Do re mi (Ry Cooder) (LP 2122 - 2130)

Ry Cooder  Ry Cooder (Vinyl, Reprise Records, 1970) ****  

Ry Cooder  Into The Purple Valley (Vinyl, Reprise Records, 1972) *****  

Ry Cooder  Boomer's Story (Vinyl, Reprise Records, 1972) *****  

Ry Cooder  Live at WMMS in Cleveland 1972 (Vinyl, DOL Records, 2015) **  

Ry Cooder  Paradise & Lunch (Vinyl, Reprise Records, 1974) *****  

Ry Cooder  The Complete Bottom Line Broadcast 1974 (CD, Hobo Records, 2017) ****  

Ry Cooder  Chicken Skin Music (Vinyl, Reprise Records, 1976) *****  

Ry Cooder  Showtime (Vinyl, Reprise Records, 1977) *****  

Ry Cooder & The Chicken Skin Band  Live in Hamburg 1977 (Vinyl, Vinyl Passion Records, 2013) *****  

Genre: Pop/rock, folk, blues, Americana, Tex-Mex 

Places I remember: Spellbound Wax Company (Gisborne)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Police Dog Blues (Ry Cooder)

Gear costume: Billy The Kid, Taxes On The Farmer Feeds Us All (Into The Purple Valley), Jesus On The Mainline (Showtime)

Active compensatory factors: I first got into Ry Cooder while working at Marbecks Records during my varsity holidays. Roger had spare stock arranged in record company sections so that we'd know where to go to replace things we sold.

I became fascinated by the WEA section and the Reprise records in particular. To this day I get a little tingle of excitement when I find something on Reprise - like Arlo Guthrie's Arlo album which I picked up this week from Dean at Electric City Music in Napier. Quality!

Anyway, I gobbled up Into The Purple Valley, Boomer's Story, Paradise And Lunch and Chicken Skin Music after succumbing to the delights of Showtime. 

Showtime is the real deal. I never get tired of listening to it.

I had read a review in Sounds music magazine by Barbara Charone and she raved about this music so much I bought a copy, and OMG. If anything she under-sold Showtime. What. A. Glorious. Album!

Aside from his debut, these are all five star classics that I almost know off by heart! Much like Elton John, these seven years in the seventies are his purple patch. 

Yes, I've been humming these songs for five decades!

Like a lot of the released radio recordings that have proliferated in the last decade, the Live in Cleveland 1972 set isn't recorded brilliantly (hence the two star rating) but it's an excellent early set of songs with Ry solo on acoustic guitar, playing songs from those first three albums.

For some reason I neglected to buy his debut album, Ry Cooder, at the time and only picked it up a couple of years ago while visiting Gisborne for work.

Thanks to John Barbata's meaty drums and Chris Ethridge's muscular bass, it's quite a rocky record, rather than having the finesse of those albums listed above. It's a sound Ry would eventually return to after he enjoyed some mainstream success with Bop Till You Drop in the late seventies. 

It's interesting how many of the Ry Cooder songs would crop up in the more sympathetic setting of Showtime.

Into The Purple Valley is a brilliant album. Record Collector wrote that the album "reached deep into tradition, unearthing neglected treasures from America’s past and reshaping them for the post-Woodstock generation."

Ry's new lightness of touch has a new surety, and each song is a delight.  

Boomer's Story, his second album of 1972, and Paradise & Lunch continue his genius run.

The Bottom Line gig from 1974 has Ry again solo on various guitars but this time it's well recorded and sounds like Ry is right there on your front porch. 

He is very loquacious during the set, hilariously so, as his downhome drawl is perfect for those introductions.

Chicken Skin Music saw him branching out into Tex Mex and Hawaiian sounds with the great accordion player, Flaco Jimenez, contributing wonderfully, as well as that tell-tale Hawaiian guitar.

This band is the one largely responsible for Showtime and Live in Hamburg, both from 1977.

The Live in Hamburg set is good with quite a few acoustic versions, although the Showtime band does also appear to great effect. Only problem is my vinyl copy has some dimples that the stylus skips over which disrupts my listening pleasure somewhat.

I'll need to replace it at some stage because the acoustic versions of Fool For A Cigarette and Let Your Light Shine On Me are superb.

Showtime for me is like Rory Gallagher's Irish Tour '73 album - the definitive live album for each man. Genius is a much abused term but these two guitarists can make their guitars speak like no others.

Showtime starts with a studio track, which is weird, except that School Is Out has become a holiday ritual for me.

After that it's just one definitive version after another. The whole album is here - do yourself a favour!

Where do they all belong? Post 1977 albums to come.