It sounds pretty light hearted but is a complex subject....music in the shop. It depends on ones' personal taste what they play while working on their motorcycle, project, ect. Personally, and i'll say it right now, I'm weird when it comes to music. I listen to many different bands, and different kinds of music, but the best way to categorize how i choose the toones I wrench to are as follows. Firstly I have to dispell any myths....I don't listen to cbc....EVER. I'm not a fan of country music and no amount of tequila will make my clothes fall off, my wife didn't leave me, the cat didn't die, my car didn't break down, and I have never cried in my beer. Then there is all this gangsta music, you know, flat peaked ball cap on sideways, baggy jeans hanging half way down their asses, talking tough, every second word is M-F....not in my shop. Then we come to this loud, screaming noise, probably recorded after drinking a case of (pick your energy drink)...that sounds like some tortured soul performing a sex act with the auger of a running snow blower.....no good. When you dawn the door of my shop, the music you will hear will be directly related to one of two things. They are either the task at hand, or the particular bike I'm working on. With the task at hand, I could be working on anything, but the music being played at that time is related to what I'm doing. For example, if I'm doing an oil change you may hear dirty deeds done dirt cheap, by AC/DC playing. By contrast, if I were replacing the drive line on a bike you may hear the chain by Fleetwood Mac. Replacing bad wheel bearings would be you shook me by Led Zeppelin, or installing a new exhaust would be honey hush by Foghat. Then there is the other scenario, where I'm working on a particular bike, say a 1967 Yamaha YR-1. In this case, and since I firmly believe that motorcycles are living, breathing, and very unique entities, I go a different route. The platform lift is my operating table, and the shop is the O.R. Now ask yourself, if I were going on the table wouldn't I like to hear music from my youth, to comfort me while being worked on?? So, in the case of the 67 Yamaha, I tend to play music from the era in which the bike was built. In this case there is a wide range of stuff to play, but Jimi Hendrix, Grand Funk Railroad, Amboy Dukes and Creedence Clearwater Revival seem to do the trick. Change the bike on the lift and change the music. I once restored a Canadian made snomobile and played Gordon Lightfoot, BTO, and Chilliwack, and all was good. There is one time in the course of restoring a motorcycle where only one song gets played. The time I'm talking about is when you've just brought home a new project bike, which is missing many parts, full of rust and spider webs, flat, cracked, rotten tires, rusted rims, and broken plastic. This new project is now on the lift table, and I'm sitting on a bar stool, sipping a James Ready, smoking a Captain Black cigar, with a big smile on my face, imagining what could be....and the only song suitable for this particular time is one piece at a time by Jonny Cash, because it's going to be a major effort to piece this bike back together....now, if i only had a friend who works for Kawasaki, the 72 Bighorn might stand a chance!!!! |
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