RY COODER
''SOUNDTRACKS, DISC ONE''
SEPTEMBER 29 2014
256:50
DISC ONE - THE LONG RIDERS (1980) - 35:37
REVIEW
by Steven McDonald
Ry Cooder's soundtrack for The Long Riders received a top-notch treatment from Warner Bros. (Japan), who not only did an excellent remastering job, but backed it up with English lyrics to the songs, notes, and a Japanese insert. Cooder was in fine form with this score, using original material, unusual and anachronistic instruments (saz, tamboura, electric guitar), and elements of traditional songs from the Civil War period. As a result, the album can be appreciated as a unique entity, away from the film -- and bonded to the film, the music provides grace and power to the onscreen events.
1 The Long Riders
Ry Cooder 3:16
2 I'm a Good Rebel
Ry Cooder / Traditional 2:20
3 Seneca Square Dance
Ry Cooder / Traditional 2:00
4 Archie's Funeral (Hold To God's Unchanging Hand)
Ry Cooder / Traditional 2:43
5 I Always Knew That You Were the One
Ry Cooder / David Lindley 3:08
6 Rally 'Round the Flag
Ry Cooder / Traditional 4:24
7 Wildwood Boys
Ry Cooder / Jim Dickinson 4:15
8 Better Things To Think About
Ry Cooder 1:26
9 Jesse James
Ry Cooder / Neil Morris 2:27
10 Cole Younger Polka
Ry Cooder / David Lindley 2:25
11 Escape From Northfield
Ry Cooder 1:15
12 Leaving Missouri
Ry Cooder / David Lindley 1:00
13 Jesse James
Ry Cooder / Traditional 5:02
George Bohannon/Horn, Sax (Baritone), Trombone
Curt Bouterse/Dulcimer
Oscar Brashear/Cornet
Bill Bryson/Banjo, Bass
Harry Carey/Vocals
Joe Chambers/Vocals
Lester Chambers/Vocals
Ry Cooder/Arranger, Bajo Sexto, Banjo, Bass, Guitar, Mandolin, Percussion, Saz, Vocals
Jim Dickinson/Harmonium, Organ, Piano
Mitch Greenhill/Guitar, Vocals
Linda Hennrick/Transcription
Milt Holland/Drums, Gong, Percussion, Timbales
Jim Keach/Vocals
Jim Keltner/Drums, Percussion
David Lindley/Banjo, Chumbus, Fiddle, Guitar, Guitar (Electric), Lap Steel Guitar, Mandolin, Tamboura, Zither
Reggie McBride/Bass
Pico Payne/Vocals
Baboo Pierre/Percussion
George Pierre/Percussion
Tom Sauber/Banjo, Fiddle, Guitar, Jaw Harp, Mandola
DISC TWO - PARIS, TEXAS (1985) - 33:36
REVIEW
By AllMusic
Suggestive of both the imagery of Wim Wenders' movie Paris, Texas and the desert itself, Ry Cooder's score is a peaceful, poetic journey into the soul of an acoustic guitar. "Paris, Texas," "Brothers," and "Nothing Out There" open the album as meditative blends of guitar twang and scratching ambient effects. The songs move at a pretty, slow place, and the opening track sees Cooder plucking his guitar's strings and letting that sound vibrate into thin air; it's a motif that he returns to repeatedly throughout the score. There's a bit of both humor and mystery to the stillness and the echoing, edgy sound effects that crop up. "Cancion Mixteca" includes a memorable turn on vocals by Harry Dean Stanton, singing in Spanish. "No Safety Zone" is almost completely ambient in its ethics, with fleeting experimental guitar playing, as the song works more as a mood-setter than a traditional song. "I Knew These People" begins with an extended segment of dialogue from the film before Cooder's somber guitar creeps in. The effect of the dialogue makes the track a fine, artistic statement, but the moment works better in the context of the movie than as a track on an album. The dialogue comes from a scene where the characters played by Stanton and Nastassja Kinski have a particularly emotional meeting. The majority of the score is delicate and stunningly pretty. The overall sense is that Cooder was reaching for spare, emotional movements. The score is stark, quiet, and as uplifting as it is sad. Cooder makes the music sound as modern and stylish as acoustic music can sound. The album is at once alien and organic. Since "I Knew These People" includes dialogue from Paris, Texas, the score works best for people who have seen the movie, but it's still a powerful and immensely evocative journey for those whose experience with the material is the album alone.
1 Paris, Texas
Ry Cooder 2:57
2 Brothers
Ry Cooder 2:07
3 Nothing Out There
Ry Cooder 1:35
4 Canción Mixteca
Ry Cooder / Traditional 4:17
5 No Safety Zone
Ry Cooder 1:55
6 Houston In Two Seconds
Ry Cooder 2:07
7 She's Leaving the Bank
Ry Cooder / Jim Dickinson 6:02
8 On the Couch
Ry Cooder 1:32
9 I Knew These People
Ry Cooder 8:43
10 Dark Was the Night
Ry Cooder / Blind Willie Johnson 2:52
Ry Cooder/Arranger, Guitars
Jim Dickinson/Guest Artist
Nastassja Kinski/Vocals
David Lindley/Guest Artist
Harry Dean Stanton/Guest Artist, Vocals
DISC THREE - ALAMO BAY (1985) - 34:36
REVIEW
by Richie Unterberger
One of Cooder's better film scores, though the picture itself vanished into obscurity. Five of the nine pieces are instrumental, and Cooder flavors his distinctly trembling blues guitar with shakuhachi and violin to create moody pieces evoking spare and desolate landscapes that owe as much to the tropics and the desert as the Delta. Also has some routine bar-band blues-rock songs, a country duet between John Hiatt and actress Amy Madigan, and cameo appearances by David Lindley, David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos, and Fear vocalist Lee Ving.
