In his new song, “No Banker Left Behind”, Ry Cooder channels Woody Guthrie to expose the havoc bankers have wrought on the world economy. Here are some edited highlights of an interview Cooder gave to Truthdig:-
Kasia Anderson (thruthdig): I’m here with Ry Cooder, who has written a song based on one of Bob Scheer’s recent columns “No Banker Left Behind.” …. As I understand it, Ry, there’s a bit of an origin story behind this track. Can you tell us about it?
Ry Cooder: … They’re on the train, a rich train that is only bankers. They’ve got all the money, they get on the train, the train pulls out, and the rest of us all stand there watching and saying, ‘where did it all go? How did they make off with all this loot?’
And then it was a matter of telling a little story of going to the White House, and what are they going to eat when they get on the train?
Robert Scheer (thruthdig): … Is this your manifesto?
Ry Cooder: Some of this must come from me feeling sort of marooned in all of this — you know, like, helpless. I get so angry … I said, let’s make a song out of it.
h/t Tony Tassell
Thias blog post was published on 9 September 2011
Great song and excellent video. It captures the enormity of the situation, the obsene behaviour of those concerned, the effect it has had on the indiviuals who have lost everything because of banking greed and impotence of the government. Yet still, sweeping it under the carpet is the industy’s first choice.