BEST OF 1985:Ry Cooder "Paris, Texas" (OST) (1985)

org. album cover

Paris, Texas (soundtrack)
release date: 1985
format: cd (1988 reissue)
[album rate: 4,5 / 5]
producer: Ry Cooder
label: Warner Bros. - nationality: USA

Tracklist: 1. "Paris, Texas" (4 / 5) - 2. "Brothers" - 3. "Nothing Out There" - 4. "Canción Mixteca" (5 / 5) (live version with Harry Dean Stanton) - 5. "No Safety Zone" - 6. "Houston in Two Seconds" (4 / 5) - 7. "She's Leaving the Bank" - 8. "On the Couch" - 9. "I Knew These People (feat. Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski)" - 10. "Dark Was the Night"

Soundtrack by Ry Cooder to the movie "Paris, Texas" from 1984, directed by Wim Wenders.
It's the music by dusty angels, and it suits this fantabulous movie like... cheese and red wine... a Ferrari and my garage... a pink sweater on Nastassja Kinski... like... hand in glove. I love the music just the way I love the movie by Wenders, which I may have seen 4 or 5 times and haven't found boring or too long yet. The music on this album is just perfect for an evening listening to old vinyl records, and I don't really need any other company - this is more than just fine. In my mind, this is by far Cooder's best album.
[ movie trailer ]

1985 Favourite releases: 1. Ry Cooder Paris, Texas - 2. The Smiths Meat Is Murder - 3. The Pogues Rum, Sodomy and the Lash

'my' alternate CD version and the 2001 remaster

Ry Cooder "Bop Till You Drop" (1979)

Bop Till You Drop
release date: Aug. 1979
format: digital
[album rate: 3 / 5]
producer: Ry Cooder
label: Warner Bros. - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Little Sister" - 3. "The Very Thing That Makes You Rich (Makes Me Poor)" - 8. "Don' t Mess Up a Good Thing" - 9. "I Can't Win"

7th studio album by Ry Cooder marks another change of style towards mainstream pop / rock. His first three albums were all dedicated to roots rock and americana with music written by "forgotten" composers from before WW2. On his fourth album Paradise and Lunch (1974) he incorporated more contemporary music with a new style: jazz. On his fifth album Chicken Skin Music (1976) he mixed his americana style with gospel and Hawaiian music, and on his sixth studio album, Jazz (1978), well, I guess that sort of says it all. On this album he does what he has become famous for: re-arranging other artists compositions in new ways. The selected songs are rhythm & blues and rock & roll classics, and in Cooder's versions they are all added a certain roots rock element. The album sold well, but I don't find it as good as his more stylistic "clean" and traditional arrangements. Although, it's solid workmanship, I find that it's too much r&b to my liking.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]

Ry Cooder "Boomer's Story" (1972)

Boomer's Story
release date: Nov. 1972
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]
producer: Jim Dickinson, Lenny Waronker
label: Reprise Records - nationality: USA

3rd studio album by Ry Cooder who keeps to his roots rock combining with americana. It's really impressive how this young-less-than-25-yo man sounds like a mature cowboy doing the blues of his life. This is just as impressive as his 2nd album, Into the Purple Valley (also 1972).
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

Ry Cooder "Into the Purple Valley" (1972)

Into the Purple Valley
release date: Feb. 1972
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]
producer: Jim Dickinson, Van Dyke Parks, Lenny Waronker
label: Reprise Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 3. "Money Honey" - 4. "F.D.R. in Trinidad" - 5. "Teardrops Will Fall" (3,5 / 5) - 7. "On A Monday" - 8. "Hey Porter" - 11. "Vigilante Man"

2nd studio album by Ry Cooder is an even bolder return to the heart of sources to contemporary rock. He interprets Agnes Cunningham, Leadbelly, Johnny Cash, and Woody Guthrie, and a number of other artists who made music in the earliest decades of the century. I have never been a great fan of the blues, traditional rhythm & blues nor country, but one has to hand it to Cooder: he does a fabulous job in making this music live again, and the album has an authenticity and genuine quality that simply came in smaller dozes on his debut. At the point of recording the album Cooder is 22 years old but mostly just sounds like a mature man with a long and lively life behind him.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]

Ry Cooder "Ry Cooder" (1970)

Ry Cooder [debut]
release date: Dec. 1970
format: digital
[album rate: 2,5 / 5]
producer: Van Dyke Parks, Lenny Waronker
label: Reprise Records - nationality: USA

Studio debut album by Ry Cooder is a blues rock, roots rock, and an americana album, though, I find that the blues element is the most dominant genre here. It's not bad not at all, only traditional blues doesn't appeal much to me. Cooder is famous for mixing styles and genres in his own blend of roots rock, I just find that The Band does this better. However, the album is interesting for being released in 1970 when blues rock was almost pseudonymous with electrified rock with reminiscence of Hendrix in one way or another, and then: this has no link at all to that, but goes beyond Hendrix, the whole psychedelic rock pond, and perhaps reaches out for the very sources to contemporary artists like Hendrix: Leadbelly, Blind Willie Johnson, and the like of the earliest decades of the century.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]