Ry Cooder: Roots Music in Many Soils

Gary North - February 17, 2018

I must confess, I discovered Ry Cooder late. Better late than never.

I recall exactly where I was: a movie theater in Durham, North Carolina. It was 1978. I had just watched Jack Nicholson in a piece of fluff: Goin' South. The movie closed with a panoramic scene of a desert. Then a song started. It had nothing to do with the closing scene. I could not believe my ears.

The credits started to roll. The song was still playing. I always stay for credits, but this time, nothing could have tempted me to leave. I waited for the end, where the songs are listed. The song was "Available Space." The performer was Ry Cooder. I became an instant convert to the Cooder cult.

The man is a master of the slide blues guitar. I am a sucker for the slide blues guitar.

This was recorded a year before Goin' South: 1977. It was an early video. The theology, while simple, is sound. The sound, while simple, is inspired.

There is a montage of his slide guitar work here. It has had over a million hits.

This one I first heard by Elvis. That was in 1956. This version is better. Cooder plays all the stringed instruments -- if you don't count the piano as a stringed instrument.

He has done movie soundtracks. One of them was Crossroads (1986). It is the familiar story of a transaction with the devil. But this is the blues version. Did Robert Johnson make a deal at the crossroads?

Can someone get out of such a deal? This is the theme of the movie.

Switch to the scene of a young guitarist who attends Juilliard, the great New York school for musicians. The young man cannot decide: classical guitar or blues guitar?

The dialogue here is the key to the movie: "Don't serve two masters."

The movie ends with a contest. The young man is playing for the old man's soul. If he loses the contest, he loses his own soul. This is one of the most famous guitar scenes in movie history. I don't care for heavy metal guitar, but the men behind the music, Cooder and Steve Vai, are guitar legends. Spoiler alert: you will know who wins, and how, if you watch this. You will probably watch it.

Another Cooder soundtrack was Paris, Texas (1984). Here is the opening scene. This is not Paris, Texas. I have driven through Paris, Texas many times. It's in East Texas -- the part of Texas with water. (Note: if you are ever lost in the desert, don't do the Hollywood thing. Don't toss away your canteen or jug.)

There is a 15-minute montage of his movie soundtracks here.

As an Austrian School analyst, I appreciate this. This is what government-licensed fractional reserve banking leads to every time.

When East met West. Bhatt plays a Hawaiian guitar he invented. (Ignore the screencast's photo.)

I end with a 1970 documentary issued by Warner Brothers.