Ry Cooder – Bop Till You Drop (1979)

I discovered this album while working at the record store in the duty-free shop at Schiphol, back when we still sold LPs. It was 1979/1980, and I played the album daily in the store.

In September 1980, I saw Ry Cooder live in Vredenburg, Utrecht. After a few festivals, this was only my second “real” concert with a solo artist (the first was The Allman Brothers Band a week and a half earlier).

Well, “solo” artist—Ry was joined by John Hiatt and his then-current band, along with the fantastic singers Bobby King, Terry Evans, and Arnold McCuller.

I was already a fan of Hiatt since Slug Line, and he’ll appear again later in this list of 25 albums. It was a phenomenal concert, and I became a lifelong fan.

In 2018, nearly 40 years and countless albums in various styles later, Cooder seems to pick up this thread again with The Prodigal Son.