“To the Edge I Ride” from Harley Davidson: King of the Road

Into Hell I Ride

When my good friend (and the voice of Daytona USA) Takenobu Mitsuyoshi came to me asking for help with an upcoming Harley-Davidson game he was working on, I jumped at the chance. Takenobu and I met during a meeting before a trip to the Game Developers Conference, and we instantly hit it off, but this was the first time we got to work together properly.

He wrote a suitably rockin’ song for a Harley game, but needed similarly suitable lyrics to go with it. Since we are talking about a Harley arcade game here, I brought out every badass term I could think of — horsepower, leather, brimstone, churning, burning… it’s all here.

The original title of this song was “Into Hell I Ride,” which I thought amped up the badassery to the max, but the powers that didn’t like it saying h-e-double-hockey-sticks, so it became “To the Edge I Ride.” Not as badass, but it’ll do.

Another fun fact: these lyrics have put me in the same credits as luminaries like Ritchie Blackmore, David Coverdale, and Ian Gillian. Of course, I didn’t work with these legends, but still, how cool is that?

I also performed the menu voice for this game, which you can check out on my Voice page.

The other thing I had to do was coach Takenobu on how to sing this stuff. These are not easy lyrics to sing, as I spared no syllable in the making of them. But he did a great job (of course), and you can hear the results in the video embed above, or better yet, buy the album and sing along with the lyrics below!

Lyrics

Engine churning
Tires burning
Glory’s calling, and it’s to the edge I ride

Lone eagle spreads its wings
Flies straight into the coming storm
Lost spirit riding to my fate

Hot sun scorching my face
Ice water pumping in my veins
Grim Reaper choking in my wake

Like beating drums the engine hums a lonely battle cry
Rolling thunder from Death Valley to the Rio Grande
One hundred horses drive this chariot of burning steel
Saddle up, and ride on

Engine churning
Tires burning
Glory’s calling, and it’s to the edge I ride

Fire and brimstone
Leather and chrome
Glory’s calling, and it’s to the edge I ride

Sound and fury
Fall before me
Glory’s calling, and it’s to the edge I ride

The road never ends
To the edge I ride