Ryland "Ry" Peter Cooder (b. 1947) is a guitarist, singer and composer from… Read Full Bio ↴Ryland "Ry" Peter Cooder (b. 1947) is a guitarist, singer and composer from the United States. He is known mostly for his slide guitar work, his passion for American roots music, and for his collaborations with the Rolling Stones, the Buena Vista Social Club and many other musicians from countries all around the world.

Born in Los Angeles, California on 15th March 1947, Cooder first attracted attention in the 1960s, playing with Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band, after having worked with Taj Mahal in The Rising Sons.

He was a session guitarist on various recording sessions with the Rolling Stones in 1968 and 1969; Cooder's contributions most notably appear on the Stones' Beggars Banquet where he shares a prominent credit with pianist, Nicky Hopkins on the back cover. He continued to appear on the succeeding albums, Let It Bleed, and Sticky Fingers, on which he contributed the haunting slide guitar solo to "Sister Morphine". Cooder is reputed to have taught Keith Richards to play in open-G tuning, now a Richards hallmark, as well as to have written the open-G signature riff of "Honky Tonk Women". He was briefly considered to fill the departed Brian Jones' place in the Rolling Stones, but reportedly Cooder and Keith Richards did not get along very well. For some time after the sessions, Cooder accused Keith Richards of "ripping him off" musically, but now refuses to talk about his experiences with the Stones. Cooder played slide guitar for the 1970 film Performance, which contained Mick Jagger's first solo single, "Memo from Turner" on which Cooder played guitar.

Throughout the 1970s Cooder released a series of Warner Brothers albums that showcased his guitar work, to some degree. In this respect, Cooder's guitar work on these records is not unlike the guitar playing of Robbie Robertson on the Band's albums: Both virtuosos emphasized song over solo. Cooder's 1970s albums spotlight, more than anything, a wide-ranging taste in music. Cooder has been seen as almost a musicologist, exploring bygone musical genres with personalized and sensitive, updated reworkings of revered originals. Cooder's 1970s albums (with the exception of Jazz) cannot be neatly pigeonholed by genre, But - to generalise broadly - it might be fair to call Cooder's first album blues; Into the Purple Valley, Boomer's Story, and Paradise and Lunch, folk + blues; Chicken Skin Music and Showtime, a unique melange of Tex-Mex and Hawaiian; Jazz, 1920s jazz; Bop till You Drop 1950s R&B and blues; and Borderline an eclectic mix of Tex-Mex with blues, R&B, and country and Get Rhythm, with more rock-based excursions.

Cooder has worked as a studio musician and has also scored many film soundtracks, of which perhaps the best known is that for the 1984 Wim Wenders film Paris, Texas. Ry Cooder based this soundtrack, and the haunting title song "Paris, Texas" on Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was the Night (Cold Was the Ground)", which he described as "The most soulful, transcendent piece in all music from the US." His other film work includes Walter Hill's The Long Riders (1980) and Southern Comfort (1981).

In recent years, Cooder has played a role in the increased appreciation of traditional Cuban music, due to his collaboration as producer in the Buena Vista Social Club (1997) recording, which was a worldwide hit. Wim Wenders directed a documentary film of the musicians involved, Buena Vista Social Club (1999) which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2000. Cooder worked with Tuvan throat singers for the score to the 1993 film Geronimo: An American Legend.

Cooder's solo work has been an eclectic mix, taking in dust bowl folk, blues, Tex-Mex, soul, gospel, rock, and almost everything else. He has collaborated with many important musicians, including the Rolling Stones, Little Feat, the Chieftains, John Lee Hooker, Gabby Pahinui, and Ali Farka Toure. He formed the Little Village supergroup with Nick Lowe, John Hiatt, and Jim Keltner.

Cooder's 1979 album Bop till You Drop was the first popular music album to be recorded digitally. It yielded his biggest hit, a disco/R&B cover of Elvis Presley's 1960s recording "Little Sister".

Good Morning Mr. Railroad Man
Ry Cooder Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

(Traditional)

Good morning, Mr. Railroad Man
What time do your trains roll by ?
"At 9:16 and 2:44 and 25 minutes 'till 5"
"At 9:16 and 2:44 and 25 minutes 'till 5"
Thank you, Mr. Railroad Man
I want to watch your trains go by

Standing on a platform, smoking a cheap cigar
And waiting for an old freight train that carries an empty car
Well, I pulled my hat down over my eyes
And I walked across the tracks
And I caught me the end of an old freight train
And I never did come back

Well, I sat down in a gamblin' game
But I could not play my hand
I was thinkin' about the woman I loved
Run away with another man, poor boy
Run away with another man

I was thinking about the woman that I loved
Run away with another man

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of the song Good Morning Mr. Railroad Man by Ry Cooder express the sentiment of a man who is fascinated by trains and enamoured by the lifestyle of a Railroad Man. The singer wants to know the exact time of the trains rolling by and wants to watch them go by. He is standing on the platform, smoking a cheap cigar and is waiting for an old freight train that carries an empty car. When he finally catches the end of an old freight train, he sits down to play a gamblin' game but is preoccupied with the thought of a woman he loved who ran away with another man. The singer never returned, and that's the end of the story.

The simplicity of the lyrics masks the underlying sense of loss and longing conveyed in the narrative. The Railroad Man's train represents a metaphor for the singer's life. He finds himself waiting for the train to come by, watching it go away, and never getting on it. The relationship he had with a woman who left him is like a train that he never caught. The singer is left with an emptiness that he cannot fill.

Line by Line Meaning

Good morning, Mr. Railroad Man
Greeting to the person in charge of the railroad

What time do your trains roll by ?
Inquire about the schedule of the passing trains

"At 9:16 and 2:44 and 25 minutes 'till 5"
Respond with the specific times of the train's arrival

Thank you, Mr. Railroad Man
Express gratitude towards the railroad worker

I want to watch your trains go by
Desire to see the trains pass through

Standing on a platform, smoking a cheap cigar
Positioned on a platform, smoking an inexpensive cigar

And waiting for an old freight train that carries an empty car
Expecting an outdated cargo train carrying only an empty cart

Well, I pulled my hat down over my eyes
Pulled my hat down to shield my eyes

And I walked across the tracks
Moved across the railroad tracks

And I caught me the end of an old freight train
Managed to get on the last part of an old cargo train

And I never did come back
Never returned from the journey