Quotes by Ry Cooder - Page 3

The environment is rarely put on tape, or if it is, it's so abstract that most people never realize it. They just don't know what it means. But if you can show it to them, then that's what becomes the main instrument.
Ry Cooder / Musician
Mean
People
Tape
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I always have felt that most people don't have the first idea about what musicians, in the traditional sense - I don't mean in the modern media fake way, but traditionally - what they went through, what their lives were like.
Ry Cooder / Musician
Fake
Always People Way
People Way Media
Traditional Sense
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I didn't want tunes that preach heaven: you know, life on Earth is bad and heaven is the only hope we have. I don't quite care for that. I mean, when people sing that stuff, it's good when they do it, but I didn't want to do it.
Ry Cooder / Musician
Heaven
Tunes
Life Hope Good
Preach
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These musicians, such as these Cubans in Havana, are a part of a scene that did produce great music and great musicians. They came from this tradition, so it's a good place to look. It's like prospecting: You gotta know where to look.
Ry Cooder / Musician
Looks
Musician
Tradition
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Santa Monica, where I have always lived, is not a town where you will find storefront Church of God in Christ churches. So, the whole idea of gospel quartet singing is something I never knew existed until I began to hear it on record.
Ry Cooder / Musician
Christ
Church
Monica
Santa
Santa Monica
Singing
Gospel
Began
Churches
Existed
God Will Always
Record
Quartet
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Some things I like to do better than other things, but I've got to say that in the end, the thing that makes it the most interesting for me is who you're with, you know? It's people that make the difference in just about any field, right?
Ry Cooder / Musician
Differences
Interesting
People
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I like the idea that something happens to everybody who comes to L.A. - whether they are Mexican, Irish, black, or hillbillies. You come here, and you leave all your traditions behind. And since there's no traditions here, you just make one up.
Ry Cooder / Musician
Mexican
Irish
Traditions
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I'm used to music as a tool, taking the various elements and then making something completely new out of them. And writing film music is the perfect opportunity to do that, because you can look at the film and then just let your imagination soar.
Ry Cooder / Musician
Opportunity
Imagination
Elements
Film
Perfect
Soar
Various
Writing
Taking
Tool
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People who aren't as interested in recorded music as they used to be will say, 'Oh, 'Buena Vista?' Loved it.' And I'll say, 'Well, how about any of my other recent records. I've been doing some pretty good ones. You like those?' And they go, 'Huh?'
Ry Cooder / Musician
Good Music People
Good Ones
Huh
Pretty Good
Recent
Vista
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If it hadn't been for record people like Ralph Peer, the Chess brothers, and Alan Lomax, then life would've been unbelievably dull, and I would've been sacking groceries somewhere and probably, at this point, running a little 7-Eleven down by the airport.
Ry Cooder / Musician
Running
Chess
Dull
Groceries
Airport
Somewhere
Brothers
Record
Peer
Ralph
Unbelievably
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Beautiful tunes are all very good and fine, and great musicians are always great, but that alone isn't enough. Most folks, when they see movies or hear records, need something that they find pulls them in, draws them in, and appeals to them beyond just the notes.
Ry Cooder / Musician
Appeals
Draws
Folks
Notes
Tunes
Alone Good Great
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I can't help what people write or think. If somebody thinks I'm a serious archivist, they're wrong. That's been a problem. It's a shame people take that attitude, because it affects how they listen to the music. It's a big mistake to treat any pop music that way.
Ry Cooder / Musician
Big Mistake
Pop Music
Affects
Archivist
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Having my son on drums has made a huge difference. I can't stress this strongly enough, in terms of the groove space and style that Joachim gave me to instinctively play what I felt in a more free way, rather than feeling constricted. That's true on record and on stage.
Ry Cooder / Musician
Groove
Son
Stress
Drums
Huge Difference
Instinctively
Strongly
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Uncle Dave Macon was a great balladeer and banjo player from the early part of the 19th century... He would take a social problem or something that he was looking at and make up a clever little song about it, you know, in a language everyone understood, a man of the people.
Ry Cooder / Musician
Clever
Dave
Problem
Social
Song
Understood
Great Man People
Banjo
Early
Make Up
Uncle
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You can make records from now 'til doomsday, and there are something like 50,000 records released every year, but the public gets to hear very few of these. They just won't know. They might be great records, but how in the world is the public supposed to find out about them?
Ry Cooder / Musician
Records
World
Years
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Back in the early '70s, when Susie and I were first married, we had a little house that we rented, and we used to have parties. People would come, and they wouldn't leave. I used to get so tired. I'd put on the Stanley Brothers, 'Songs for the Good People,' and the house would clear in five minutes. It was not liked; it was alien. It was weird.
Ry Cooder / Musician
Good People
Stanley
Alien
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Most folks, when they see movies or hear records, need something that they find pulls them in, draws them in, and appeals to them beyond just the notes. For a record to be memorable and great, it has to have something of this quality. Exactly what that is, I don't know, but I think it has something to do with an atmosphere, an environment that is appealing and attractive. And the people that inhabit this environment have... almost a message for the rest of the world.
Ry Cooder / Musician
Memorable
People
Thinking
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Ry Cooder Quotes - Page 3

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