Customer Reviews

Into the Purple Valley

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Leave it to guitar virtuoso Ry Cooder to tackle the Dust Bowl Era, the Great Depression, and the plight of sharecroppers in America. Into The Purple Valley is Cooder's musical take on John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath: impoverished farmers traveling to the Land Of Opportunity (I'm assuming that `purple' means `grape,' or the Napa Valley of California). Sounds pretty depressing? Not exactly. Into The Purple Valley is honest: musically and historically. The majority of the eleven songs are pre-fifties standards, but instead of updating the songs, Cooder captures the music (or perhaps the desperation) of the time. Outdated by contemporary standards (whether seventy-two or today), Into The Purple Valley is an inspired reworking of thirties and forties American music.

Desperation and misery are at the center of `How Can You Keep Moving,' `Hey Porter,' and `Vigilante Man.' What picks these numbers out of the melancholy doldrums and lifts then into the blissful clouds is Cooder's mesmerizing guitar work: his technique is majestic. The bass-thumping R&B song, `Money Honey,' reminds me of the "High Maintenance" ladies whom I have met, but couldn't afford. `Teardrops Will Fall' shines with a heavenly angelic choir. Cooder makes the `Denomination Blues' sparkle with (I don't believe it myself) a xylophone! His finger-sliding technique on "Vigilante Man' is breathtaking. Studying this period of history in school is often dry and boring. Into The Purple Valley brings history to life.

Ry Cooder has shown us a wide variety and diversification of musical influences since this 1972 release, but to me, this is his best effort. I love the broad range of musical influences that he has taken over the years, including the commercially successful Buena Vista Social Club, however, Into the Purple Valley is where he is at home. From beginning to end, this album carries such a magical feel, particularly the struggles of the poor and oppressed from a long ago era, however, seems to give us an indication that maybe our own "blues" maybe waiting around the corner for us all. ( You must remember that Nixon was in office when this was released...need I say more?). My personal favorites are "FDR in Trinidad", " How Can a Man Stand Such Times and Live", and the ever amazing rendition of "Vigilante Man". I love Mr. Cooder's travels into the realms of other cultures and rhythems. Through these venture, he has broadened our knowledge and appreciation for the sounds and rhythems of our world through the eyes and ears of those who we would have otherwise never known or heard. However, I feel that there is more for him to explore and interpret from The Heart of America and to give his own special stamp of originality. To those of you who have never heard "Into the Purple Valley" have no hesitation in going out immediately and purchasing. It will become one of your very favorites. And To Mr. Cooder, when you grow weary of world travels, come on back to the Purple Valley. We will all be waiting for you.

Running a little longer than the first album and ditching some of the bugs that slightly marred it (the strings being one), "Into the Purple Valley" shows Ry Cooder coming into his own. While tackling most of the same issues and types of songs from his debut, "Into the Purple Valley" takes a more direct and stripped down approach to the music. He also takes on a few more musical styles with the gospel influenced Teardrops Will Fall and the calypso flavored FDR in Trinidad. While people claim that "Paradise and Lunch" was his greatest album, this one, his first true masterpiece, should not be ignored and was certainly a springboard for his more delicious mix of musical variations.

1972 was a banner year for what is now called Americana music, and its best and brightest purveyors were attached to Warner Brothers Records and their subsidiary Reprise. Between the two labels, they had a very cool stable of artists. Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor became mainstream successes fairly quickly. Others took longer to find fame and acclaim, but were no less noteworthy. Among these were 3 forward-thinking, backward-glancing master musicians who anticipated the best-selling "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack by 28 years.

Consider: In 1972 Warner/Reprise released Ry Cooder's "Into The Purple Valley", John Fahey's "Of Rivers And Religion", and Van Dyke Parks' "Discover America". Fellow label-mate Randy Newman issued his "Sail Away" album that year, but he wouldn't fully explore American themes until 1974's "Good Old Boys". The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band gained the most notice of all of these records with the 1972 release of their landmark double album "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" on the Liberty label.