1 Theme From Alamo Bay
Ry Cooder 5:07
2 Gooks On Main Street
Ry Cooder / Jim Dickinson 3:53
3 Too Close
Ry Cooder / Jim Dickinson 3:23
4 Klan Meeting
Ry Cooder 2:46
5 Sailfish Evening
Para Ay Que Triste 3:59
6 The Last Stand (Alamo Bay)
Ry Cooder / Texas Fred Taylor / Lee Ving 2:59
7 Quatro Vicios
Traditional 3:29
8 Search & Destroy
Ry Cooder / Jim Dickinson 5:07
9 Glory
Ry Cooder 4:17
Ry Cooder/Bass, Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals
Bill Cuomo/Synthesizer
Jim Dickinson/Piano
Steve Douglas/Saxophone
Chris Ethridge/Bass
John Hiatt/Guitar, Vocals
David Hidalgo/Vocals
Jim Keltner/Drums, Percussion
Osamu Kitajima/Koto
Gayle LaVant/Harp
David Lindley/Guitar, Mandolin
Amy Madigan/Vocals
David Mansfield/Cello, Violin
Kazu Matsui/Percussion
Emil Richards/Percussion
Cesar Rosas/Vocals
Lee Ving/Harmonica, Vocals
DISC FOUR - BLUE CITY (1986) - 34:51
1 Blue City Down
Ry Cooder / Jim Dickinson 3:28
2 Elevation 13 Ft.
Ry Cooder 3:18
3 Marianne
Ry Cooder / Javier Escovedo feat: True Believers 2:59
4 Nice Bike
Ry Cooder 1:35
5 Greenhouse
Ry Cooder 4:18
6 Billy and Annie
Ry Cooder 2:44
7 Tell Me Something Slick
Ry Cooder / Jim Dickinson feat: Pops and 'Timer 2:50
8 Blue City
Ry Cooder 4:21
9 Don't Take Your Guns To Town
Johnny Cash / Ry Cooder 3:48
10 A Leader of Men
Ry Cooder 1:24
11 Not Even Key West
Ry Cooder 4:31
Jorge Calderón/Bass, Piano
Ry Cooder/Bass, Guitar, Mandolin, Piano, Vocals
Miguel Cruz/Percussion
Bill Cuomo/Synthesizer
Denny Degorio/Bass
Jim Dickinson/Drums, Keyboards, Piano
Nathan East/Bass
Alejandro Escovedo/Guitar (Rhythm)
Javier Escovedo/Guitar (Rhythm), Vocals
Terry Evans/Vocals (Background)
Kevin Foley/Drums
Jon Dee Graham/Guitar
Robert Greenidge/Drums (Steel)
Jim Keltner/Drums, Piano
Bobby King/Vocals (Background)
Gayle Levant/Harp
Michelle Manning/Piano
David Paich/Synthesizer
Steve Porcaro/Synthesizer
Benmont Tench/Organ
DISC FIVE - CROSSROADS (1986) - 37:47
REVIEW
by William Ruhlmann
The ersatz blues story of the film gives Ry Cooder leeway to turn in an impressive blues-derived soundtrack featuring Sonny Terry along with his usual collaborators Van Dyke Parks, Jim Keltner, Nathan East, and others. But it's Cooder's guitar playing that highlights the album.
1 Crossroads
Ry Cooder / Robert Johnson 4:24
2 Down In Mississippi
Ry Cooder / J.B. Lenoir 4:25
3 Cotton Needs Pickin'
Ry Cooder / Frank Frost / Richard "Shubby" Holmes / John Price / Otis Taylor 2:58
4 Viola Lee Blues
Ry Cooder / Noah Lewis 3:11
5 See You In Hell, Blind Boy
Ry Cooder 2:10
6 Nitty Gritty Mississippi
Fred Burch / Ry Cooder / Donald Hill 2:57
7 He Made A Woman Out Of Me
Fred Burch / Ry Cooder / Donald Hill 4:12
8 Feelin' Bad Blues
Ry Cooder 4:16
9 Somebody's Callin' My Name
Ry Cooder / Traditional 1:45
10 Willie Brown Blues
Ry Cooder / Joe Seneca 3:45
11 Walkin' Away Blues
Ry Cooder / Sonny Terry 3:36
George Bohannon/Horn, Horn (Baritone)
Jorge Calderón/Bass
Ry Cooder/Arranger, Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals
Miguel Cruz/Percussion
Jim Dickinson/Dolceola, Guitar, Organ, Piano, Vocals
Nathan East/Bass
Terry Evans/Vocals (Background)
Frank Frost/Harmonica, Vocals
Willie Green, Jr./Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Richard "Groove" Holmes/Bass
Kirby Johnson/Arranger, String Arrangements, Strings
Jim Keltner/Drums
Bobby King/Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Sam King/Vocals
John "Juke" Logan/Harmonica
Amy Madigan/Vocals
Arnold McCuller/Vocals
Van Dyke Parks/Piano
Alan Pasqua/Synthesizer
John Price/Drums
Joe Seneca/Vocals
Walt Sereth/Sax (Soprano)
William D. "Smitty" Smith/Organ
Otis Taylor/Guitar
Sonny Terry/Harmonica
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee/Harmonica
DISC SIX - JOHNNY HANDSOME (1989) - 41:37
1 Main Theme
Ry Cooder 1:55
2 I Can't Walk This Time/the Prestige
Ry Cooder 6:50
3 Angola
Ry Cooder 2:03
4 Clip Joint Rhumba
Ry Cooder / Jim Keltner 3:18
5 Sad Story
Ry Cooder 2:37
6 Fountain Walk
Ry Cooder 2:18
7 Cajun Metal
Ry Cooder 2:01
8 First Week At Work
Ry Cooder 1:06
9 Greasy Oysters
