"'Bad Motor Scooter" was the second track from the album Montrose

Montrose (album)

Montrose is the debut album by the band Montrose in 1973 which was produced by Ted Templeman.- History :After having done sessions work for various musicians including Van Morrison, Herbie Hancock and Edgar Winter, this was Ronnie Montrose's first record leading his own band. It featured then...

by the band of the same name

Montrose (band)

Montrose was a California-based hard rock band. The band originally featured Ronnie Montrose on guitar and future solo artist and former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar...

. It, along with "Rock Candy" was arguably the best known song by the band, Montrose

Montrose (band)

Montrose was a California-based hard rock band. The band originally featured Ronnie Montrose on guitar and future solo artist and former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar...

, with lyrics penned by frontman Sammy Hagar

Sammy Hagar

Sam Roy "Sammy" Hagar , also known as The Red Rocker, is an American rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Also sings Country Music....

. The song's intro, a distorted electric slide guitar

Slide guitar

Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...

 sound which closely emulates that of a revving motorcycle

Motorcycle

A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...

, became the defining component of the song. When the song was conceived before this guitar sound, the band and Ted Templeman

Ted Templeman

Ted Templeman is an American record producer.-Career:He began his career in the mid 1960s in the Santa Cruz area as a drummer in a band called The Tikis. At the suggestion of Lenny Waronker, the group decided to change their name. Harpers Bizarre was born in 1966, with Templeman switching to...

 were not impressed because they thought it was missing a "hook", to make it stand out. Ronnie Montrose

Ronnie Montrose

Ronnie Montrose, is an Amercian rock guitarist who has headed his own bands as well as performing with a variety of musicians, including Sammy Hagar, Herbie Hancock, Van Morrison, The Beau Brummels, Boz Scaggs, Beaver & Krause, Gary Wright, Tony Williams, The Neville Brothers, Dan Hartman, Edgar...

 stumbled upon it while messing with a slide and fuzz box one day in the studio. Playing his guitar in Open D tuning

Open D tuning

Open D tuning is an open tuning for the acoustic or electric guitar. The open string notes in this tuning are: D A D F♯ A D. It uses the three notes that form the triad of a D major chord: D, the root note; A, the perfect fifth; and F♯, the major third...

, Montrose improvised what became the motorcycle sound — although Templeman and engineer Donn Landee kept him going when they failed to get the tape rolling. []

When performed live by the original Montrose line up, Sammy Hagar would play the "motorcycle" introduction on a lap steel slide guitar. Hagar provided the same intro when Chickenfoot

Chickenfoot (band)

Chickenfoot is an American rock supergroup, consisting of former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony , solo artist Joe Satriani and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. The band released their self-titled debut album, Chickenfoot, on June 5, 2009...

, the supergroup composed of Hagar, Joe Satriani

Joe Satriani

Joseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...

, Michael Anthony and Chad Smith

Chad Smith

Chad Smith is an American musician, best known as the longtime and current drummer of Red Hot Chili Peppers. Smith is also the drummer of the hard rock supergroup Chickenfoot which includes Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, and Michael Anthony, former Deep Purple vocalist Glenn Hughes' backing band and...

, performed a version during their live performances.

The song has also been included on the Sammy Hagar compilation The Essential Red Collection

The Essential Red Collection

The Essential Red Collection is a greatest hits compilation by Sammy Hagar. It includes some of his early works, from "Bad Motor Scooter" with Montrose, released demos, film soundtrack cuts to more recent material. It was released in 2004 on Hip-O Records...

. Hagar still plays this song quite frequently in his live act.

In 1991, Soundgarden

Soundgarden

Soundgarden is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1984 by singer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto...

 released an album called Badmotorfinger

Badmotorfinger

Badmotorfinger is the third studio album by the American grunge band Soundgarden, released on October 8, 1991 through A&M Records. After touring in support of its previous album, Louder Than Love , Soundgarden began the recording sessions for its next album with new bassist Ben Shepherd...

.