This article is about the slang expression "easy rider." There is also an article about the movie Easy Rider.

Easy rider is an arcane United States slang expression whose meaning has varied with time.

In the early 20th century African American communities it meant someone who was comfortable to have sexual intercourse with, or someone skilled at sex. The term appears in numerous blues lyrics of the 1920s. In 192A famous early folk-blues tune takes its title from a variant of the expression, rendered as "See see rider" or "C.C. rider". One derivation of this term says it from the recreational ground fixture known as a seesaw is usually noted in conjunction with the term "see see rider", the act of mutual intercourse being compared to the lever mechanism of the seesaw itself. An alternative explanation says that what sounds like "see see" was just a folk variation on the term "easy". Other early uses of the term include the 1924 jazz recording by Johnny Bayersdorffer 's Jazzola Novelty Orchestra entitled "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Riding Now".

In the World War II era the slang term re-emerged with a modified meaning, where G.I.s on extended deployment in Asia or Europe (unofficially) employed children to perform the daily mundane tasks so common in the military like tending to barracks, shining boots, and the like, so a G.I. who employed a houseboy coasted through this work and had an "easy ride".

Eventually young native women were hired to tend to individual living quarters and soon became lovers as well as maids.

When these men left and other G.I.'s took their place, the women, accustomed to the workload, would remain to perform the same services, sometimes preparing gear or a living area for inspection better than the soldier could.

The term "easy rider" then was actually an endearing term and many G.I.s fathered children with these women, but left them behind when the war ended. The arrangement was resumed in the Korean War some years later but the practice was heavily discouraged, but it is common to see a houseboy in the popular Korean War sitcom M.A.S.H. cleaning or helping out around the fort or camp.

The term finally re-emerged in the "free-love" cultural era of the 1960s and was first applied to women who practiced free love. A man who lived with this type of woman had a free or easy ride, since the woman still did most of the chores even though woman's liberation had much influence on women at this time.

The term soon acquired a negative connotation however as it became a degrogatory way to describe a woman a hippie could shack up with and then leave abruptly and who would not get angry if he came back later. Soon it was applied to prostitutes whom it was easy to steal from or who simply traded her charms for a small amount of food or drugs.

Although the term is similiar to the "See See Rider Blues" song recored by Ma Rainey in 1925, the song and others like it used the loneliness of a rider off the rails or wanderer as a theme in their music, it is coincidence that the Easy Rider movie had wandering motorcyle riders as its characters.

Led Zeppelin, although a rock band, was heavily influenced by early jazz and blues and make reference in several of their albums to an 'easy rider', most notably the song "Out on the Tiles" makes reference to this free love practice and the cultural impact of it as he is both proud and ashamed to be seen with a woman known to be an "easy rider":

"I'm so glad I'm living 
and gonna tell the world I am,
I got me a fine woman 
and she says that I'm her man,
One thing that I know for sure 
gonna give her all the loving
Like nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody can.
Standing in the noonday sun 
trying to flag a ride,
People come and people go, 
see my rider right by my side,
It's a total disgrace, 
they set the pace, it must be a race
And the best thing I can do is run."