Ry Cooder / Jim Keltner 1:54
10 Smells Like Money
Ry Cooder / Jim Keltner 2:28
11 Sunny's Tune
Ry Cooder 2:56
12 I Like Your Eyes
Ry Cooder 2:24
13 Adios Donna
Ry Cooder 1:35
14 Cruising With Rafe
Ry Cooder / Jim Keltner 3:02
15 How's My Face
Ry Cooder 1:51
16 End Theme
Ry Cooder 3:19
Jim Keltner/Drums, Percussion
Ry Cooder/Producer, Guitar, Keyboards, Bass, Accordion, Fiddle, Percussion
Steve Douglas/Saxophone
DISC SEVEN - TRESPASS (1992) - 37:31
REVIEW
by Steven McDonald
Cooder's underscore for Trespass, performed with the help of drummer Jim Keltner and trumpeter Jon Hassell, is a moody, dark piece of work quite a bit removed from Cooder's usual territory -- Cooder has taken experimental jazz as a main influence here, mixing that with tones available from modern instruments and studio processing. The result is edgy and grim, so effective that even at low volume the music comes snarling at you.
1 Video Drive-By
Ry Cooder 1:55
2 Trespass (Main Title)
Ry Cooder 1:37
3 East St. Louis
Ry Cooder 2:01
4 Orgill Bros.
Ry Cooder 1:44
5 Goose and Lucky
Ry Cooder 3:35
6 You Think It's On Now
Ry Cooder 1:41
7 Solid Gold
Ry Cooder 0:58
8 Heroin
Ry Cooder 4:13
9 Totally Boxed In
Ry Cooder 6:48
10 Give 'Em Cops
Ry Cooder 2:06
11 Lucy In the Trunk
Ry Cooder 1:27
12 We're Rich
Ry Cooder 2:26
13 King of the Street
Ry Cooder / Jim Keltner 3:59
14 Party Lights
Junior Brown / Ry Cooder 3:00
Bunny Andrews/Vocals (Background)
Joe Brown, Jr./Guitar, Guitar (Steel), Vocals
Junior Brown/Guitar, Guitar (Steel), Vocals
Ry Cooder/Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm), Keyboards
Nathan East/Bass
David Hassel/Trumpet
Jon Hassell/Trumpet
Jim Keltner/Drums, Percussion
David Lindley/Fiddle
Van Dyke Parks/Piano
Larry Taylor/Bass, Bass (Upright)
REVIEW
By Martin Chilton, The Telegraph
When Harry Dean Stanton wanders across the bleached southwestern wasteland in the opening to Wim Winders' masterful film Paris, Texas, this laconic and haunting scene is set to the perfect music: Ry Cooder's bottleneck guitar adaptation of a Blind Willie Johnson blues song.
Wenders later said that he had the feeling the film was shot with a camera and a guitar, and that Cooder had created "sacred music".
The Paris, Texas album from 1985 is one of the finest film soundtracks, and is one of seven scores included in a new box set collection Ry Cooder: Soundtracks that also includes The Long Riders’ (1980), Music From Alamo Bay (1985), Blue City (1986), Crossroads (1986), Johnny Handsome (1989) and Trespass (1993).
The pairing with Wenders worked so well. There is a terrific version of Johnson's Dark Was The Night (Cold Was The Ground), and a memorable six-minute instrumental called She's Leaving the Bank, co-written by Cooder with Jim Dickinson. Cooder's incredibly atmospheric music helps make the film special but is also a treat to listen to just as an album of music.
Much of Cooder's best film score work has been done with director Walter Hill, especially on Hill’s re-invention of the Jesse James legend. Cooder said musician and director simply "understood one another", and it shows in the way Cooder provided a historically authentic score – using polkas, square dances, waltzes and other traditional tunes played by a small band that includes the peerless David Lindley on guitars and violin – to move away from the bombastic style that sometimes accompanies westerns. The soundtrack to The Long Riders is brief (36 minutes) but contains one of the most joyful tunes in Cooder's vast and distinguished repertoire: Seneca Square Dance.
Cooder's career has been incredibly varied and has included playing with rock bands such as The Rolling Stones as well as revitalising Thirties folk, adapting Tex Mex and celebrating Cuban music. One of his finest blues albums came when he worked again with Hill on Crossroads, which is a musical tribute to Robert Johnson, and includes a contribution from the great Sonny Terry. There are fine guests, too, on Alamo Bay, including John Hiatt, David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas.
