The 1929 composition 'You Can't Stop A Tattler' by the Texan gospel-blues performer Washington Phillips And His Manzarene Dreams is next up for transformation. 'All of a sudden you find you're learning a whole great big thing about arrangements which stays with you, although it doesn't happen very often.' As with all Cooder albums, Paradise And Lunch is about a well-ordered sequence of perfectly arranged performances rather than overwrought emotional impact, high-end production or gasp-inducing instrumental virtuosity. I wondered how we ought to do it, so he just said, "You do it like this, then you play this, so and so sings that, and that's how it's done". 'One of the gospel singers on the record, Bill Johnson, knew it. 'That's an old railroad song I heard from Josh White', he has explained. It's hardly an earth-shatteringly original arrangement, but Cooder and his crew deliver exactly what it needs.
Cooder sets it to a lively shuffle beat, and colours it with gorgeous gospel-like male backing vocals, while his guitar sparkles and dances throughout. He's not a great songwriter, or a fantastic vocalist, but from the outset of his career he demonstrated an uncanny knack for unearthing relatively obscure songs that were not only unjustly overlooked gems, but were also ideal for him to perform.įrom 1974, Paradise And Lunch amply demonstrates all of his gifts from the opening twangs of the first track, the traditional work song 'Tamp 'Em Up Solid'.
#Chords hasten down the wind full
But to think of him simply as a superbly tasteful guitarist does not do him full justice. Ryland Peter Cooder first achieved wide recognition as an in-demand axe-slinger who worked with The Rolling Stones, Little Feat, Van Morrison and countless other artists. Rated among the finest of Cooder's 17 solo albums, Paradise And Lunch, his fourth release, is easily deserving of Vinyl Icon status.
It was a commercial failure, but it's no less compelling. Session guitarist, composer of film scores and here, on his fourth album, the roots-rock multi-instrumentalist reached into his musical bag to breathe new life into a diverse selection of obscure songs.
0 kommentar(er)
