Ry Cooder Quotes

James Brown was one of the first artists who found four bars that he liked and played them the entire way through, and then he just added to it vocally.

As I started to study old blues recordings and really pay attention to my favorites, it really started to come to me that all of my favorite pieces of music weren't produced, they were performed. The producer is nearly invisible: no thumbprint other than the composition and the performers.

Every time I want to impress someone about samples and hip-hop, I play 'Portrait of Tracy.' It's one of the greatest bass players ever doing a whole composition with only the two harmonics of electric bass; then a three-second loop in it became every great R&B song in five-year intervals.

I like the spontaneity; I like to just get people together and hit 'record' so hopefully it has got a liveliness about it.

Souljazz doesn't reinvent soul, jazz or the fusion thereof, but it plays all of the above with the passion that drove its forefathers.

If there was a wrong note, it didn't matter as long as it was rocking.

James Brown came from that hard, rough life that I came from. He took the blues and added rhythm to it. And he always had the most funkiest band; I liked the way he took his words and mixed it in with the band.

No matter what happens with EDM, I would like to go to New Orleans and just play with one of those small funk bands in an intimate venue. How cool would it be to work with a band with those huge horn lines and produce all of that great funk that makes you just want to party?

A lot of those early blues records and soul records were pretty much live. It was what it was, and they had goofs and mistakes, but it still kept its charm. We have to remember to keep the feel. It's so important.

I think that there is such power with the live performance of it - so much of what 'Motown' is about is the live performance aspect, really. The power of our production is really the music and the performances.

I do one take; I never overdubbed twice. I know there's stuff that isn't perfect, but it doesn't matter: Nothing is perfect, and there is a magic there that is undeniable because of the fact that we don't care about those things.

I just think that's more exciting. When people used to cut records live, there were mistakes all the time that stayed in. It was part of the charm. You're kind of missing something if everything is all doctored-up and clinical. So when we hear a mistake that sounds interesting, we make a point to keep it.

Each show is a very honest portrayal of how I'm feeling that night. It can go off in any direction. The show is different every night, and that makes it much more exciting. Every evening is unique.

I like 'I Can't Stand the Rain.' I like it because it has a really oriental feeling to it, an 'oriental taste,' it has an essence of Asia.

I really like R&B more than rap.

I grew up on R&B and soul, so that backbone is always there.

In film you have the opportunity of retakes or of giving your best profile. In theatre, it's right here, right now.

I just write what I think is funny, or interesting, and hopefully everything else will take care of itself. There's no strategy to anything.

I'm kind of like a folk singer mixed with soul, but I feel like if you really are a lover of hip-hop music, make the beat banging as possible and then put the message in so that people get the honey with the medicine.

My cooking is incredibly haphazard, but I've never pretended it was anything else.

Just write what comes to you.

I'm a huge fan of Motown. When you saw them on stage, you saw sparkle... you saw attitude. They didn't have on t-shirt and jeans.

I feel like I've gotten myself comfortable making beats in front of people, so like, if I'm in a big room of people, I'm not like, nervous. I wanna be able to make beats on the spot.

I'm in R&B/Soul, and I feel like all my music is R&B driven. Even some of the songs that are more rap have an R&B feel, so I'm with that.

As an actor, I've been taught to just stay with your scene partner, and whatever they do, let it affect you, be spontaneous.