Of course, some of the individual tracks on the various albums seem incongruous separated from the original film but there is plenty to enjoy on all seven records, whether with gentle instrumental tracks such as Billie and Annie from Blue City, or in the offbeat music of tracks such as Goose and Lucky from Trespass. It is a shame that Southern Comfort and The Border are not included in the choice of album.
Cooder has done 18 soundtracks in all but the 67-year-old said recently that he won't be doing any more film work. "Films make me sick now and if something makes me sick I back off," he said.
This set is a fine reminder of his magnificent legacy of film work.
BIOGRAPHY
by Steve Huey
Whether serving as a session musician, solo artist, or soundtrack composer, Ry Cooder's chameleon-like fretted instrument virtuosity, songwriting, and choices of material encompass an incredibly eclectic range of North American musical styles, including rock & roll, blues, reggae, Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, Dixieland jazz, country, folk, R&B, gospel, and vaudeville. The 16-year-old Cooder began his career in 1963 in a blues band with Jackie DeShannon and then formed the short-lived Rising Sons in 1965 with Taj Mahal and Spirit drummer Ed Cassidy. Cooder met producer Terry Melcher through the Rising Sons and was invited to perform at several sessions with Paul Revere & the Raiders. During his subsequent career as a session musician, Cooder's trademark slide guitar work graced the recordings of such artists as Captain Beefheart (Safe as Milk), Randy Newman, Little Feat, Van Dyke Parks, the Rolling Stones (Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers), Taj Mahal, and Gordon Lightfoot. He also appeared on the soundtracks of Candy and Performance.
Cooder made his debut as a solo artist in 1970 with a self-titled album featuring songs by Leadbelly, Blind Willie Johnson, Sleepy John Estes, and Woody Guthrie. The follow-up, Into the Purple Valley, introduced longtime cohorts Jim Keltner on drums and Jim Dickinson on bass, and it and Boomer's Story largely repeated and refined the syncopated style and mood of the first. In 1974, Cooder produced what is generally regarded as his best album, Paradise and Lunch, and its follow-up, Chicken Skin Music, showcased a potent blend of Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, gospel, and soul, and featured contributions from Flaco Jimenez and Gabby Pahinui. In 1979, Bop Till You Drop was the first major-label album to be recorded digitally. In the early '80s, Cooder began to augment his solo output with soundtrack work on such films as Blue Collar, The Long Riders, and The Border; he has gone on to compose music for Southern Comfort, Goin' South, Paris, Texas, Streets of Fire, Alamo Bay, Blue City, Crossroads, Cocktail, Johnny Handsome, Steel Magnolias, and Geronimo. Music by Ry Cooder (1995) compiled two discs' worth of highlights from Cooder's film work.
In 1992, Cooder joined Keltner, John Hiatt, and renowned British tunesmith Nick Lowe, all of whom had played on Hiatt's Bring the Family, to form Little Village, which toured and recorded one album. Cooder turned his attention to world music, recording the album A Meeting by the River with Indian musician V.M. Bhatt. Cooder's next project, a duet album with renowned African guitarist Ali Farka Touré titled Talking Timbuktu, won the 1994 Grammy for Best World Music Recording.
His next world crossover would become one of the most popular musical rediscoveries of the 20th century. In 1997, Cooder traveled to Cuba to produce and play with a group of son musicians who had little exposure outside of their homeland. The resulting album, Buena Vista Social Club, was a platinum-selling international success that made stars of Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer, and Rubén González, and earned Cooder another Grammy. He continued to work on projects with his Buena Vista bandmates, including a collaboration with Manuel Galbán in 2003 titled Mambo Sinuendo. His other work in the 2000s included sessions with James Taylor, Aaron Neville, Warren Zevon, and Spanish diva Luz Casal.
In 2005, Cooder released Chavez Ravine, his first solo album since 1987's Get Rhythm; the album was the first entry in a trilogy of recordings about the disappearance of Los Angeles' cultural history as a result of gentrification. Chavez Ravine was followed by My Name Is Buddy in 2007, and the final chapter in the saga, I, Flathead in 2009. In 2010, Cooder was approached by Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains to produce an album. Moloney had been obsessed with an historical account of the San Patricios, a band of immigrant Irish soldiers who deserted the American Army during the Mexican-American War in 1846 to fight for the other side, against the Manifest Destiny ideology of James Polk's America. Cooder agreed and the end result was San Patricio, which brings this fascinatingly complex tale to life. In early 2011, Cooder was taken by a headline about bankers and other moneyed citizens who'd actually profited from the bank bailouts and resulting mortgage and economic crisis, and wrote the song "No Banker Left Behind," which became the first song on 2011's Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, an album that reached all the way back to his earliest recordings for musical inspiration while telling topical stories about corruption -- political and social -- the erasure and the rewriting of American history, and an emerging class war. A month after its release, Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti's fabled City Lights publishing house issued Cooder's first collection of short fiction entitled Los Angeles Stories. He continued to follow his socio-political muse with Election Special, released in the summer of 2012, and in 2013 released Live in San Francisco, his first live album in 35 years, with Corridos Famosos (son Joachim on percussion, Flaco Jimenez on accordion, Robert Francis on bass, and vocalists Terry Evans, Arnold McCuller, and Juliette Commagere). The ten-piece Mexican brass band La Banda Juvenil also guested. In 2014, Rhino Records offered an epic-scale look at Cooder's work in film scoring with Soundtracks, a seven-disc box set compiled from his movie music of the '80s and '90s.
