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".
The Bourgeois Blues
Ry Cooder Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Me and my wife went all over town
And everywhere we went people turned us down
Lord, in a bourgeois town
It's a bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around
Home of the brave, land of the free
I don't wanna be mistreated by no bourgeoisie
Lord, in a bourgeois town
Uhm, the bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around
Well, me and my wife we were standing upstairs
We heard the white man say âI don't want no niggers up thereâ
Lord, in a bourgeois town
Uhm, bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around
Well, them white folks in Washington they know how
To call a colored man a nigger just to see him bow
Lord, it's a bourgeois town
Uhm, the bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around
I tell all the colored folks to listen to me
Don't try to find you no home in Washington, DC
âCause it's a bourgeois town
Uhm, the bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around
The lyrics of The Bourgeois Blues by Ry Cooder recount the experiences of the singer, who belongs to the African American community, as he navigates through a town where people with money and status are in power, hence the use of the word "bourgeois". The song combines two themes: that of racial inequality and that of class discrimination. The lyrics describe how the singer and his wife are denied access to certain places and opportunities because of the color of their skin, and how they are treated as second-class citizens.
The song's opening line, "Me and my wife went all over town and everywhere we went people turned us down," sets the tone for the rest of the song. Everywhere they go, they are met with hostility and rejection. The use of the phrase "bourgeois town" reinforces the idea that the town is run by people who are affluent and influential, but also highlights the economic and class disparities that exist. The lyrics also make reference to Washington, DC, suggesting that the situation described in the song is not unique to a single town but is instead symptomatic of a larger societal problem.
Line by Line Meaning
Me and my wife went all over town
My spouse and I traveled throughout the town
And everywhere we went people turned us down
Everywhere we visited, we were rejected by the people there
Lord, in a bourgeois town
In a town dominated by the bourgeoisie
It's a bourgeois town
This place is ruled by the bourgeoisie
I got the bourgeois blues
I am upset by the influence of the bourgeoisie
Gonna spread the news all around
I will tell everyone about this experience
Home of the brave, land of the free
The United States is meant to be a courageous and liberated nation
I don't wanna be mistreated by no bourgeoisie
I do not want to be oppressed by the bourgeoisie
Well, me and my wife we were standing upstairs
My spouse and I were standing on the upper floor
We heard the white man say 'I don't want no niggers up there'
We overheard a caucasian person say 'I do not want any African Americans up here'
Uhm, bourgeois town
This is a town controlled by the bourgeoisie
Well, them white folks in Washington they know how
The people in power in Washington know how to
To call a colored man a nigger just to see him bow
Refer to a black man in a derogatory manner to witness his submissiveness
Lord, it's a bourgeois town
This is a town ruled by the bourgeoisie
I tell all the colored folks to listen to me
I advise every person of color to heed my words
Don't try to find you no home in Washington, DC
Do not attempt to find a residence in Washington, DC
Uhm, the bourgeois town
This is a town controlled by the bourgeoisie
I got the bourgeois blues
I am disturbed by the sway of the bourgeoisie
Gonna spread the news all around
I will share this information with everybody
Contributed by Juliana W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.