Ry Cooder - Election Special (2012)

Posted By: Designol

Date: Nov. 6, 2023

Election Special is the fifteenth studio album by Ry Cooder. After his 2011 album Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, Cooder continued writing topical and storyline-inspired songs. Displeased with the Republican Party and its financial supporters, he also wanted to write an album that would address listeners during the United States presidential election of 2012, which he believed to be a critical event in the country's history. Election Special is an American roots and blues rock album of protest songs with music characterized by upbeat melodies, simple instrumentation, and sparse arrangements. Cooder played all of the instruments, including bass, guitar, and mandolin, with the exception of drums by his son Joachim. A deeply political album, it expands on the socio-political musings and current event topics of Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down with forthright, satirical lyrics and song-form vignettes. Cooder's songwriting exhibits liberal and populist sentiments and draws on older musical sources such as broadside ballads and country blues.

The risk in writing political songs, especially about specific issues and historical periods, is that over time, those that are run of the mill become dated. Not everyone can write timeless tunes like Woody Guthrie, Sam Cooke, John Lennon, and Bob Marley. Given the content of Election Special, Ry Cooder knew the risks going in and welcomed them. Using American traditional musics – raw blues, folk, and roots rock – Cooder's songs express what he considers to be, as both an artist and a pissed-off citizen, the high-stakes historical gamble of the 2012 presidential and congressional contest. He wrote and recorded this album as a witness to the era. Other than drums (played by his son Joachim) and some backing vocals, Cooder plays everything here. He uses foreboding acoustic blues in "Mutt Romney Blues" (written from the point of view of the candidate Mitt Romney's dog). The more poignant "Brother Is Gone" is at first blush a seemingly heart-wrenching folk tale fueled by Cooder's mandolin. Yet it slowly and purposely relates a deal-with-the-devil fantasy about conservatives Charles and David Koch. It's among the finest songs he's written. But Cooder rocks up his anger too: "Guantanamo" is a raucous barroom strut. "Cold Cold Feeling" is a deep, slow garage blues that's chilling in its effectiveness. His screed is a link in a chain of political blues tunes that date back to the Delta. "Going to Tampa" is a cut-time string band country tune. It's a farce about the 2012 Republican National Convention as hijacked by the Tea Party. He accuses both of outright racism and social engineering, with scathing humor. The album's finest cut is the dark, Delta-style electric blues of "Kool-Aid," which recalls Junior Kimbrough musically. Guthrie's own spirit is evoked in the antiwar narrative "The 90 and the 9," with its singalong choruses. Election Special closes with a scorching, rocking blues entitled "Take Your Hands Off It." It's a militant anthem that demands that the Constitution and Bill of Rights be returned to their rightful place at the heart of mainstream American life. Sure enough, because of its soapbox style, Election Special is the most overtly political album of Cooder's career. As such, it serves two purposes: one is that it is the most organic record he's issued in almost two decades; and, more importantly, it restores topical protest music to a bona fide place in American cultural life.

Review by Thom Jurek, Allmusic.com

Ry Cooder at Allmusic
Ry Cooder at Wiki

Tracklist:

01. Mutt Romney Blues (03:45)
02. Brother Is Gone (05:03)
03. The Wall Street Part Of Town (03:42)
04. Guantanamo (03:28)
05. Cold Cold Feeling (05:25)
06. Going To Tampa (03:57)
07. Kool Aid (04:10)
08. The 90 And The 9 (05:15)
09. Take Your Hands Off It (03:47)

EAC log

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 20. January 2015, 21:51

Ry Cooder / Election Special

Used drive : PLEXTOR DVDR PX-891SA Adapter: 0 ID: 2

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 320 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy 1.0\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Date=%year%" -T "Genre=%genre%" %source%

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 3:45.00 | 0 | 16874
2 | 3:45.00 | 5:03.24 | 16875 | 39623
3 | 8:48.24 | 3:42.49 | 39624 | 56322
4 | 12:30.73 | 3:28.63 | 56323 | 71985
5 | 15:59.61 | 5:25.62 | 71986 | 96422
6 | 21:25.48 | 3:57.70 | 96423 | 114267
7 | 25:23.43 | 4:10.30 | 114268 | 133047
8 | 29:33.73 | 5:15.65 | 133048 | 156737
9 | 34:49.63 | 3:47.49 | 156738 | 173811

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename L:\Lossless Temp\Ry Cooder\Ry Cooder - Election Special - 2012 (2012 Nonesuch Records, 531159-2, USA)\Ry Cooder - Election Special.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 7.9 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 993D4FA7
Copy CRC 993D4FA7
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 128) [7DB6D2EB] (AR v2)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 130) [5B3F048D] (AR v2)
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 130) [EA724D21] (AR v2)
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 130) [46CBC175] (AR v2)
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 129) [3DC2A955] (AR v2)
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 131) [3308968D] (AR v2)
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 131) [7747BF16] (AR v2)
Track 8 accurately ripped (confidence 130) [EA9020C7] (AR v2)
Track 9 accurately ripped (confidence 131) [208886A1] (AR v2)

All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

==== Log checksum ED2DD0840DCD415CBC48317A0A4A33BB4176B38B2C3B4562B8385BEA1808EFCB ====

DR log

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2016-06-16 13:41:58

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Ry Cooder / Election Special
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR11 -0.10 dB -13.53 dB 3:45 01-Mutt Romney Blues
DR12 -0.10 dB -15.35 dB 5:03 02-Brother Is Gone
DR10 -0.10 dB -11.48 dB 3:43 03-The Wall Street Part Of Town
DR10 -0.10 dB -11.44 dB 3:29 04-Guantanamo
DR10 -0.10 dB -12.28 dB 5:26 05-Cold Cold Feeling
DR12 -0.10 dB -13.59 dB 3:58 06-Going To Tampa
DR11 -0.10 dB -12.16 dB 4:10 07-Kool Aid
DR11 -0.10 dB -13.40 dB 5:16 08-The 90 And The 9
DR12 -0.10 dB -12.83 dB 3:48 09-Take Your Hands Off It
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 9
Official DR value: DR11

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 802 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

All thanks to original release

More interesting music in My Blog