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".
Mexican Divorce
Ry Cooder Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Down below El Paso lies Juarez
Mexico is different, like a travel folder says
Cross the Rio Grande and you will find
An old adobe house
Where you leave your past behind
Broken hearts for you and me
Takes no time for you to get a Mexican divorce
As I came into this lonely house last night
I looked at all my windows but I couldn't find one light
I found you on that road to Mexico
And now, my love, I beg
Please, oh, please, don't go
One day married, next day free
Broken hearts for you and me
It's a sin for you to get a Mexican divorce
Finding love takes so long
Walking out, well, must be wrong
It's a sin for us to get a Mexican divorce
One day married, next day free
Broken hearts for you and me
It's a sin for you to get a Mexican divorce
The song "Mexican Divorce" by Ry Cooder paints a picture of a relationship that is on the brink of collapsing. The lyrics are about a couple who has decided to get a divorce, but instead of going through the legal process, they have decided to cross the border to Mexico and get a quick and easy divorce. The singer of the song is pleading with his love interest, begging her not to leave and expressing that getting a Mexican divorce is sin. This could be interpreted as the guilt and shame that comes with not taking the time to properly end a marriage or relationship.
The first stanza indicates that Mexico is a different world with the potential for new beginnings, where one can leave their past behind. The second stanza sets the scene of a lonely house and the singer's plea for his love interest not to leave. The last stanza is the plea that separate in someone else’s cultural territory is a sin.
The song’s melody and beat are reminiscent of traditional Mexican music, and the use of Spanish terms in the lyrics adds an authentic Mexican touch. It is worth noting that the song is a cover of the original by The Drifters.
Line by Line Meaning
It's a sin for you to get a Mexican divorce
Divorcing in Mexico is seen as morally wrong or sinful
Down below El Paso lies Juarez
The city of Juarez is located south of El Paso
Mexico is different, like a travel folder says
Mexico is unique and different from other places as advertising materials suggest
Cross the Rio Grande and you will find
Once across the Rio Grande, you will encounter
An old adobe house
A traditional Mexican-style house made of adobe bricks
Where you leave your past behind
A place to forget about your previous life or troubles
One day married, next day free
A quick and easy divorce process in Mexico where one day you're married and the next day you're divorced
Broken hearts for you and me
Both parties involved in the divorce process are likely to be heartbroken
Takes no time for you to get a Mexican divorce
The divorce process in Mexico is very fast and doesn't take long
As I came into this lonely house last night
The artist entered an empty and lonely house at night
I looked at all my windows but I couldn't find one light
The singer realized that there was no light or warmth in the house
I found you on that road to Mexico
The artist found their partner traveling to Mexico
And now, my love, I beg
Please, oh, please, don't go
The singer pleads with their partner to not leave them
Finding love takes so long
It takes a long time to find true love
Walking out, well, must be wrong
Leaving a relationship without trying to fix it is not the right thing to do
It's a sin for us to get a Mexican divorce
Both parties getting a divorce in Mexico is considered sinful or morally wrong
One day married, next day free
A quick and easy divorce process in Mexico where one day you're married and the next day you're divorced
Broken hearts for you and me
Both parties involved in the divorce process are likely to be heartbroken
It's a sin for you to get a Mexican divorce
Divorcing in Mexico is seen as morally wrong or sinful
Lyrics © BOURNE CO., Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC, Peermusic Publishing
Written by: BOB HILLIARD, BURT BACHARACH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind