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".

Los Chucos Suaves
Ry Cooder Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Antes se bailaba swing
Boogie-woogie, jitterbug
Pero esto ya torcio
Why este es lo que sucedio

Pachucos suaves bailan rumba
Bailan la rumba why le zumba
Bailan guaracha sabroson

El botecito why el danzon

Cada Sabado en la noche
Yo me voy a borlotiar
Con mi linda pachucona
Las caderas a menear

Ella le hare muy de aquellas
Cuando empieza a guarachar
Al compas de los timbales
Yo me siento petetear

Pachucos suaves bailan rumba
Bailan la rumba why le zumba

Bailan guaracha sabroson
El botecito why el danzon

Overall Meaning

In Ry Cooder's song "Los Chucos Suaves," the lyrics describe the changing trends in music and dance in the Latino community. The lyrics talk about how swing, boogie-woogie, and jitterbug were once popular, but things have changed, and now people are dancing rumba, guaracha and danzon. The song talks about how the Pachucos suaves, a group of stylish Mexican-American youth in the 1940s, have adapted to these changes and are dancing to what's new and exciting.

The song talks about how the singer and his "linda pachucona" (a female Pachuco suave) go out on Saturday nights to party and dance. He talks about her hips moving to the beat of the music as she dances the guaracha. The song also describes the singer's feelings as he dances with her, how he feels the rhythm of the timbales and how it makes him "petetear" (a slang term for feeling the music deeply).

Overall, the lyrics celebrate the Pachucos suaves and their ability to adapt and evolve with the times, while also paying homage to the rich musical heritage of the Latino community.

Line by Line Meaning

Antes se bailaba swing
In the past, people used to dance swing

Boogie-woogie, jitterbug
They danced boogie-woogie and jitterbug

Pero esto ya torcio
But things have changed now

Why este es lo que sucedio
And this is what happened

Pachucos suaves bailan rumba
Smooth Pachucos dance rumba

Bailan la rumba why le zumba
They dance rumba and it sounds amazing

Bailan guaracha sabroson
They dance savory guaracha

El botecito why el danzon
El botecito and danzon too

Cada Sabado en la noche
Every Saturday night

Yo me voy a borlotiar
I go out to party

Con mi linda pachucona
With my beautiful Pachucona