Music : I, Flathead (Deluxe Edition)

Rating: - Its all in here...
I'm not what you'd call a die-hard Cooder fan, but anyone who likes his older stuff (especially back from the 70's) will love this concept album. What really makes it for me is the combination of his sense of humour combined with some of his best music in years (IMHO).

As he writes in the notes (in his alter-ego, "Kash Buk"), "You got your hard times, your good times, a dog story... and a forbidden-race-love song."

First time I played it I wondered what it was all about - background music it ain't - but stick it in the car CD player (as Kash recommends) and it comes to life.

I've only played it about half a dozen times but I'm singing the songs already.

With regard to the first review, I'm not over 60 but I do love musical-Americana and Ry Cooder does it brilliantly. I have no involvement/knowledge re' the post-war California lakebed racing scene (and it doesn't matter if you have no idea what that is) but this record creates an atmosphere which is both amusing and ghost-like which I can relate to - even on a wet English morning in Wiltshire!

Trying to categorise the music is difficult but most of it comes nearest to Country - with a strong blues influence as you'd expect. There's a lot of spoken word too but it's either hilarious (Steel Guitar Heaven, Fernando Sez) or spooky (Can I Smoke in here?, Flathead One More Time) and well worth the effort.

If you like this genre, buy it. You won't be disappointed!

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Rating: - I love this album
I could be wrong butI get the impression that Mr Cooder has been listening to a lot of Tom Waits recently and that is no bad thing. Great album both musically and lyrically, could have done with some more of his trademark slide guitar but no complaints really.

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Rating: - What!
I had to write a few words to offer a counter view to the guy who shows a complete lack of creative understanding of this album's raison d'etre. As for the comment about it being for, 'nostalgic, over 60's American males', well if you liked the recent Coen Bros movie, 'No Country for Old Men' then you'll understand the sentiments expressed through this music.
This is a masterpiece of understatement and contains some all time classics. 'Can I Smoke in Here' and 'Flathead One More Time' are condensed movies that create their own quirky mis-en-scene with believable, fleshed out characters, lamenting the onset of old age and the changes that are a comin'. There is an air of hedonistic abandon and black humour in some tracks, desperation and melancholy in others, yet all are born out of the eclectic musical styles of 20thC American - that includes Latino too - popular music. A language that Ry Cooder is an honorary professor of. Buy it and be moved! In the words of the great man himself: "What a world: smile today, cry tomorrow".

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Rating: - Disappointed
After a great review in The S. Times, I am disappointed. I guess it's aimed at the 60+ year old American male whose memories will be stirred - but not mine.
The accompanying book is an interesting odd-ball but not enough to warrant buying the CD.