because if it's an acoustic guitar, the wind pressure is greater
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on the box side than on the neck side, because there's
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more guitar on the box side. I wasn't payin' attention ..
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Luckily I didn't go into the mountain - I went over the cliff.
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I was goin' at 150 miles an hour sideways and 500 feet down
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at the same time.
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I knew it was the end. I looked down, I said ''Wow! Some
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trip". I thought it...well I knew it was...I knew it was my last
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trip, and in my last remaining seconds in world,I decided
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to write one last farewell song to the world.
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Put a new ink cartridge in my pen. Took out a piece of paper.
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I sat back and I thought awhile. Then I started writin':
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I don't want a pickle
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Just want to ride on my motorsickle
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And I don't want a tickle
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'Cause I'd rather ride on my motorsickle
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And I don't want to die
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Just want to ride on my motorcy ...cle."
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I knew that, it wasn't the best song l ever wrote, but I didn't
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have time to change it. I was comin' down mighty fast.
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But as you all know, and as fate would have it, I didn't die. I
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landed on the top of a police car. And he died. I drove away
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on the road that he was on. I came into town at a screamin'
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175 miles an hour, playin' the motorcycle song.
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I came into town, I jumped off my bike, the bike went around
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the corner by itself, went up on the stand by itself, turned
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itself off.
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I walked over to my friend. He was standin' there eatin'
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pickles. I said "Hi, what's happenin'?" He looked at me in the
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eye and said "Nothin'".
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You gotta sing it with that kind of enthusiasm. Like you just
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squashed a cop...
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CHORUS
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The Motorcycle Song (in album Arlo)
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| Arlo Guthrie |
