Ry Cooder: Help me out here!

Ry Cooder + Vigilante Man = Perfection

 

Try Bop Till You Drop, Paradise & Lunch and Chicken Skin Music. The rest will follow.

 

The Show Time live recording is worth picking up as it's better than a compilation and provides a good overview of early material. Of the more recent albums The Prodigal Son is up there with his classic albums, and that one with Taj Mahal which he put out last year is also entirely wonderful.

 

.....and here's the best track. Is there a slide guitar solo on this track? Hell, yeah!

 

I guess he's just not hip anymore. Into The Purple Valley Boomer's Story and Paradise and Lunch were staples in college. The first time I heard Earl Hines was on a Ry Cooder record. And he was legendary for being both in The Magic Band and one of those almost Stones, the guy who inspired Let It Bleed.

 

I always saw Ry as being intentionally, and admirably, unhip.

 

I think what turned me on to him first was the sound of my vinyl Chicken Skin Music.....it sounds so good.

 

That one too.

 

"Jazz"

"Long Riders"....."Johnny Handsome"........"Paris,TX"....."Crossroads"

"Chicken Skin Music"

 

Maybe this could help to better understand the importance of Ry Cooder:

 

I think The Slide Area was the first I can remember of him songwriting.

IIRC, there was a very good article interview with him on why he interpreted other peoples songs on most of his records.

 

I own Paris, Texas OST and like it a great deal. If I were to put, say, 4 Ry Cooder vinyl LPs on my Discogs wantlist, which 4 should they be? Don't know his music otherwise.

 

Bop Til You Drop got me solidly on the bus. I have to say that The Prodigal Sun gets the most workout lately. This is a taste-
Ry Cooder - The Prodigal Son (Live in studio) (youtube.com)

 

I’d say Paradise and Lunch and Chicken Skin Music for sure.

 

I bought a dozen albums a couple years ago. I really like Get Rhythm, Chicken Skin Music, The Slide Area, Prodigal Son, Boomer's Story, and the 2 disc film score compilation, Music by Ry Cooder.

He's not a traditional film score composer. It just sounds like Ry without vocals.

 

He did do covers, yes, and the attraction was his guitar playing. I’ve got almost all of his albums and love his playing. The Slide Area was the first album of original (mostly) songs. His soundtracks are terrific as well.

 

Worked in a Record/Stereo store at the time Bop Til You Drop came out. The staff loved putting that great digitally recorded album on the turntable of the most expensive system in the store and cranking it up. I finally found a Target CD of Bop a few weeks ago and truly enjoyed reliving those days in the record store.

 

I was disappointed with the sound quality of the box set Reprise released a few years ago (of his main albums, not the soundtracks box). I'm generally not a stickler for sound quality, but these sounded to me like they reused older masterings, and the volume was notably low.

 

His work with Ali Farke Toure, Buena Vista Social Club and his own "Chavez Ravine" album are highlights for me...his playing with Randy Newman on some of his early albums stands out as well.

 

There is a lot of Ry that I like but I guess I would suggest these...

Ry Cooder – Bop Till You Drop

Genre: Rock
Style: Blues Rock, Rock & Roll
Year: 1979

Ry Cooder, Manuel Galbán – Mambo Sinuendo

Genre: Latin
Style: Cubano
Year: 2003


Ry Cooder & V.M. Bhatt* – A Meeting By The River

Genre: Jazz, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Hindustani, Fusion
Year: 1993


Ry Cooder – The Prodigal Son

Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Year: 2018

 

A lot of people on this forum would consider that a positive

 

Start out with Captain Beefheart's Safe as Milk from 1967, with a very young Ry Cooder bending around the Captain's bizarre carnival of madness...

 

Don’t to forget to remember…


Rising Sons, from L: Taj Mahal, Jesse Lee Kincaid, Gary Marker, Ry Cooder and Kevin Kelley 1965.

 

The Paris Texas record is obviously a score to a movie, so its good to watch the movie if you haven't already seen it to understand why it sounds the way it does. I personally think the score he did for Watler Hill's Southern Comfort was a precursor to ParisTexas .. it has that similar ambient quality. But there was never a record released for it. Apparently just not enough music made for the film to release a record for it. They were is a soundtrack compilation released in the 90s which has the best tracks from it and it worth getting as it has a lot of his best music for film on it.

Its hard to answer as he has been around a very long time and has different era's in his discography. Of his early records on Reprise, from Purple Valley, Boomers, Paradise and Lunch and Chicken Skin most people consider his best records. I personally like Boomers the best. Its the most bluesey and gritty of the bunch. I also really like some of his later era records, Chavez Ravine is my favorite. There is also the world music era where he did a lot of records with other instrumentalists. Meeting by the River, Talking Timbuktu and Mambo Sinuendo are my favorites. There is also of course Buense Vista Social club, though I am not that big a fan of that one. Of his soundtracks, I think Johnny Handsome, Geronimo, and Long Riders are my favs.

cheers

 

I think the soundtracks box set is the same. I have it and i also compared some of the CDs to the individual CD releases that I have in my collection that I bought in the 90s. Its seems to be the exact same release -- just in a box set. No remastering. But Warners Japan did remaster his releases and those sound amazing. I am slowly collecting them.