''SOUNDTRACKS, DISC ONE''
SEPTEMBER 29 2014
256:50
DISC ONE - THE LONG RIDERS (1980) - 35:37
REVIEW
by Steven McDonald
Ry Cooder's soundtrack for The Long Riders received a top-notch treatment from Warner Bros. (Japan), who not only did an excellent remastering job, but backed it up with English lyrics to the songs, notes, and a Japanese insert. Cooder was in fine form with this score, using original material, unusual and anachronistic instruments (saz, tamboura, electric guitar), and elements of traditional songs from the Civil War period. As a result, the album can be appreciated as a unique entity, away from the film -- and bonded to the film, the music provides grace and power to the onscreen events.
1 The Long Riders
Ry Cooder 3:16
2 I'm a Good Rebel
Ry Cooder / Traditional 2:20
3 Seneca Square Dance
Ry Cooder / Traditional 2:00
4 Archie's Funeral (Hold To God's Unchanging Hand)
Ry Cooder / Traditional 2:43
5 I Always Knew That You Were the One
Ry Cooder / David Lindley 3:08
6 Rally 'Round the Flag
Ry Cooder / Traditional 4:24
7 Wildwood Boys
Ry Cooder / Jim Dickinson 4:15
8 Better Things To Think About
Ry Cooder 1:26
9 Jesse James
Ry Cooder / Neil Morris 2:27
10 Cole Younger Polka
Ry Cooder / David Lindley 2:25
11 Escape From Northfield
Ry Cooder 1:15
12 Leaving Missouri
Ry Cooder / David Lindley 1:00
13 Jesse James
Ry Cooder / Traditional 5:02
George Bohannon/Horn, Sax (Baritone), Trombone
Curt Bouterse/Dulcimer
Oscar Brashear/Cornet
Bill Bryson/Banjo, Bass
Harry Carey/Vocals
Joe Chambers/Vocals
Lester Chambers/Vocals
Ry Cooder/Arranger, Bajo Sexto, Banjo, Bass, Guitar, Mandolin, Percussion, Saz, Vocals
Jim Dickinson/Harmonium, Organ, Piano
Mitch Greenhill/Guitar, Vocals
Linda Hennrick/Transcription
Milt Holland/Drums, Gong, Percussion, Timbales
Jim Keach/Vocals
Jim Keltner/Drums, Percussion
David Lindley/Banjo, Chumbus, Fiddle, Guitar, Guitar (Electric), Lap Steel Guitar, Mandolin, Tamboura, Zither
Reggie McBride/Bass
Pico Payne/Vocals
Baboo Pierre/Percussion
George Pierre/Percussion
Tom Sauber/Banjo, Fiddle, Guitar, Jaw Harp, Mandola
DISC TWO - PARIS, TEXAS (1985) - 33:36
REVIEW
By AllMusic
Suggestive of both the imagery of Wim Wenders' movie Paris, Texas and the desert itself, Ry Cooder's score is a peaceful, poetic journey into the soul of an acoustic guitar. "Paris, Texas," "Brothers," and "Nothing Out There" open the album as meditative blends of guitar twang and scratching ambient effects. The songs move at a pretty, slow place, and the opening track sees Cooder plucking his guitar's strings and letting that sound vibrate into thin air; it's a motif that he returns to repeatedly throughout the score. There's a bit of both humor and mystery to the stillness and the echoing, edgy sound effects that crop up. "Cancion Mixteca" includes a memorable turn on vocals by Harry Dean Stanton, singing in Spanish. "No Safety Zone" is almost completely ambient in its ethics, with fleeting experimental guitar playing, as the song works more as a mood-setter than a traditional song. "I Knew These People" begins with an extended segment of dialogue from the film before Cooder's somber guitar creeps in. The effect of the dialogue makes the track a fine, artistic statement, but the moment works better in the context of the movie than as a track on an album. The dialogue comes from a scene where the characters played by Stanton and Nastassja Kinski have a particularly emotional meeting. The majority of the score is delicate and stunningly pretty. The overall sense is that Cooder was reaching for spare, emotional movements. The score is stark, quiet, and as uplifting as it is sad. Cooder makes the music sound as modern and stylish as acoustic music can sound. The album is at once alien and organic. Since "I Knew These People" includes dialogue from Paris, Texas, the score works best for people who have seen the movie, but it's still a powerful and immensely evocative journey for those whose experience with the material is the album alone.
1 Paris, Texas
Ry Cooder 2:57
2 Brothers
Ry Cooder 2:07
3 Nothing Out There
Ry Cooder 1:35
4 Canción Mixteca
Ry Cooder / Traditional 4:17
5 No Safety Zone
Ry Cooder 1:55
6 Houston In Two Seconds
Ry Cooder 2:07
7 She's Leaving the Bank
Ry Cooder / Jim Dickinson 6:02
8 On the Couch
Ry Cooder 1:32
9 I Knew These People
Ry Cooder 8:43
10 Dark Was the Night
Ry Cooder / Blind Willie Johnson 2:52
Ry Cooder/Arranger, Guitars
Jim Dickinson/Guest Artist
Nastassja Kinski/Vocals
David Lindley/Guest Artist
Harry Dean Stanton/Guest Artist, Vocals
DISC THREE - ALAMO BAY (1985) - 34:36
REVIEW
by Richie Unterberger
One of Cooder's better film scores, though the picture itself vanished into obscurity. Five of the nine pieces are instrumental, and Cooder flavors his distinctly trembling blues guitar with shakuhachi and violin to create moody pieces evoking spare and desolate landscapes that owe as much to the tropics and the desert as the Delta. Also has some routine bar-band blues-rock songs, a country duet between John Hiatt and actress Amy Madigan, and cameo appearances by David Lindley, David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos, and Fear vocalist Lee Ving.
