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"...Bound For Canaan..."
In his own quiet and unassuming way, Ry Cooder has always been a bit of a revolutionary. After a Bluesy stint with The Rising Suns in 1968, from 1970's "Ry Cooder" to 1979's hugely successful and popular "Bop Till You Drop" - Cooder had brought all manner of genres to the wider attention of the music buying public - old timey tunes, Americana, Tex Mex, Zydeco - and all of it wrapped up his trademark slide guitar that hogged the classy ropes of the boxing ring but rarely got showy with his pyrotechnical upper cuts. And long before Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel broke open other nationalities and themes in music - Ry Cooder had been doing it like a goodun for an entire decade on Reprise Records.
But come the Eighties, Ry seemed done with it - played out on that schtik. So he migrated towards Soundtracks - instrumentals where he could 'mood' the music instead of all the time having to find words to support the tune. And that's where this very cool (and still very cheap) twofer from 1995 comes a romping-in.
Covering O.S.T.'s from 1980 to 1993 - Cooder handpicked the tracks - three of which are from the unreleased "Southern Comfort" film soundtrack (they debut on CD here). The 10-leaf double-sided foldout inlay provides credits for each song showing us a tasty line-up of guests -
Van Dyke Parks (Piano), John Hiatt (Guitar and Vocals), Sam Samudio, Harry Dean Stanton and Freddie Fender (Vocals), Jim
Dickinson (Keyboards), Flaco Jimenez (Accordion), David Lindley (Guitars, Mandolin and Fiddle), Jorge Calderon (Bass), Jim Keltner and Milt Holland (Drums and Percussion), Jon
Hassell, Steve Douglas (Saxophone) and even George Clinton of Parliament and Funkadelic fame co-writing and doing arrangements ("Bound For Canaan..."). Lots to take about...to the shimmering details...
UK August 1995 - "Music By Ry Cooder" by RY COODER on Warner Brothers 9362-45987-2 (Barcode 093624598725) is a 34-Track 2CD Compilation of Soundtrack Music from 1980 to 1993 that plays out as follows:
CD1 (54:17 minutes):
1. Paris, Texas
2. Theme From Southern Comfort
3. Theme From Alamo Bay
4. Across The Borderline
5. Highway 23
6. Bomber Bash
7. Greenhouse
8. Nice Bike
9. I Like Your Eyes
10. Main Theme
11. See You In Hell, Blind Boy
12. Feelin' Bad Blues
13. Swamp Walk
14. Angola
15. Viola Lee Blues
16. The Long Riders
17. Archie's Funeral (Hold To God's Unchanging Hand)
18. Jesse James
Track 1 from "Paris, Texas O.S.T." (August 1985)
Tracks 2 and 13 from "Southern Comfort O.S.T." (September 1981) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED on CD until this compilation
Track 3 from "Alamo Bay O.S.T" (April 1985)
Tracks 4 and 5 from "Across The Borderline O.S.T." (November 1987, with John Hiatt)
Track 6 from "Streets Of Fire O.S.T." - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED on CD
Tracks 7 and 8 is from "Blue City O.S.T" (1986)
Tracks 9, 10 and 14 from "Johnny Handsome O.S.T." (October 1989)
Tracks 11, 12 and 15 from "Crossroads O.S.T." (July 1986)
Tracks 16, 17 and 18 from "The Long Riders O.S.T." (April 1980)
CD2 (48:08 minutes):
1. King Of The Street
2. Sunny's Tune
3. No Quiero
4. Cruising With Rafe
5. Klan Meeting
6. I Can't Walk This Time/The Prestige
7. East St. Louis
8. Goose And Lucky
9. Goyakla Is Coming
10. Candes Upstream
11. Canción Mixteca
12. Maria
13. Bound For Canaan (Sieber Davis)
14. Bound For Canaan (The 6th Calvary)
15. Train To Florida
16. Houston In Two Seconds
Tracks 1, 7 and 8 from "Trespass O.S.T." (1992)
Tracks 2, 4 and 6 from "Johnny Handsome O.S.T." (October 1989)
Track 3 from "The Border O.S.T." (1982)
Track 5 from "Alamo Bay O.S.T." (August 1985)
Tracks 8, 9, 13, 14 and 15 from "Geronimo: An American Legend O.S.T." (1993)
Track 10 from "Southern Comfort O.S.T." (September 1981) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED on CD until this compilation - see also CD1
Tracks 12 and 14 is from "Paris, Texas O.S.T" (February 1985)
Remixed by ALLEN SIDES and Mastered by the legendary BERNIE GRUNDMAN - the Audio is fabulous - clear - powerful - clean - each track imbibed with the muscle they have always lacked on vinyl. The fold-out inlay is functional, has a new note from Cooder about the music, but just about does its job and not a whole lot more - which is a tad disappointing. But it's all about the great audio and the lesser heard dead interesting soundscapes Cooder made for movies.
Across 16-years of work, highlights are many - the menace of the swamps in "Southern Comfort" - Sam (The Sham) Samudio on Vocals and Organ for the foreign language take in "No Quiero" and that huge lingering guitar note that hovers in "Paris, Texas" - a CD we regularly put on shuffle play in Reckless in Soho. Harry Dean Stanton does his talking actor thing on "Canción Mixteca", Van Dyke Parks plays piano on "Theme From Alamo Bay" and arranges Horns on "I Can't Walk This Time/The Prestige", John Hiatt shows on "Across The Borderline", "Highway 23" and "No Quiero" while Freddie Fender handles the vocals on "Across The Borderline" where his larynx sounds like its shredded and then some. Jo Hassell plays trumpet on "King Of The Street" whilst the lovely "I Like Your Eyes" has RC just by himself - guitar and piano.
Filmmaker WALTER HILL fills his 1995 liner note with thanks for what Cooder did to add textures to his movies - but mostly Hill is thankful for Cooder's bemused detachment because somehow his music was/is perfect for such endeavors. Buy and dip into it when you need something different, moody, but uplifting too...Great.
