''Paradise and Lunch'' is the fourth album by

roots rock Roots rock is a genre of rock music that looks back to rock's origins in folk, blues and country music. It is particularly associated with the creation of hybrid subgenres from the later 1960s, including blues rock, country rock, Southern rock, ...

musician

Ry Cooder Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, an ...

, released on June 8, 1974 on

Reprise Records Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels. Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Enya, Michael ...

. The album is composed of cover versions of jazz, blues and roots standards and obscurities recorded at the

Warner Brothers Studios Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

. The final track, "Ditty Wah Ditty," showcases a duet between Cooder and jazz pianist

Earl "Fatha" Hines Earl Kenneth Hines, also known as Earl "Fatha" Hines (December 28, 1903 – April 22, 1983), was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. He was one of the most influential figures in the development of jazz piano and, according to one source, "o ...

. It was produced by

Russ Titelman Russ Titelman (born August 16, 1944, Los Angeles, California) is an American record producer and songwriter. He has to date won three Grammy Awards. He earned his first producing the Steve Winwood song " Higher Love", and his second and third f ...

and Lenny Waronker. The album reached #167 on the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of art ...

. The album also includes Cooder's updated arrangement of bluesman

Washington Phillips George Washington "Wash" Phillips (January 11, 1880 – September 20, 1954) was an American gospel music, gospel and gospel blues singer and instrumentalist. The exact nature of the instrument or instruments he played is uncertain, being identi ...

' " The Tattler" that stands out for its guitar playing. It was subsequently covered by

Linda Ronstadt Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American ...

on her 1976 album ''

Hasten Down the Wind ''Hasten Down the Wind'' is the seventh studio album by singer-songwriter Linda Ronstadt. Released in 1976, it became her third straight million-selling album. Ronstadt was the first female artist to accomplish this feat. The album earned her ...

'' and by

David Soul David Soul (born David Richard Solberg; August 28, 1943) is an American-British actor and singer. He is known for his role as Detective Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson in the television series ''Starsky & Hutch'' from 1975 to 1979; Joshua Bolt on ' ...

on his 1977 album ''Playing To An Audience of One''. In 1990 the album was released on CD, while a remastered version appeared in 2007. It was newly remastered from the original master tapes for a high-resolution SACD in 2017.

Track listing

Side One #"Tamp 'Em Up Solid" (Traditional) – 3:19 #" Tattler" (

, Ry Cooder,

) – 4:14 #"Married Man's a Fool" (

Blind Willie McTell Blind Willie McTell (born William Samuel McTier; May 5, 1898 – August 19, 1959) was a Piedmont blues and ragtime singer and guitarist. He played with a fluid, syncopated fingerstyle guitar technique, common among many exponents of Piedmont bl ...

) – 3:10 #"Jesus on the Mainline" (Traditional) – 4:09 #"

It's All Over Now "It's All Over Now" is a song written by Bobby Womack and his sister-in-law Shirley Womack. It was first released by The Valentinos, featuring Bobby Womack, in 1964. The Rolling Stones heard it on its release and quickly recorded a cover versio ...

" (

Bobby Womack Robert Dwayne Womack (; March 4, 1944 – June 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Starting in the early 1950s as the lead singer of his family musical group the Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guit ...

, Shirley Womack) – 4:49 Side Two #"Fool for a Cigarette/Feelin' Good" (Sidney Bailey, J. B. Lenoir,

Jim Dickinson James Luther Dickinson (November 15, 1941 – August 15, 2009) was an American record producer, pianist, and singer who fronted, among others, the band Mud Boy and the Neutrons, based in Memphis, Tennessee. Biography Dickinson was born in Lit ...

) (medley) – 4:25 #"If Walls Could Talk" (Bobby Miller) – 3:12 #"Mexican Divorce" (

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Gra ...

Bob Hilliard Bob Hilliard (born Hilliard Goldsmith; January 28, 1918 – February 1, 1971) was an American lyricist. He wrote the words for the songs: " Alice in Wonderland", "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning", " Any Day Now", "Dear Hearts and Gentle ...

) – 3:51 #"Ditty Wah Ditty" ( Arthur Blake) – 5:42

Personnel

*Ry Cooder - guitars, mandolin, vocals *

Milt Holland Milton Holland (born Milton Olshansky; February 7, 1917 – November 4, 2005) was an American drummer, percussionist, ethnomusicologist, and writer in the Los Angeles music scene. He pioneered the use of African, South American, and Indian percu ...

– drums, percussion *

Jim Keltner James Lee Keltner (born April 27, 1942) is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session work. He was characterized by Bob Dylan biographer Howard Sounes as "the leading session drummer in America".Howard Sounes. ''Down ...

– drums *

Chris Ethridge John Christopher Ethridge (February 10, 1947 – April 23, 2012) was an American country rock bass guitarist. He was a member of the International Submarine Band (ISB) and The Flying Burrito Brothers, and co-wrote several songs with Gram Parsons ...

– electric bass *

Ronnie Barron Ronnie Barron (born Ronald Raymond Barrosse, October 9, 1943, in Algiers, New Orleans – March 20, 1997) was an American actor, keyboardist, organist, and blue-eyed soul singer during the 1970s. He was known for his work as a session music ...

– piano, organ *

Red Callender George Sylvester "Red" Callender (March 6, 1916 – March 8, 1992) was an American string bass and tuba player. He is perhaps best known as a jazz musician, but worked with an array of pop, rock and vocal acts as a member of The Wrecking Cre ...

, John Duke – bass *

Plas Johnson Plas John Johnson Jr. (born July 21, 1931) is an American soul-jazz and hard bop tenor saxophonist, probably most widely known as the tenor saxophone soloist on Henry Mancini’s "The Pink Panther Theme". He also performs on alto and baritone sax ...

– alto saxophone *

Oscar Brashear Oscar Brashear (born August 18, 1944) is an American jazz trumpeter Bobby King Bobby King (born July 28, 1944, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, United States) is an American gospel-style, R&B and soul singer. He formed a singing duo with Terry Evans in the early 1970s. Since 1973, King has sung on most Ry Cooder albums. He wa ...

, Gene Mumford, Bill Johnson,

George McCurn George McCurn (born January 21, 1920 in Chicago – September 1985) was a bass singer who started off singing gospel and switched to pop in the 1960s. He had a hit in 1963 with "I'm Just A Country Boy". Career Group In 1948, he joined the vocal ...

, Walter Cook, Richard Jones, Russ Titelman, Karl Russell – voices *

Earl Hines Earl Kenneth Hines, also known as Earl "Fatha" Hines (December 28, 1903 – April 22, 1983), was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. He was one of the most influential figures in the development of jazz piano and, according to one source, " ...

- piano on "Ditty Wah Ditty" *

George Bohanon George Roland Bohanon, Jr. (born August 7, 1937) is a jazz trombonist and session musician from Detroit, Michigan. In the early 1960s, he participated in Detroit's Workshop Jazz ensemble, with Johnny Griffith (musician), Johnny Griffith, Paula Gr ...

- horn arrangement *Nick DeCaro - string arrangement ;Technical *Russ Titelman, Lenny Waronker - production *Judy Maizel, Trudy Portch - production coordination *Lee Herschberg - engineer, mixing *Bobby Hata, John Neal - assistant engineer *Susan Titelman (Ry Cooder's wife and Russ Titelman's sister) – cover paintings and photography

Chart positions

References

1974 albums Ry Cooder albums Albums produced by Lenny Waronker Albums produced by Russ Titelman Reprise Records albums Covers albums {{1970s-rock-album-stub