It's not like no one had recorded this stuff before - there was of course the originals (Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, to name just two) - and such vaunted keepers-of-the-flame as Johnny Cash. Dylan was certainly an early practitioner at times, as were the Byrds with much of 1968's "Sweetheart of the Rodeo". Many folk artists recorded chestnuts like "Statesboro Blues" on albums otherwise filled with their own material. Singing and playing old songs on acoustic guitar is one thing. Total immersion and dedication to the proper historical instrumentation - and presentation of these songs as a conceptual whole - is something entirely different. It could be said that 1972 was when this music finally reached "critical mass", and a greater number of counter-culture artists tapped into the zeitgeist and expanded its boundaries (or narrowed them, if you prefer). Their attention to detail and authenticity raised the bar to a new level, and they made dusty old Smithsonian archival recordings sound fresh and revelatory for a whole new generation.

For this review, I'm choosing to concentrate on the Warner/Reprise releases that best illustrate this discussion. All 3 were flawless masterpieces that investigated different facets of American music. Ry Cooder explored Tennessee Dust Bowl balladry, Western themes of gunfighters and farmers, and the kind of "union" songs favored by Pete Seeger. John Fahey released an all-instrumental record (no vocals) of sleepy Mississippi blues, spirituals, and New Orleans dixieland jazz. Van Dyke Parks went further south yet, with steelband calypso music of the Caribbean - but sang entirely about American themes and people such as Franklin Roosevelt, Bing Crosby, the Mills Brothers, and J. Edgar Hoover.

For me, these albums comprise a perfect American trilogy. That they were released the same year is altogether remarkable. Thankfully, they are all available on CD. I can't recommend them highly enough.

His mixture of rock 'n' roll, folk, blues, and whatever else he could put into the album (now CD), gives us a taste of much needed history (F.D.R. In Trinidad) and brings us to today's still relevant problems (Taxes On The Farmer Feeds Us All). Ry Cooder's vocals are not polished, but his 'down home' voice lends credence and believability to these songs; you can almost picture yourself sitting there in a little tavern listening to him sing. Good music yesterday, today, and forever---give it a try!

Goes perfectly with Paradise and Lunch; the two fit nicely on one cd for the car.
Tremendous git playing from Ry as usual, with the added bonus of lots of his tasty mandolin. All the tunes are old gems, treated with reverence and joy. The Joseph Spence tune about FDR coming to Trinidad is a hoot and a half.
Very musical music, and lots of fun.

I purchased this CD a year ago, right about the time when I was, coincidentally, doing a history project about the Dust Bowl. It provided the perfect backround music for it, and I have loved it ever since. In my mind there are no weak tracks, with the possible exception of Teardrops Will Fall, which I did not care for at first, but has grown on me. What amazed me the most about this album was the diversity within the particular style of music Cooder is dealing with. I normally group music like this under the term "down home," but on this disk that can range from folk to blues, or even a bit of calypso. I unfortunately lost this CD, along with Chickenskin Music, on a Continental Airlines flight this summer (and was rudely accomodated too), but I am sure that I will own it again in the near future.

My brother brought this album home in the early 70's on vinyl. There was a production problem with this album and it seemed every copy we bought (must have been 3 or 4) skipped badly. You can tell we enjoyed the music.

The first 20 times we were forced to listen to it, the music and the words grated, it was a different sound. After that we found ourselves humming the tunes, whistling the music and looking for more work by the artist.

Nowadays, people ask me 'who was that?' instead of 'can we please listen to something else?'. While you might be better advised to start with 'Bob till you drop', 'Paradise and Lunch' or 'Chickenskin Music', Purple Valley remains a classic Ry Cooder Album.

Catchy tunes, wonderful guitar, lyrics which will roll you over and make you want to sing them yourself. 'I want money honey'.

Besides which, on CD it doesn't skip anymore.

It's a good sounding set of different songs of pass. I liked the different type music and lyrics.

This album is a masterpiece--one of the few that I still play after 40 years. I would put side 1 up against any other album and at least argue to a draw. When you hear how good he was at this age, it will be no surprise that he has become an American (in the fullest sense of the term) treasure who deserves his turn as Kennedy Center honoree. All of his early bluesy albums are wonderful but this is the best. Denomination Blues and Teardrops will Fall are the highlights but every song is a gem.