# Motorcycle jingles **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 18, 2004, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycle-jingles/251028 "2004-06-18T13:19:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2004, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycle-jingles/251028/1 "2004-06-18T13:19:44Z")
As I was riding yesterday, I thought of the old jingles they used to sing on motorcycle commercials when I was a kid. I started wondering what the lyrics were. I’ve found Yamaha’s: > [@](#): > > Get aboard the Silver Bird, > It’s a magical machine. > Satisfy your Walter Mitty mind, > tryin’ out a dream. > Your sign is Capricorn and > every corner of your mind > says you’ll remain my friend, > a friend for all my time. > Yamaha, won’t you fly me away, > Yamaha, take me into the day, > Yamaha, come and give me a ride > and let us go see > what’s on the other side. > Yamaha, won’t you fly me away. > Yamaha, today is the day. I seem to remember part of it as: > [@](#): > > Yamaha, won’t you fly me away > Today is the day, don’t look the other way > Yamaha, today is the day! The site where I found the lyrics describes the first quote as a poem in a brochure printed in 1974. Maybe they modified it for the commercian jingle? Can anyone clear that up, and does anyone know the words to the jingles for: **Honda** : “Get yourself a Honda / Built like a watch that was meant to last a hundred years…” **Kawasaki** : “Kawasaki lets the good times roll / Kawasaki lets the good times roll…” **Suzuki** : “Forget your troubles / Get on [a] Suzuki / We’re looking for a better way…” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycle-jingles/251028/2 "2004-06-19T18:32:20Z")
_sigh_ More childhood memories lost to time… ☹ I used to like the old jingles. Someone posted the Levi’s jingle (Lee-hee-hee-hee-hee-vi’s!) jingle a while ago. Oh, those wacky '70s! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2004, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycle-jingles/251028/3 "2004-06-19T20:05:37Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > **Kawasaki** : “Kawasaki lets the good times roll / Kawasaki lets the good times roll…” …get aboard , get away and you’re gonna say let the good times roll." ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycle-jingles/251028/4 "2004-06-20T02:31:54Z")
Aha! That rings a bell! Was that all there is to it? ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycle-jingles/251028/5 "2004-06-20T03:34:55Z")
**Johnny LA** The song is called “ **Silver Bird** ” and was released 1970 by \*\*Mark Lindsay \*\* (formerly of Paul Revere and the Raiders). Mark Lindsay was an avid motorcycle rider, so the association of the song and the bike was a natural. Oh and the orginal song is NOT about a motorcycle. It’s funny, when I saw the thread title, I thought “Hey, I’ll post something really obscure”. - yet that was the first jingle listed !!! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycle-jingles/251028/6 "2004-06-20T13:49:11Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s funny, when I saw the thread title, I thought “Hey, I’ll post something really obscure”. - yet that was the first jingle listed !!! I’m a life-long Yamaha rider, so that’s probably why it’s the one I thought of first. But your trivia is certainly obscure! I always thought they just made it up for the advert. (I did know that Kawasaki and Suzuki were using old popular songs.) To broaden the thread a little bit: Newer motorcycle commercials seem dull to me. When I was a kid, watching the commercials I mentioned, it was all about _fun_. The message was it’s _fun_ to ride a motorcycle. The jingles were happy tunes, and the images were of happy people riding through pretty country. “You meet the nicest people on a Honda.” (That one is a little “before my time”, but I’ve seen it somewhere.) Nowadays it’s all about speed or toughness, and interest rates. I guess it’s not surprising. “Back in the day” we had Standards and Dirt Bikes. Some of the standards were modified into off-road bikes, and some were more suited to riding fast on the freeway. But they were still Standard-class. In the 1980s bikes started to be more specialised. We got Sportbikes. Cruisers became more popular. The 1970s Honda Gold Wing 1000 evolved from a Standard “muscle bike” into a bloated Tourer. The UJM (“Universal Japanese Motorcycle”) became less desireable to people who were looking for bikes to fulfill specific missions such as racing, touring, cruising, etc. Not that that’s a _bad_ thing! I love my R-1. But by making “niche” bikes, I think they can no longer focus simply on fun. They have to tout the racing heritage of the sport bikes, the off-road prowess of the dirt bikes, the “coolness” of the cruisers… They just can’t show people out enjoying a nice ride any more. I’d love to see motorcycle commercials that focus on fun. I think they should also emphasize economy, in these days of ever-increasing fuel prices. IMO a Standard bike is a good overall machine. It’s comfortable, it gets good mileage, and it’s fun to just put around country lanes. I don’t know what kind of jingle they’d use (_Roman P_ by Psychic TV comes to mind, but it’s already been used in a VW commercial), but I can see images of people just enjoying the open air. Or they can show people having fun on two wheels and insert a gentle reminder that the bike gets 40-50 mpg. But I’d love to just see a motorcycle with people having fun, and a catchy tune. (As I type this, the Choice Hotels commercial with Johnny Cash singing “I’ve been everywhere, man…” is playing. 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycle-jingles/251028/7 "2004-06-20T13:53:18Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > Aha! That rings a bell! Was that all there is to it? I’m sure there’s more, but it’s been over 30 years since I last saw it. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycle-jingles/251028/8 "2004-06-20T16:03:53Z")
In the 60’s the jingle for Honda was “You meet the nicest people on a Honda”. We spent summers in Plymouth, MA and it was not uncommon to see someone dressed up as a Pilgrim (guides at the rock or the Mayflower) riding a Honda motor-scooter. We’d always sing at the top of our lungs “You meet the nicest _Pilgrims_ on a Honda”. Cracked me up every time. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motorcycle-jingles/251028/9 "2004-06-20T16:31:20Z")
“You meet the nicest people on a Honda” was a jingle? I thought it was just a slogan.