Wise words from Ry Cooder

[Joachim Kettner]

Happy 77th birthday to the great Ry Cooder!
"Today the trend is to minimize the idea of what a song is. To knock it down to two notes. [Laughs] This kind of weird banality. It’s like you say, “Well, today I do the following…” And you call that a song? Or just this reduction kind of thing, where there’s nothing in the pot anymore. Well, you just boiled it all out. What is this then?
Is it just me cause I’m grumpy? Joachim says he feels the same way. He’s 40 years old. So what the hell’s going on here? Where’s the tune? Where’s the melody? Where’s the poetry? Why is that so not in evidence? You can’t blame hip-hop for everything.
Is it the fault of the digital world? I think, maybe, because everything happens too fast, that you don’t build a craft, you don’t build artistry in yourself. And you don’t listen. If you don’t listen to music, all music, I don’t see how you know. It’s like a child learning to talk without having heard people speaking.
What are you gonna do, start talking in abbreviations, like texting? And that’s exactly what’s happening.
It would be like never reading a book. If you don’t read books and you don’t understand experience, how the hell can you write about it and sing about it? Or you’re just going to end up writing about yourself. Then it’s like everybody’s in a closet with themselves, and it’s very limited and it’s very unappealing and I don’t like it.
So you say what’s happening with songs. Music is fundamental and it is human. That’s exactly what it is.
So the question is will there come a time when the Beethoven string quartet will cease to have meaning? Because people can’t relate to them anymore. They won’t understand their role or their lives vis a vis those notes. Is it irrelevant? Can Bach become irrelevant? Can Jimmy Van Heusen [laughs] become irrelevant? I think so. Picasso. Is he going to speak to people? Or are they just going to think it’s weird? We’ll see about that. Time will tell.
by Paul Zollo / American Songwriter

[Jerry Overstreet]

Pretty danged good summary there. Thx Joachim.

[K Maul]

OK, BOOMER……haha. In Geological time nothing really means very much. So let’s just enjoy it while we got it.

[Frank Freniere]

Joachim, did Ry Cooder just name-check you??? Pretty cool!

[Jim Cooley]

So, I mean like, is he like, saying that music is becoming like...boring?

[Joachim Kettner]

Joachim, did Ry Cooder just name-check you??? Pretty cool!

I knew for some time that his son's name is the same name like mine. He often plays drums with his father. Another "Joachim" that amazed me was playing with Boz Scaggs on his "Moments" record.
In biblical terms the name comes from the father of Mother Mary. Thanks!

[Brooks Montgomery]

Good perspective, but I'm confused. Did Ry Cooder say that, or did Paul Zollo? Or was Ry talking to Paul, and was being quoted?

[Phillip Hermans]

Ry said this in an interview, full article here:
https://americansongwriter.com/ry-coode ... y-of-song/

Where he also says (right before the quote Joachim posted):

We won’t name names, but there are these modern songwriters. And the trend is to minimize the idea of what a song is.

So, I don't know who he is talking about, or why he is listening to these two note melodies. (Although, Jobim seemed to do quite well with One Note Samba)

I also thought folks like Guy Clark were praised for their simplicity and directness in their songwriting. Is he saying that has been taken too far?

If I am being generous and he is not just *old man shaking fist at cloud*, I would have to assume he is just listening to ClearChannel radio and is disappointed in what he hears? That is easy enough to agree with.

But there are so many songwriters right now releasing music that DO NOT do this. It may be difficult to find them, especially if you are averse to new technology. But, it would be nice if an elder statesman like Ry would seek out quality songwriters and give them attention, rather than complain about "these modern songwriters" in the abstract. But that probably doesn't generate as many clicks for americansongwriter.com

[Donny Hinson]

The music that was on the charts decades ago was the best music, and the stuff that didn’t make the charts was, by and large, poor to mediocre. Nowadays, it’s just the opposite. The chart hits are mostly banal, homogenized crap, and the stuff that’s not on the charts turns out to be the best music. I think this reflects the change in our modern society, in that the dullards used to be the minority. Nowadays, the dullards are the majority, and it’s the thinking people, those with reasonable intelligence, that are the minority.

“The good old days” were better. I know, because I was there.