I, Flathead

Ry Cooder | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 24, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nonesuch
• ASIN: B0018QCXBE
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #50,061 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #81 in Music > Country > Western Swing

Track Listings

1. Drive Like I Never Been Hurt

2. Waitin For Some Girl

3. Johnny Cash

4. Can I Smoke In Here?

5. Steel Guitar Heaven

6. Ridin With The Blues

7. Pink-O Boogie

8. Fernando Sez

9. Spayed Kooley

10. Filipino Dance Hall Girl

11. My Dwarf Is Getting Tired

12. Flathead One More Time

13. 5000 Country Music Songs

14. Little Trona Girl

Editorial Reviews

Ry Cooder’s I, Flathead, is the culmination of his ambitious and fascinating "California Trilogy," the last of three albums in which the singer and guitarist journeys through the real and imagined history of mid-20th century, multi-ethnic California, sampling the sounds of its barrios and byways, its nightclubs and honkytonks. He encounters the disenfranchised, the hopeful, the cheerfully strange and seriously nefarious, along with the occasional alien who races around in a souped-up flying saucer on the desert salt flats. On previous installments, Chávez Ravine (2005) and My Name Is Buddy (2007), learning the facts and stories behind Cooder’s songs made them even more compelling, whether it was the not-quite vanished legacy of the Chávez Ravine neighborhood of Los Angeles, bulldozed to make way for Dodger Stadium, or the allegorical, Bound For Glory-like adventures of Buddy Red Cat in a time of commie-baiting and union-busting. This time, however, no research is necessary: Cooder, a California native, has written a remarkable 104-page novella to accompany this disc, a surreally funny page-turner of a tale about itinerant musician Kash Buk and the various characters he meets in his travels out west, all of whom get to narrate parts of the story. If you mixed John Steinbeck with, say, Thomas Pynchon, and threw in a bit of Popular Mechanics for good measure, it might read something like the I, Flathead narrative.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine end piece to his trilogy., June 27, 2008

By 

South End - See all my reviews

This review is from: I, Flathead (Audio CD)

It takes courage to release a concept album, and something close to mad faith in one's art to release three in succession, as Ry Cooder has.
The concept album is usually an accident waiting to happen, so Ry Cooder is pushing his luck making three in a row.
"I, Flathead" is the concluding part of his 'California Trilogy', following 2005's "Chavez Ravine" and last year's "My Name Is Buddy", and it's a tribute to Cooder's talents that it's a match for either.
More than four decades since he emerged as an electric blues guitarist so highly rated that he turned down an offer to join the Rolling Stones when they looked for a replacement for Brian Jones in the Sixties, Cooder has ploughed a less commercial but hugely rewarding furrow as possibly America's most important rock musician.
A set of linked songs supposedly performed by one Kash Buk and his 'Klowns', a circle of 'petrolheads': drag racers and automotive junkies who wander the salt flats of California in the early 60s.
This third album in the guitarist's recent Californian collection is the most essential, with the former Captain Beefheart and Randy Newman sideman mining a rich southern Cafifornia seam.
Kash's story is nostalgic for a time when weird was commonplace. There are a couple of awkward narrative moments but they're soon forgotten in a project that affirms Cooder's acute sense of place and musical history, and his fiery ambition to make 'vernacular American music'.
The music is sharp and enjoyably coherent throughout. The playing is sublime, the drama captivating - check out "Can I Smoke In Here" for authentic atmosphere and "Pink O Boogie" for jangly In Here' for authentic atmosphere and 'Pink O Boogie' for jangly paranoia.
Pick of the album: "Waitin' For Some Girl", "Ridin' With the Blues", "Can I Smoke In Here" , "Pink-O Boogie", "5,000 Country Music Songs".

Chavez Ravine
My Name Is Buddy

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, an album surpassing his early work., July 16, 2008

By 

Robert Speziale "bob_spez" (Howell, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I, Flathead (Audio CD)

I love this album. I've been waiting years for Ry to equal
Boomer's Story and Borderline and his early work (most of which
I bought on casette 30 years or so ago and still have). I frequently
listen to Buena Vista Social Club, but Ry's contribution on that was
impressarial rather than musical.
This album has great electric guitar and lyrics but I believe Ry's
vocals are better than they have ever been. Maybe age has smoothed
out the gravel a bit, or maybe he just found his true voice.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 Star Slide phenom, August 16, 2008

By 

Tahoe Turk (Birmingham, Al) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I, Flathead (MP3 Download)

If you aren't well versed with Ry Cooder's music, you can be fairly certain that you'll get great music no matter which album of his you buy. This is the final of a trilogy about Los Angeles in the first half of the 20th century. Each has tells the story of the city and it's people. First was the album 'Chavez Ravine', the family oriented hispanic neighborhood cleared out to build Dodger Stadium. The second, 'My name is Buddy', is a fabulous ride through depression era migration and American socialism. If allegory leaves you cold, just enjoy the music. This album, 'I Flathead' is the final of the trio. If you really want a treat, the CD versions of Buddy and Flathead each include a very cool, small graphic novel within the CD case to accompany the album. Ry is one of our finest Musicologist and maybe the best slide player alive. (though Sonny Landreth is fabulous).