One of my truly all-time favorite albums is called Rising Sons and it features a combo of a young Taj Mahal and a young Ry Cooder. Its circa 1965 and, in the music editor's (not terribly) humble opinion, is far superior to what the Beatles and Stones were doing at that time and more joyously musical than Bob Dylan by many furlongs. In short, it is maybe the finest record from one of the most fertile musical periods in western history. Since I started with Taj, I thought it might be nice to pair the two together. Man, stunning to find so little sweet Ry Cooder action available--mostly covers instead of the real mccoy. The slim pickings include a couple of interviews and some chunks of scores from films. Paris, Texas is one of my truly all-time favorite movies so its got to be there and Crossroads features a great Ry Cooder score (even if the peak of the film is all Steve Vai), so these clips will have to suffice. I wish there was more.
Ry Cooder -- 'A Good Man Feelin' Bad' from 'Crossroads'
Ry Cooder -- the opening of 'Paris, Texas'
BONUS!
This is one of the finer climaxes in the history of cinema: an absolute show-stopping musical finish to a film obsessed with what it means to be a musician. The rest of the film, unfortunately, is hit and miss. It’s the kind of film that relies on its characters to be rock stupid to advance the plot along (for example, if you look at a map you'll find that Mississippi is not the quickest route to Los Angeles from Philadelphia), rather then just letting them develop naturally into situations that rise and fall in the accepted Aristotelian manner. Too bad, a loving examination of the work of Robert Johnson sounds like a natural topic for a film! Ry Cooder's slowburn blues score is marvelous throughout and it all builds nicely to the big finish--dude, the day Ralph Macchio beats Steve Vai at anything, I'll stick my dick in my ear!
Steve Vai -- The guitar duel with devil from 'Crossroads'
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