1 Theme From Alamo Bay
Ry Cooder 5:07
2 Gooks On Main Street
Ry Cooder / Jim Dickinson 3:53
3 Too Close
Ry Cooder / Jim Dickinson 3:23
4 Klan Meeting
Ry Cooder 2:46
5 Sailfish Evening
Para Ay Que Triste 3:59
6 The Last Stand (Alamo Bay)
Ry Cooder / Texas Fred Taylor / Lee Ving 2:59
7 Quatro Vicios
Traditional 3:29
8 Search & Destroy
Ry Cooder / Jim Dickinson 5:07
9 Glory
Ry Cooder 4:17
Ry Cooder/Bass, Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals
Bill Cuomo/Synthesizer
Jim Dickinson/Piano
Steve Douglas/Saxophone
Chris Ethridge/Bass
John Hiatt/Guitar, Vocals
David Hidalgo/Vocals
Jim Keltner/Drums, Percussion
Osamu Kitajima/Koto
Gayle LaVant/Harp
David Lindley/Guitar, Mandolin
Amy Madigan/Vocals
David Mansfield/Cello, Violin
Kazu Matsui/Percussion
Emil Richards/Percussion
Cesar Rosas/Vocals
Lee Ving/Harmonica, Vocals
DISC FOUR - BLUE CITY (1986) - 34:51
1 Blue City Down
Ry Cooder / Jim Dickinson 3:28
2 Elevation 13 Ft.
Ry Cooder 3:18
3 Marianne
Ry Cooder / Javier Escovedo feat: True Believers 2:59
4 Nice Bike
Ry Cooder 1:35
5 Greenhouse
Ry Cooder 4:18
6 Billy and Annie
Ry Cooder 2:44
7 Tell Me Something Slick
Ry Cooder / Jim Dickinson feat: Pops and 'Timer 2:50
8 Blue City
Ry Cooder 4:21
9 Don't Take Your Guns To Town
Johnny Cash / Ry Cooder 3:48
10 A Leader of Men
Ry Cooder 1:24
11 Not Even Key West
Ry Cooder 4:31
Jorge Calderón/Bass, Piano
Ry Cooder/Bass, Guitar, Mandolin, Piano, Vocals
Miguel Cruz/Percussion
Bill Cuomo/Synthesizer
Denny Degorio/Bass
Jim Dickinson/Drums, Keyboards, Piano
Nathan East/Bass
Alejandro Escovedo/Guitar (Rhythm)
Javier Escovedo/Guitar (Rhythm), Vocals
Terry Evans/Vocals (Background)
Kevin Foley/Drums
Jon Dee Graham/Guitar
Robert Greenidge/Drums (Steel)
Jim Keltner/Drums, Piano
Bobby King/Vocals (Background)
Gayle Levant/Harp
Michelle Manning/Piano
David Paich/Synthesizer
Steve Porcaro/Synthesizer
Benmont Tench/Organ
DISC FIVE - CROSSROADS (1986) - 37:47
REVIEW
by William Ruhlmann
The ersatz blues story of the film gives Ry Cooder leeway to turn in an impressive blues-derived soundtrack featuring Sonny Terry along with his usual collaborators Van Dyke Parks, Jim Keltner, Nathan East, and others. But it's Cooder's guitar playing that highlights the album.
1 Crossroads
Ry Cooder / Robert Johnson 4:24
2 Down In Mississippi
Ry Cooder / J.B. Lenoir 4:25
3 Cotton Needs Pickin'
Ry Cooder / Frank Frost / Richard "Shubby" Holmes / John Price / Otis Taylor 2:58
4 Viola Lee Blues
Ry Cooder / Noah Lewis 3:11
5 See You In Hell, Blind Boy
Ry Cooder 2:10
6 Nitty Gritty Mississippi
Fred Burch / Ry Cooder / Donald Hill 2:57
7 He Made A Woman Out Of Me
Fred Burch / Ry Cooder / Donald Hill 4:12
8 Feelin' Bad Blues
Ry Cooder 4:16
9 Somebody's Callin' My Name
Ry Cooder / Traditional 1:45
10 Willie Brown Blues
Ry Cooder / Joe Seneca 3:45
11 Walkin' Away Blues
Ry Cooder / Sonny Terry 3:36
George Bohannon/Horn, Horn (Baritone)
Jorge Calderón/Bass
Ry Cooder/Arranger, Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals
Miguel Cruz/Percussion
Jim Dickinson/Dolceola, Guitar, Organ, Piano, Vocals
Nathan East/Bass
Terry Evans/Vocals (Background)
Frank Frost/Harmonica, Vocals
Willie Green, Jr./Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Richard "Groove" Holmes/Bass
Kirby Johnson/Arranger, String Arrangements, Strings
Jim Keltner/Drums
Bobby King/Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Sam King/Vocals
John "Juke" Logan/Harmonica
Amy Madigan/Vocals
Arnold McCuller/Vocals
Van Dyke Parks/Piano
Alan Pasqua/Synthesizer
John Price/Drums
Joe Seneca/Vocals
Walt Sereth/Sax (Soprano)
William D. "Smitty" Smith/Organ
Otis Taylor/Guitar
Sonny Terry/Harmonica
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee/Harmonica
DISC SIX - JOHNNY HANDSOME (1989) - 41:37
1 Main Theme
Ry Cooder 1:55
2 I Can't Walk This Time/the Prestige
Ry Cooder 6:50
3 Angola
Ry Cooder 2:03
4 Clip Joint Rhumba
Ry Cooder / Jim Keltner 3:18
5 Sad Story
Ry Cooder 2:37
6 Fountain Walk
Ry Cooder 2:18
7 Cajun Metal
Ry Cooder 2:01
8 First Week At Work
Ry Cooder 1:06
9 Greasy Oysters
