OSAKA 1979
by RY COODER & DAVID LINDLEY
Compact Disc
UNCD040
Label: UNICORN
STUNNING POST-BOP SHOW FROM COODER & LINDLEY’S 1979 TOUR
By 1979, Ry Cooder had reached something of a crossroads in his career. Following stints in the late-1960s with Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, and before that, the Rising Sons - alongside session work with The Rolling Stones, Randy Newman and Lowell George - Cooder released his first, eponymous, solo-album in 1970. Following this came several further highly acclaimed records, largely containing covers of blues, country and other roots music numbers, updated to Ry’s inimitable slide guitar-based sound. • Releases like Into the Purple Valley, Paradise and Lunch and Chicken Skin Music were all critically well received, but Cooder never hit it big. 1978’s Jazz was a sideways step which alienated a number of fans, while mid-79’s Bop ‘Til You Drop gave him his first hit single, but was somewhat too commercial for many. • So, when Cooder went of on tour within days of Bop’s… release, he took along his old mucker, David Lindley, and the pair travelled to the other side of the world, putting on shows in Australia, and more notably, Japan - where Cooder had not previously played. Performing only a solitary track from the new record, Cooder and Lindley concentrated on a set-list made up - perhaps sensibly – of classics from Cooder’s back catalogue for these concerts. Their show on 6th November 1979, in Osaka, was clearly hugely enjoyed by the Japanese audience, albeit in the traditional, polite Japanese manner that western musicians have come to expect in the land of the rising sun. • A fine performance, the entire gig was recorded for live FM-Broadcast and is now released on this new CD for the first time
1. Alimony 4:15
2. Go Home Girl 5:56
3. Mexican Divorce 4:28
4. F.D.R. In Trinidad 4:16
5. Ax Sweet Mama 3:58
6. Billy The Kid 5:14
7. Denomination Blues 4:10
8. One Meat Ball 9:07
9. Travelin' Man 7:27
10. If Walls Could Talk 8:04
11. Jesus On The Mainline 6:22
12. The Tattler 4:20
13. Blue Suede Shoes 5:31
14. Bourgeois Blues 6:10
