Paradise and Lunch Music

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by: Ry Cooder

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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: Rating: - a desert island disc I wore out my original record of this long ago. It's my favorite Ry Cooder album, and I've got most of 'em. Why? Top notch, soulful playing and singing, and quirky songs that'll make you laugh! ("I got thrown out of church, for talkin' 'bout Diddy Wah Diddy too much...")It's not commercial stuff, but in a perfect world it would be. Great slide work and fine gospel backup singing. Guaranteed to make you feel good and put a smile on your face! A musician's choice! Rating: - Sure to make you smile Way back in 1983 or '84, a rock music show here featured footage of a live-in-the-studio performance from Ry Cooder and those fabulous backing vocalists, presumably made during the sessions for this album. The next day at work, it was the only thing people talked about. And if ever I mention it to a few former colleagues I still see, their eyes light up with the memory. I had already bought P&L on the strength of a Rolling Stone recommendation, so I was doubly ecstatic when I saw those clips ('If Walls Could Talk' and probably 'Tattler' and 'Jesus On The Mainline'). This is a terrific journey through American blues and gospel, with immaculate playing and an infectious sense of fun. The aformentioned 'Walls' is very cute, 'Tamp 'Em Up Solid' literally chugs along, 'Tattler' is gorgeous, but for me 'Fool For A Cigarette' is the standout: it's so cheerful it makes you almost proud to be a smoker, and that's saying something. Rating: - Ry Cooder's Best All of Ry Cooder's music is exceptional. All of it. So picking his "best" record is a bit like picking Beethoven's best string quartet. Or Bob Dylan's best song. But this album is special. It's the kind of record that you mention to that new friend you discover whose taste is broad, deep and solid, who would recommend a record to you and you would just buy it unquestioningly because of the respect you have for the person's discriminating taste, and that person will look you in the eye with a knowing respect and say, "You know about 'Paradise and Lunch'?" And it will turn out to be on both your top 10 lists. Most people don't know about this record, but every time I meet that rare new person who really knows music but whose taste is not focused on just one area (you know, the guy who has every album Cecil Taylor made, but who has never heard of the Kronos Quartet), this one is on their short list of all-time favorites. If you are not sure whether you will like it, ask yourself whether you like old country blues, old gospel, calypso, street-corner a capella singing, or any pre-commercial American roots music. No? OK, forget it then. But if you do, all those influences are on this record and more, produced and performed in an original, infectious way that will keep these tunes in your head for decades (they've certainly been in my head that long.) In fact, I probably would not put it on my list of 10 records to take to a desert island, like some other reviewers mentioned. I don't have to, because every song on the album has long been burned into my synapses, and I can recall them all note for note any time I want. You might find the same happens to you. Tamp 'em up solid, so they won't come down.

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