Ry Cooder / Jim Keltner 1:54
10 Smells Like Money
Ry Cooder / Jim Keltner 2:28
11 Sunny's Tune
Ry Cooder 2:56
12 I Like Your Eyes
Ry Cooder 2:24
13 Adios Donna
Ry Cooder 1:35
14 Cruising With Rafe
Ry Cooder / Jim Keltner 3:02
15 How's My Face
Ry Cooder 1:51
16 End Theme
Ry Cooder 3:19
Jim Keltner/Drums, Percussion
Ry Cooder/Producer, Guitar, Keyboards, Bass, Accordion, Fiddle, Percussion
Steve Douglas/Saxophone
DISC SEVEN - TRESPASS (1992) - 37:31
REVIEW
by Steven McDonald
Cooder's underscore for Trespass, performed with the help of drummer Jim Keltner and trumpeter Jon Hassell, is a moody, dark piece of work quite a bit removed from Cooder's usual territory -- Cooder has taken experimental jazz as a main influence here, mixing that with tones available from modern instruments and studio processing. The result is edgy and grim, so effective that even at low volume the music comes snarling at you.
1 Video Drive-By
Ry Cooder 1:55
2 Trespass (Main Title)
Ry Cooder 1:37
3 East St. Louis
Ry Cooder 2:01
4 Orgill Bros.
Ry Cooder 1:44
5 Goose and Lucky
Ry Cooder 3:35
6 You Think It's On Now
Ry Cooder 1:41
7 Solid Gold
Ry Cooder 0:58
8 Heroin
Ry Cooder 4:13
9 Totally Boxed In
Ry Cooder 6:48
10 Give 'Em Cops
Ry Cooder 2:06
11 Lucy In the Trunk
Ry Cooder 1:27
12 We're Rich
Ry Cooder 2:26
13 King of the Street
Ry Cooder / Jim Keltner 3:59
14 Party Lights
Junior Brown / Ry Cooder 3:00
Bunny Andrews/Vocals (Background)
Joe Brown, Jr./Guitar, Guitar (Steel), Vocals
Junior Brown/Guitar, Guitar (Steel), Vocals
Ry Cooder/Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm), Keyboards
Nathan East/Bass
David Hassel/Trumpet
Jon Hassell/Trumpet
Jim Keltner/Drums, Percussion
David Lindley/Fiddle
Van Dyke Parks/Piano
Larry Taylor/Bass, Bass (Upright)
REVIEW
By Martin Chilton, The Telegraph
When Harry Dean Stanton wanders across the bleached southwestern wasteland in the opening to Wim Winders' masterful film Paris, Texas, this laconic and haunting scene is set to the perfect music: Ry Cooder's bottleneck guitar adaptation of a Blind Willie Johnson blues song.
Wenders later said that he had the feeling the film was shot with a camera and a guitar, and that Cooder had created "sacred music".
The Paris, Texas album from 1985 is one of the finest film soundtracks, and is one of seven scores included in a new box set collection Ry Cooder: Soundtracks that also includes The Long Riders’ (1980), Music From Alamo Bay (1985), Blue City (1986), Crossroads (1986), Johnny Handsome (1989) and Trespass (1993).
The pairing with Wenders worked so well. There is a terrific version of Johnson's Dark Was The Night (Cold Was The Ground), and a memorable six-minute instrumental called She's Leaving the Bank, co-written by Cooder with Jim Dickinson. Cooder's incredibly atmospheric music helps make the film special but is also a treat to listen to just as an album of music.
Much of Cooder's best film score work has been done with director Walter Hill, especially on Hill’s re-invention of the Jesse James legend. Cooder said musician and director simply "understood one another", and it shows in the way Cooder provided a historically authentic score – using polkas, square dances, waltzes and other traditional tunes played by a small band that includes the peerless David Lindley on guitars and violin – to move away from the bombastic style that sometimes accompanies westerns. The soundtrack to The Long Riders is brief (36 minutes) but contains one of the most joyful tunes in Cooder's vast and distinguished repertoire: Seneca Square Dance.
Cooder's career has been incredibly varied and has included playing with rock bands such as The Rolling Stones as well as revitalising Thirties folk, adapting Tex Mex and celebrating Cuban music. One of his finest blues albums came when he worked again with Hill on Crossroads, which is a musical tribute to Robert Johnson, and includes a contribution from the great Sonny Terry. There are fine guests, too, on Alamo Bay, including John Hiatt, David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas.
