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Ry Cooder

Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American musician. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries. Ry Cooder grew up in Santa Monica, California, and attended Santa Monica High School. His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing folk, blues, Tex-Mex, soul, gospel, rock, and much else. He has collaborated with many musicians, notably including Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Randy Newman, and The Doobie Brothers. He briefly formed a band named Little Village. Ry Cooder produced the Buena Vista Social Club album, which became a worldwide hit. Wim Wenders directed the documentary film of the same name, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2000. He was ranked eighth on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". A 2010 ranking by Gibson placed him at number 32.

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Having my son on drums has made a huge difference. I can't stress this strongly enough, in terms of the groove space and style that Joachim gave me to instinctively play what I felt in a more free way, rather than feeling constricted. That's true on record and on stage.

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I give up on pop music. As far as a commercial entity, as far as pop music goes, I quit; I absolutely throw in the towel. I can't handle it. I can't do it. I can't be what they need you to be.

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I had a lot of luck in meeting great musicians who were kind enough to show me things.

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Musicians understand each other through means other than speaking.

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Politics runs on power and money and on ignorance.

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When I made the first album, I was 24, and at that age, you have nothing to say. I just played the music I loved and tried to do it justice.

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A microphone has a certain range. It's not as good as your ears, but it will capture an enclosed space, the harmonic content in a room. Nice old tube mikes do that pretty well. And that's a good sound.

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After all is said and done and institutions fail, people still have some ability to care for each other.

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All I know is, I play the guitar, beat it out, and sing a song that has some damn resonance that we feel as musicians. We send it out and people get it, and that's a good thing.

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American global economic imperialism is a fact. It's a known fact. It's a simple fact.

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Chavez Ravine is the dawn of Chicano consciousness.

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Film work is a job I like to do because I really love to solve problems.

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How many BMWs do you need? How many Rolex watches you gonna wear in your lifetime, for crying out loud? What is it about that kind of desire? I don't understand it.

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I always think you should push your envelope every chance you get.

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I didn't come from a very rigid background, where there's a clan or a tribe or a religion.

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I just feel that music is a great life because it's very rewarding. It's a gratification. You do this for yourself, and you also do this for other people.

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I keep my mind on track, and I don't get mad, and I don't get frustrated. Well, I do... but creative work, it's a way of controlling all that.

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I like classical music. I especially like the French composers: Ravel in particular. Debussy. That's so soothing in a nervous world.

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I like the idea that something happens to everybody who comes to L.A. - whether they are Mexican, Irish, black, or hillbillies. You come here, and you leave all your traditions behind. And since there's no traditions here, you just make one up.

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I think all the music I do, which ties together, as far as I'm concerned, is fun and entertaining.

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I think I'm more relaxed; I think I'm more philosophical. I don't get worried as much as I used to about things.

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I'm a great lover of ballads.

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I'm a man of peace.

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I'm not interested in making folkloric records, but I like to push the traditional format around so that familiar patterns get knocked on the head.

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I'm used to music as a tool, taking the various elements and then making something completely new out of them. And writing film music is the perfect opportunity to do that, because you can look at the film and then just let your imagination soar.

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I've done a fair amount of commercials. I did a bunch of Champion spark plug ads and Levi's and Molson Beer. You wouldn't know it. But some of it's damn good.

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I've listened to blues my whole life. I know it, I play it, I understand it.

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I've tended to look at my albums as research and development. I was just trying to get someplace new on each one.

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If something grooves and you like the sound, then that's all you need.

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If you're taught to hate and fear a people or a country, and it works, it's because of your ignorance of that country. You have no contact with it, nor do you know what you're hating and fearing.

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If you're white working with non-white people, you will be branded as a colonialist by some people, regardless of your efforts or intentions.

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It all started back in '69 when I worked with Jack Nitzsche on 'Performance.' That was my first experience of doing soundtracks, and I've enjoyed doing them ever since.

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Music creates complicity, and then you feel less isolated.

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Music is all starting to sound alike in the modern era. Afro-pop sounds exactly like L.A. pop - there's no difference, no ambience, no real resonance.

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Music is fragile: people die, and it's forgotten.

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Nat King Cole - I listen to him a lot.

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People have all sorts of expectations which you can't meet. Me, I'm so reclusive I stay away from such things as much as I can. I never go anywhere.

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People respond to any good you can do in music.

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People who aren't as interested in recorded music as they used to be will say, 'Oh, 'Buena Vista?' Loved it.' And I'll say, 'Well, how about any of my other recent records. I've been doing some pretty good ones. You like those?' And they go, 'Huh?

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Some people have career plans, long-range career plans. I don't know anything about that. I'm no good at it.

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The blues is so expressive - nostalgic but not sentimental, mournful but not pathetic, so humble and close to the earth. It's a nuance-filled thing.

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The thing I always found about the gospel music was that it reached further into your being if you like, your mind. It takes hold of you - especially if you sing it and play it.

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To me, the essence of the music is the most important thing.

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Travelling is hard. I'm no traveller. I hate flying, and I hate hotels.

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What kills music in films is when it's done as performance, drawing attention to the fact that someone's in the background playing it.

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When the real world intrudes on your musical fantasies, I get put out.

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With country, it's hard to penetrate the thick layers of commercialism that have been applied like shellac coatings over the real thing.

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You have to be able to improvise and respond to what's going on around you. Then you might get a good piece of work done.

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I toured around for years, but the road was always a drag for me. I never made a dime. In fact, I lost a lot of money - it was horrible.

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I've been wanting an ice cream truck forever.

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If every song is in the past tense, that's a drag, so you have to predict the future.

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R&B and all that stuff was always very spare and spontaneous. Nobody made those records under solid gold situations. It was just in and out, and you didn't labor over the thing. I like music like that.

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I can't help what people write or think. If somebody thinks I'm a serious archivist, they're wrong. That's been a problem. It's a shame people take that attitude, because it affects how they listen to the music. It's a big mistake to treat any pop music that way.

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