Track Listing

1. Paris Texas
2. Brothers
3. Nothing Out There
4. Cancion Mixteca
5. No Safety Zone
6. Houston In Two Seconds
7. She's Leaving The Bank
8. On The Couch
9. I Knew These Two People
10. Dark Was The Night

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6541 in Music
• Released on: 1999-10-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 147 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
A stark drama staring Harry Dean Stanton, Paris, Texas (1985) remains German director Wim Wenders best-known English language film. To capture the emotion of story set against the relentless heat and arid landscape of Texas, Wenders chose not a Hollywood film composer, but the celebrated folk and blues musician, Ry Cooder. Working with just two other musicians, Jim Dickinson and David Lindley, Cooder crafted an incisive score which seems to burrow right under the skin of the film's damaged, fragile characters, articulating feelings too painful for words. Cooder dominates the score with his distinctive slide guitar playing, his simple main theme so evocative than once heard it is never forgotten. The subtle nuances of the performances mix guitars and delicate percussion to create distinctive soundscapes, the complex layering of "She's Leaving The Bank" being especially striking. Also present is "Cancion Mixteca" a traditional song given a somewhat eccentric performance by Harry Dean Stanton, and "I Knew These People" a lengthy dialogue encompassing the heart of the film. Far removed from conventional film music, this is a quietly haunting score, which alongside Cooder's The Long Riders and Last Man Standing, shows just how effective an imaginatively different approach to movie music can be. --Gary S. Dalkin

From Amazon.com
Ry Cooder has done some of the best soundtracks in the last 20 years or so (I wouldn't live without The Long Riders or the two-disc Music By Ry Cooder compilation, either)--most of them superior to the movies. (Sorry about that, Walter Hill--but it's true.) His lonesome, steel-guitar music for Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas is one of those cases where the movie and its music are equally great. I can't imagine one without the other. Every time I hear Cooder's opening theme, I see those wide western spaces and Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) wandering through them; and every time I see a still from the movie, I can hear Cooder's music playing in my head. --Jim Emerson

CD Description
Classic Ry Cooder soundtrack to the 1980 Wim Wenders road movie. Remastered with new liner notes and graphics.

Customer Reviews

A Beautiful Soundtrack
A beautiful soundtrack to an even better film, Ry Cooder's music fits the mood of 'Paris Texas' so well. 'Paris, Texas' is my favourite film and I just had to buy this CD and it still sends tingles up my spine in place.

So atmospheric.

Andy Moore

Out There!
I have to confess to hearing Ry Cooder's memorable and beautiful soundtrack long before seeing the film, however like many film soundtracks I have since purchased, this one stands up as a fine example of inspirational music on its own - with or without the film for reference.
It's funny, that years later I find myself embracing, with equal enthusiasm, the work of Gustavo Santaolalla: memorable for his soundtracks to Brokeback Mountain, 21 Grams, and Amores Perros. Like Cooder, Santaolalla also creates a timeless haunting soundscape with the purity of a simple guitar palate and when it works... there is nothing to beat it.
If you like this album, check out the other soundtracks I mentioned. In the meantime if you only have room for one 'out there' acoustic guitar album, buy this one at any price... you will not be disappointed.
Enjoy,
Ernest the Goose

Brilliant and unusual
If you love the sounds of a guitar genius then you have to get this CD. Just sit back and mellow out, reflects the film perfectly. If your in a really bad mood then put this on and half way through the first track all your troubles will be smoothed by the rounded riffs and crying slides.