Of course, some of the individual tracks on the various albums seem incongruous separated from the original film but there is plenty to enjoy on all seven records, whether with gentle instrumental tracks such as Billie and Annie from Blue City, or in the offbeat music of tracks such as Goose and Lucky from Trespass. It is a shame that Southern Comfort and The Border are not included in the choice of album.
Cooder has done 18 soundtracks in all but the 67-year-old said recently that he won't be doing any more film work. "Films make me sick now and if something makes me sick I back off," he said.
This set is a fine reminder of his magnificent legacy of film work.
BIOGRAPHY
by Steve Huey
Whether serving as a session musician, solo artist, or soundtrack composer, Ry Cooder's chameleon-like fretted instrument virtuosity, songwriting, and choices of material encompass an incredibly eclectic range of North American musical styles, including rock & roll, blues, reggae, Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, Dixieland jazz, country, folk, R&B, gospel, and vaudeville. The 16-year-old Cooder began his career in 1963 in a blues band with Jackie DeShannon and then formed the short-lived Rising Sons in 1965 with Taj Mahal and Spirit drummer Ed Cassidy. Cooder met producer Terry Melcher through the Rising Sons and was invited to perform at several sessions with Paul Revere & the Raiders. During his subsequent career as a session musician, Cooder's trademark slide guitar work graced the recordings of such artists as Captain Beefheart (Safe as Milk), Randy Newman, Little Feat, Van Dyke Parks, the Rolling Stones (Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers), Taj Mahal, and Gordon Lightfoot. He also appeared on the soundtracks of Candy and Performance.
Cooder made his debut as a solo artist in 1970 with a self-titled album featuring songs by Leadbelly, Blind Willie Johnson, Sleepy John Estes, and Woody Guthrie. The follow-up, Into the Purple Valley, introduced longtime cohorts Jim Keltner on drums and Jim Dickinson on bass, and it and Boomer's Story largely repeated and refined the syncopated style and mood of the first. In 1974, Cooder produced what is generally regarded as his best album, Paradise and Lunch, and its follow-up, Chicken Skin Music, showcased a potent blend of Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, gospel, and soul, and featured contributions from Flaco Jimenez and Gabby Pahinui. In 1979, Bop Till You Drop was the first major-label album to be recorded digitally. In the early '80s, Cooder began to augment his solo output with soundtrack work on such films as Blue Collar, The Long Riders, and The Border; he has gone on to compose music for Southern Comfort, Goin' South, Paris, Texas, Streets of Fire, Alamo Bay, Blue City, Crossroads, Cocktail, Johnny Handsome, Steel Magnolias, and Geronimo. Music by Ry Cooder (1995) compiled two discs' worth of highlights from Cooder's film work.
In 1992, Cooder joined Keltner, John Hiatt, and renowned British tunesmith Nick Lowe, all of whom had played on Hiatt's Bring the Family, to form Little Village, which toured and recorded one album. Cooder turned his attention to world music, recording the album A Meeting by the River with Indian musician V.M. Bhatt. Cooder's next project, a duet album with renowned African guitarist Ali Farka Touré titled Talking Timbuktu, won the 1994 Grammy for Best World Music Recording.
His next world crossover would become one of the most popular musical rediscoveries of the 20th century. In 1997, Cooder traveled to Cuba to produce and play with a group of son musicians who had little exposure outside of their homeland. The resulting album, Buena Vista Social Club, was a platinum-selling international success that made stars of Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer, and Rubén González, and earned Cooder another Grammy. He continued to work on projects with his Buena Vista bandmates, including a collaboration with Manuel Galbán in 2003 titled Mambo Sinuendo. His other work in the 2000s included sessions with James Taylor, Aaron Neville, Warren Zevon, and Spanish diva Luz Casal.
In 2005, Cooder released Chavez Ravine, his first solo album since 1987's Get Rhythm; the album was the first entry in a trilogy of recordings about the disappearance of Los Angeles' cultural history as a result of gentrification. Chavez Ravine was followed by My Name Is Buddy in 2007, and the final chapter in the saga, I, Flathead in 2009. In 2010, Cooder was approached by Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains to produce an album. Moloney had been obsessed with an historical account of the San Patricios, a band of immigrant Irish soldiers who deserted the American Army during the Mexican-American War in 1846 to fight for the other side, against the Manifest Destiny ideology of James Polk's America. Cooder agreed and the end result was San Patricio, which brings this fascinatingly complex tale to life. In early 2011, Cooder was taken by a headline about bankers and other moneyed citizens who'd actually profited from the bank bailouts and resulting mortgage and economic crisis, and wrote the song "No Banker Left Behind," which became the first song on 2011's Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, an album that reached all the way back to his earliest recordings for musical inspiration while telling topical stories about corruption -- political and social -- the erasure and the rewriting of American history, and an emerging class war. A month after its release, Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti's fabled City Lights publishing house issued Cooder's first collection of short fiction entitled Los Angeles Stories. He continued to follow his socio-political muse with Election Special, released in the summer of 2012, and in 2013 released Live in San Francisco, his first live album in 35 years, with Corridos Famosos (son Joachim on percussion, Flaco Jimenez on accordion, Robert Francis on bass, and vocalists Terry Evans, Arnold McCuller, and Juliette Commagere). The ten-piece Mexican brass band La Banda Juvenil also guested. In 2014, Rhino Records offered an epic-scale look at Cooder's work in film scoring with Soundtracks, a seven-disc box set compiled from his movie music of the '80s and '90s.
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