The Record That Changed My Life: Dave Grohl on Ry Cooder – Paris, Texas O.S.T. (1984)

(Dave Grohl expands his views on Paris, Texas for vinylwriters.com)

Paris, Texas is the perfect album for a cold, gray Sunday morning on which you don’t want to leave the house and have time for yourself. Because the music is understated, you don’t have to focus on the album, you simply feel it- it can easily become the soundtrack to what you are experiencing right at that moment. It was like that for me many years ago. I didn’t know the film that went with it at the time, and I also barely listened to acoustic music. But then there was no other way. Back then I was playing in a band called Scream, that was before Nirvana. We were touring in Europe, in the car, and a friend had a cassette with this soundtrack on it. He put it on. While it was playing, we were driving along the Italian coast. That was more than 30 years ago, but I still remember the day as if it was yesterday. Not only because of the music but also the circumstances. Paris, Texas became the soundtrack to my own little movie. There aren’t a lot of vocals on the record to think about, it is mostly instrumental. Still, it gives me so much feeling. Paris, Texas is one of those records which pulls everybody into a certain mood, and that’s what I find to be interesting. The sound of music alone can make you feel something particular.

Much later, the music still had an impact: when in 2005 I recorded our double album In Your Honor with the Foo Fighters, I was very much under the influence of Ry Cooder and Paris, Texas in my acoustic style. The soundtrack opened up a new world to me.

by Dave Grohl

(Read our Paris, Texas album review & film review)