Why Don't You Try Me

Are you familiar with the work of Ry Cooder? If not, here's your introduction to a man worth knowing.

Ry Cooder

Ry Cooder is one of those names I first noticed on one of those double-album promotional samplers that Warner Brothers used to sell for a whopping 2 bucks, back in the early 1970's. Known then and today as the "Loss Leaders" series, these records are now very popular with collectors. They were made back when Warners was quickly evolving from being the home of Petula Clark, Peter Paul & Mary, and The Everly Brothers, along with comedians like Allan Sherman and Bill Cosby during the 1960's to being darn near the hippest label in town by 1972. This was due to Warners having the vision and faith to sign talents in the rough with long term potential like Randy Newman, Alice Cooper, Frank Zappa, Van Morrison, Fleetwood Mac, and many others. In case you hadn't noticed, big record companies no longer operate this way. The days of career-building are long gone.

Although his records were usually enjoyable enough and Ry's slide guitar playing on the 1970 Mick Jagger single, "Memo From Turner" was great, I didn't pick up any of Ry's albums until 1979, when "Bop Til You Drop" was released. The album was mostly covers and a fairly safe introduction to Cooder's funkified, multi-genre collision of musical stylings. Plus, it sounded fantastic, as it was recorded beautifully. But the followup album, 1980's "Borderline" is the most essential Ry Cooder album. If you're gonna get just one, "Borderline" is the one to get. While I was in Germany during the mid-80's, Cooder released a best-of collection called "Why Don't You Try Me". The title track, which also appeared on "Borderline", is a Cooder classic. Ry Cooder has always had a knack for choosing great songs to cover that may have been underappreciated at the time of their original release. That is absolutely the case here. Dig Ry Cooder's reggae-fied take on what was a perfectly fine Soul single that should have been a huge national hit.

If you get a spare 2 hours in your busy life, you should watch the amazing documentary "Muscle Shoals", which is the story of Rick Hall, Fame Recording Studios, the numerous classic songs of Southern Soul music, and the musicians who played on those recordings. After watching that film, I was researching more of the music that came out of there, and found an import CD collection called "The Fame Studios Story". One of the tracks on the album was the original recording of "Why Don't You Try Me" by a duo known as Maurice & Mac.

Maurice McAllister and McLauren Green had both been members of Chicago-based vocal group The Radiants, who recorded for Chess Records from 1962 to 1969. The Radiants had a big hit with one of my all-time favorite Northern Soul shouters, "Hold On". McAllister had been the group's lead vocalist and songwriter, and Green had been with them briefly in 1962 before being drafted into the military. McAllister left the group in 1965, and after releasing a non-charting single as a solo artist, teamed up with Green again in 1967, this time as the duo Maurice & Mac, taking their cue from the great duo of Sam & Dave. Due to their history in The Radiants, they were signed to Chess Records subsidiary, Checker. The first Maurice & Mac single, "Why Don't You Try Me" b/w "So Much Love" went unnoticed by seemingly everyone except the parties involved with the recording! This was mostly due to an inexplicable lack of support from Chess. Their next single, "You Left The Water Running", was the closest thing they had to a hit, but it too, fell short of the Top 40, denying them their best shot at any real commercial success. Maurice & Mac released 3 more failed singles, but stuck with the music biz anyway until 1972, when they finally called it quits.

"Why Don't You Try Me" is available on the aforementioned album, "The Fame Studios Story 1961-1973". It's an excellent import anthology on the Ace/Kent label from the UK, who are well known for high quality reissues. Between Ace Records and the great German label, Bear Family, you could assemble a world class collection of early Rock 'n Roll, Blues, Country, and Soul music that would be better than anything that's available from any American record labels. There's something kinda wrong about that, but I'm glad the music is in print and available in high quality, even though import CD's are often not cheap. But I suppose you get what you pay for.

The fine, funky music of Ry Cooder is available at Amazon, as well as your local, well-stocked emporium of musical curiosities. There's even a very cool boxed set that was recently issued. It has 11 discs in it, and covers all of Ry's Warner Brothers releases from 1970 thru 1987. A relative bargain at under $38. Do the per-album math. But if you want just one album to represent Ry in your collection, then get yourself a copy of "Borderline", which is also newly available on 180 gram vinyl. It's a fine addition to your musical world.

In the interest of hipping you to another under-the-radar album that was freakin' great but didn't sell, do yourself a favor and pick up Ry Cooder's 1992 collaboration with Nick Lowe, John Hiatt and Jim Keltner that went by the name of "Little Village". It can had, used, for less than a cup of coffee and the buzz lasts a lot longer. It's also out on 180 gram vinyl for the first time ever. You can thank me later.

Don't forget to check out the fine documentary, "Muscle Shoals" on Netflix. Or, you could just pick up the Blu-Ray disc, which you may as well do, because I know you'll be watching this one more than once.