Ry Cooder The Tattler

Great song from classic blues interpreter recorded live 1977

By Stephen Pate – The video is a bit rough but what a treat to see Ry Cooder live with Muscle Shoals-style doo-wop backup.

The Tattler is a sly, cynical commentary on fidelity in marriage, probably not written by newlyweds. The lyrics are all about slip sliding around.

It does have a redeeming chorus “True love can be such a sweet harmony when you do the best that you can.”

The song has a quirky Tex-Mex influenced rhythm which explains Flaco Jiménez playing on stage with Cooder. Flaco Jiménez was one of the creators of Tejano music and Ry Cooder was deeply influenced by the blues, Tex-Mex and other indigenous music. One of his first professional groups was with Taj Mahal.

The Tattler Lyrics

Whenever you find a man that loves every woman he sees,
There’s always some kind of woman that’s a-puttin’ him up a tree.
Now that kind of man, he ain’t got as much sense as a mule.
You know, everyone don’t love you, they’re just a-playin’ you for a fool

Mmmm, oh, no,
It’s not hard for you to understand.
True love can be such a sweet harmony
If you do the best that you can.

If you marry the wrong kind of woman and you get where you can’t agree,
Well, you just as well could get your hat and let that woman be.
But a man oughta make a good husband and quit tryin’ to lead a fast life.
Goin’ about dressin’ up other women won’t put clothes on his own wife

Well, there’s lots of good women who wants to marry, and they want to live well at home.
But they’re ‘fraid they’ll might get hold of a rowdy man, can’t let other women alone.
And there’s lots of good men wants to marry, and they wants to live well at home.
But every time they turn their back, there’s another man there askin’, “Darlin’, is he gone?”

You can hear it on Ry Cooder’s 1974 release Paradise and Lunch.

The song was written by written by Ry Cooder and music producer bassist Russ Titelman. Ry Cooder married Russ’s sister Susan Titelman. ” My sister Susan and Ry had met by then, but they weren’t married yet. Four years on, I would co-produce Ry’s ‘Paradise And Lunch’ album and co-write ‘Tattler’ with him, so Performance was the beginning of a lot of associations.” Spectropop

Linda Rondstadt recorded The Tattler on Hasten Down the Wind. Here’s a live performance in Germany where she more or less keeps the same arrangement as Ry Cooder.

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