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 Dying Truck Driver
Ry Cooder Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The San Joaquin was all in bloom, and songbirds everywhere
We chanced upon a workingman, lying by the road
I judged him for a truck driver by the clothes he wore
We drew some nearer to him then, inquirin' of his name
Well, here's three little angels come down for to carry me home
Then, bear me up to Jesus now, my Savior I shall see
Then Lefty, stepping forward, addressed the dyin' man
Saying, We're no angels, brother, but we'll do all we can
What cowards set upon you, sir, and dealt the fatal blow?
We'll pull out every workingman from here to Ohio
It was no vigilante gang, nor ranch-boss thugs this time
But the meatloaf special dinner I had on Highway 99
A comely waitress served me there, and she cooled me with her fan
But fatal meatloaf has struck down this old truck drivin' man
Then Lefty reached down in his bag, saying, You ain't dyin', friend
Just take a drink of whiskey now, you'll feel alright again
All through the night we lingered there and passed that bottle round
We hauled aboard at sunrise, lit out for Frisco town
Now, the workingman must be we'll warned whenever headlines scream
"Your rights must yield, the bombs must fall to save democracy"
The flag they fly, their stew of lies served up at votin' time
Like poison under the gravy on Highway 99
"The Dying Truck Driver" by Ry Cooder is a poignant account of a chance encounter with a dying truck driver. The song describes the beauty of the San Joaquin, with blooming trees and songbirds everywhere, evoking springtime in California. The singer, along with his companions, comes across a man lying by the road, and he is dying.
The dying man identifies himself as a truck driver and asks the singer to bear him up to Jesus where he can meet his savior. The singer and his friend, Lefty, try to console the man, who mistakes them for angels. Later, when Lefty asks who attacked him, the man points to his stomach and reveals that it was the meatloaf he had eaten at a diner on Highway 99. The waitress who had served him had inadvertently poisoned him. Lefty offers him whiskey to ease his pain, and they stay with the dying man until sunrise before embarking on their journey again.
The poignant lyrics of the song tackle themes of mortality, death, and the irony of life's situations. The chorus of three angels carried him home, implies the truck driver believed in a spiritual world beyond his physical experience. Similarly, the suggestion that the waitress with her fan was the cause of his death adds a sense of surrealism to the song. The flag that they fly and the stew of lies serve up at voting time like poison under gravy on Highway 99 is a message about the country's political system.
Line by Line Meaning
Well, we made our way up 99 in the springtime of the year
We drove up Highway 99 during the spring when the weather was mild
The San Joaquin was all in bloom, and songbirds everywhere
The San Joaquin valley was covered in flowering plants and there were a lot of singing birds
We chanced upon a workingman, lying by the road
We stumbled upon a working class man lying on the side of the road
I judged him for a truck driver by the clothes he wore
I guessed that he was a truck driver based on his attire
Well, here's three little angels come down for to carry me home
The man sees three figures and believes that they are angels sent to guide him to the afterlife
Then, bear me up to Jesus now, my Savior I shall see
He believes that he will go to heaven to see Jesus with the help of these angels
You ain't no regular angels, boys, but that's alright by me
He acknowledges that the figures are not really angels, but does not seem to mind
Saying, We're no angels, brother, but we'll do all we can
Lefty tells the dying man that they are not really angels but will help him in any way they can
What cowards set upon you, sir, and dealt the fatal blow?
Lefty asks who attacked the man and caused his injuries
We'll pull out every workingman from here to Ohio
They promise to help any other working class people they can find in the area
It was no vigilante gang, nor ranch-boss thugs this time
Contrary to what they thought, the man was not attacked by a group looking to do harm, but rather he got ill from eating the meatloaf special from a nearby diner
But the meatloaf special dinner I had on Highway 99
The man got sick from eating meatloaf from a diner on Highway 99
But fatal meatloaf has struck down this old truck drivin' man
The man got fatally sick from the meatloaf he ate
Just take a drink of whiskey now, you'll feel alright again
Lefty offers the dying man a drink of whiskey as a form of pain relief
All through the night we lingered there and passed that bottle round
The group stays with the dying man and continues to share the bottle of whiskey throughout the night
Now, the workingman must be we'll warned whenever headlines scream
Lefty warns that working class people should be cautious of politicians who try to scare them with headlines
Your rights must yield, the bombs must fall to save democracy
He specifically warns against politicians who push for sacrificing workers' rights and using war as a way to save what they call democracy
The flag they fly, their stew of lies served up at votin' time
Politicians will put on a false show of patriotism and tell lies during elections
Like poison under the gravy on Highway 99
As the meatloaf on Highway 99 was poisoned, the political messages spread by politicians can be compared to poison added into the 'gravy' of patriotism
Contributed by John P. Suggest a correction in the comments below.