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 Girls From Texas
Ry Cooder Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Hadn't known her for too long when I had to let her go
You see, she had a razor, was ten inches or so
And every night you'd hear her knocking at my door
She said, Baby, I'll give you the clothes on my back
You can have everything that I've got in my shack
But if you ever try to leave they'll take your out in sack
Cause me and my razor will see to that"
That's the way the girls are from Texas
That's the way the girls are from Texas
I thought about my situation, decided not to tarry
For my own self preservation I decided we should marry
When the preacher started reading bout till death do us part
I told him, "Skip it, we had that understanding right from the start"
That's the way the girls are from Texas
That's the way the girls are from Texas Houston to San Antone
That's the way the girls are from Texas got to love'em right or leave em alone
Well, we settled down, got me a little old job, 65 Fairlane Ford
Every Friday night I would stop in and cash my pay check down at the grocery store
They had a little girl worked in there, must have been about seventeen
She was the cutest thing I had ever seen
It's the same old story and I'm afraid it wasn't too very long
Before we had fallen deeply in love and I knew it was wrong
I said baby, we got to stop this thing right here
Or my woman is gonna cut my throat from ear to ear, that's right
Tearful suffocation, she looked up in my face
I could feel her heart was breaking as these sad words she did say
"You should have told me you was married, baby"
She pulled out a forty-five and let me have it, right smack between the eyes
That's the way the girls are from Texas
That's the way the girls are from Texas
That's the way the girls are from Texas
She was guilty, I was dead
Now, what'd you think that the old judge said ?
"Ah, that's just the way the girls are down here in Texas Case dismissed!"
That's the way the girls are from Texas
That's the way the girls are from Texas Houston to San Antone
That's the way the girls are from Texas got to love'em right or leave'em alone, boy
The lyrics of Ry Cooder's song "The Girls From Texas" describe the dangerous and unpredictable nature of women from Texas. The singer met a woman from Texas who had a razor and threatened to harm him if he ever tried to leave her. He decided to marry her for his own safety, but eventually fell in love with another woman. When he tried to break things off with the Texas woman, she shot and killed him.
The song portrays a stereotypical view of Texas women as being aggressive and violent. The use of the razor as a symbol for this aggression is fitting, as it represents a tool used for cutting and slicing. The repetition of the lyric "that's the way the girls are from Texas" helps to reinforce this idea of a fixed personality trait. The ending of the song, where the judge dismisses the case and blames the woman's behavior on her Texan roots, shows how deeply rooted this stereotype is within society.
Overall, the song paints a negative picture of Texas women and perpetuates harmful stereotypes. It is important to recognize that individuals should not be judged based on where they come from or stereotypes associated with their identity.
Line by Line Meaning
Well, I met a girl from Texas 'bout a year ago
I encountered a woman from Texas approximately a year prior
Hadn't known her for too long when I had to let her go
I had to end our relationship quickly because it was brief
You see, she had a razor, was ten inches or so
She carried a razor that was about ten inches long
And every night you'd hear her knocking at my door
She would come over to my place and knock on my door every night
She said, Baby, I'll give you the clothes on my back
She promised to give me everything she had
You can have everything that I've got in my shack
She offered me everything she had in her home
But if you ever try to leave they'll take your out in sack
If I ever tried to leave her, she and her razor would take me out
Cause me and my razor will see to that
She and her razor would make sure I couldn't leave
That's the way the girls are from Texas
Girls from Texas behave this way
I thought about my situation, decided not to tarry
I considered my situation and chose not to delay
For my own self preservation I decided we should marry
I decided to marry her for my own safety
When the preacher started reading bout till death do us part
When the preacher began to discuss the vows of marriage
I told him, "Skip it, we had that understanding right from the start"
I told the preacher to skip the vow because we already knew it
Houston to San Antone
From Houston to San Antonio
Well, we settled down, got me a little old job, 65 Fairlane Ford
We established ourselves, I acquired a modest job and a 1965 Ford Fairlane
Every Friday night I would stop in and cash my pay check down at the grocery store
Every Friday night, I would visit the grocery store to cash my paycheck
They had a little girl worked in there, must have been about seventeen
There was a teenage girl who worked at the store
She was the cutest thing I had ever seen
She was the most attractive person I had ever laid eyes on
Before we had fallen deeply in love and I knew it was wrong
Before we became deeply enamored and I recognized it was immoral
I said baby, we got to stop this thing right here
I requested that we end our affair immediately
Or my woman is gonna cut my throat from ear to ear, that's right
Otherwise, my partner would harm me
Tearful suffocation, she looked up in my face
With tears streaming down her face, she stared at me
You should have told me you was married, baby
You should have disclosed that you were married
She pulled out a forty-five and let me have it, right smack between the eyes
She drew out a firearm and fatally shot me in the head
She was guilty, I was dead
She was culpable, and I was deceased
Now, what'd you think that the old judge said ?
What do you believe the elderly judge's response was?
"Ah, that's just the way the girls are down here in Texas Case dismissed!"
The judge asserted that this was typical behavior of Texas women and dismissed the case
got to love'em right or leave'em alone
You must either love them correctly or abstain from them entirely
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: CLIFFORD CHAMBERS, JIMMY HOLIDAY, JIMMY LEWIS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind