Sunday Music – FDR In Trinidad

Today’s music video is ‘FDR In Trinidad’ from Ry Cooder.

Link to Video at You Tube

This video was posted to You Tube by homegrownkentucky

I would venture to say that for those of you reading this, it could be the first time you have heard this song, and the same would apply for the second song below.

They were not released as Singles and the album they are from, while selling quite well, barely managed to make it into the Album charts at Number 113, and the singer, Ry Cooder was still virtually a nobody, even though he had been around for a few years, mainly as a session musician, and his first album was in the genre he has now become a Superstar in, American ‘Roots’ Music.

These two songs featured today are from his second album ‘Into The Purple Valley’, also American Roots Music, and was Ry Cooder’s breakthrough album, recorded in 1971.

I have had a long interest in music, and coming up through the late 60’s, I was no different to a lot of young people at the time. I loved guitar music. However, in the early 70’s my tastes were expanding, and I was now becoming interested in all forms of music, especially where other instruments came into play, and also the differing forms of keyboards. I was now seeing bands, well hearing their music mainly, and now, some of the keyboards men had a large array of different keyboards they would play. I was also seeing more and more of those monster Hammond organs (the large ones, commonly the B-3 and C-3) being used by bands, this organ long the province (in my thinking anyway) of little old ladies, both in private, and in churches. Now I was hearing some of the big names in modern music playing those large (and hugely expensive) Hammond organs, names like Keith Emerson, Manfred Mann, Paul McCartney, Rick Wakeman, and Steve Winwood.

As well as listening for new things, I was also beginning to really look at the way some artists and bands were introducing new instruments in modern music, instruments not really associated with rock music. (mainly based around guitars and drums) I particularly noticed strings coming in, with violins, mandolins, and others as well, and acoustic music was beginning to get as much airplay as the regular electric guitar bands.

It was by sheer luck that I first heard tracks from this Ry Cooder album where today’s two featured songs come from.

In the early 70’s while I was in my early 20’s and a member of the Royal Australian Air Force, I was stationed at a base near Newcastle in New South Wales. As was the case for young men, there was always a party somewhere on Saturday nights. I was playing senior grade cricket at the time, and this particular party was two or three weeks before the start of the Cricket season, so I was intensely involved with practice in the build up to the start of the first match. Because of that, I was curtailing any drinking I might do at a party like this, and that made me a prime candidate as the ‘designated driver’ for a car load of guys who were all going to this party.

The party was typical for the time, a lot of grog, mainly from an 18 gallon Keg, so there was quite a number of people at this party, and as might be expected for young men, there was loud music.

The inside of the house was smoke filled, and not just from tobacco smoke, as was quite easily discernible from the smell. There was the ubiquitous black light (UV light) providing that dark purple glow, and also the almost traditional ‘oil slide’, coloured oil on a large slide under a projector, with the image displayed on the wall as the oil flowed from the heat of the bulb in the projector, making moving patterns on the wall. You could tell the guys who were smoking because they were all absently watching the slide, and drinking one of two evil tasting drinks, Green Ginger Wine or Brown Muscat.

The music was loud, and here, forgive me for the two puns. There was usually heavy metal music from bands like Led Zeppelin and Iron Butterfly, and the ‘colourful’ bands, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and King Crimson. The music was really loud, and not particularly liking being in that smoky atmosphere, I adjourned outside where there was a smaller group. While you could still hear the thumping of the music from inside, this smaller group was playing different music, well, sort of the same really.

One of the guys went to change the record when it finished. As a sidelight to this, this round of parties did teach me one thing, and that was NEVER to take any of my records to a party. They usually ended up scratched beyond redemption.

The next record that was put on was something I hadn’t heard before. I was immediately attracted to the sound I was hearing as this was new and while distinctly different from what was being played inside, this was something I liked. The first song I heard was the opening song on the album, which is the second featured song I have below. The last one I heard was track four, the featured song at the top of the page, and as that song finished, someone mentioned to ‘take this crap off, and put on some real music’, and the record was changed.

The following day, long after everyone had gone home, the guys who were holding the party cleaned up, usually an excuse to finish off the keg. Some of us turned up to help, and again, I was the designated driver.

I sought out the owner and asked him about that record, and could we play it again. He got it out, and while it played I looked at the album, and was immediately taken by the cover art work, and the art work on the back of the album as well. Here was an artist who had put some thought, not only into the music, but into the packaging of the LP as well.

As you can see at the right, the front cover shows the album name, ‘Into The Purple Valley’, the artist’s name, Ry Cooder, and that evocative image of a man and his girl driving through the rain in the yellow convertible. The driver seems to be concentrating on the wet road, and the young lady has that look of trepidation on her face, looking up at the rain, and holding her hat.

Nothing startling there until you flip the album over to read what is on the back.

Here you see almost the same image, only now, the rain has stopped, and both of them are happy as they drive forward.

The two images are just so evocative, and say so much, without any words needing to be spoken.

This was one album I really wanted to add to my collection. I sought it out from ‘my man’ who was the proprietor of the record shop where I got nearly all of my albums and asked him if he could get me a copy. It took a month, but I did end up with that album added to my now growing collection of vinyl LP’s.

Many years later, I found out some information about the cover art work for the album.

Ry Cooder recorded the album in a disused movie lot near the recording studio, and used some of the backdrops and props for the two images.

The car is a yellow 1939 Buick Convertible. and Cooder borrowed the car from a neighbour. For the front cover, he used the dark cloudy backdrop, and used the rain making machine at the old movie site to ‘make’ the rain. Cooder is in the driver’s seat, and the young lady is his wife, Susan.

As to the music itself, there are 11 songs on the album, none written by Ry Cooder. All of them are old songs from before the Second World War, and even older, except for the Johnny Cash song, ‘Hey Porter’ from 1954.

There is no song on the album titled the same as for the album title, ‘Into The Purple Valley’.

Oddly, the vinyl pressing itself has the song listings for each side, and this is riddled with typos, and incorrect titles for songs, around half a dozen in all. One of those concerns the second featured song today, which is listed as ‘Traditional – adapted by Cooder’. This song was actually written by early American author and songwriter Agnes ‘Sis’ Cunningham in the 30’s. Because of this, and the incorrect labelling, further pressings of the album were corrected to reflect the corrections.

The featured song at the top of this Post, titled ‘FDR In Trinidad’ was written in the early 1936 by Fitz MacLean. It is a song with two stories. Written by MacLean, the song was performed by an outfit called (oddly) Attila The Hun, oddly because this band led by Attila The Hun, whose real name was Raymond Quevedo was a Calypso music band from the West Indies islands of Trinidad and Tobago. His band was one of the first to bring this Calypso style music to the U.S. and Roosevelt himself first heard the band in New York in 1934 during the band’s first tour of the U.S. FDR became a big fan of calypso music following this. The band obviously would have known that the President was in the audience and that he had become a fan.

Following FDR’s successful visit to Trinidad in 1936 on his way back from a Peace Conference in Argentina, the band then wrote this song about that visit.

Many years later, Ry Cooder arranged the song for inclusion in this album. I particularly like the instrumental break in the middle where the mandolin takes a prominent role, and Cooder, now experienced on a number of stringed instruments plays this mandolin break. I was also taken with the simple acoustic guitar accompaniment to what is basically almost spoken words lyrics. It’s just such an evocative song.

The second song below, ‘How Can You Keep On Movin (Unless You Migrate Too)’ was written by ‘Sis’ Cunningham, who was an ardent Socialist. The song deals with the people who fled Westwards during the great drought of the mid 30’s worst in 1934 to 1936, and the problems as those poor sharecropper families known colloquially as ‘Okies’ moved from disaster, only to be not really accepted wherever they fled to.

Again, Cooder gives this arrangement that little something extra. There is some beautiful work on the slide guitar, an instrument he is renowned for playing, and he is probably one of the best exponents of this Instrument in the World. He also sings the song, almost in spoken word again, and it just drips of sarcasm all the way through. There is a wonderful section of the song that shows some beautiful voice harmonies.

All 11 songs on the album are just wonderful, and this is one album in my collection that indeed is one of the best.

Ry Cooder has been the recipient of 4 Grammy Awards, and besides producing a number of his own albums, has been featured on literally hundreds of other albums by most of the big names in modern music.

Ry Cooder is a legend, and while these days that term may be devalued, in Cooder’s case, it most definitely isn’t.

Link to Video at You Tube

This video was posted to You Tube by overlordguitar

Tagged: Music, Music Video, Ry Cooder

Posted in: Music, Videos