Nothin' But A Rubber Heel

Borderline can be considered as a companion album to Bop Til You Drop in Ry Cooder's solo output. It was a similarly "almost commercial" album and was toured extensively and very successfully by his then regular band, which again had the backing vocals of Bobby King and Willie Green Jr and the inclusion of John Hiatt. Not quite as complete an album as "Bop", there are two or three duff tracks, when it is good it is very good. There are excellent examples of the way Cooder would deconstruct an old r'n'b standard and come up with something entirely different ( Speedo, Crazy 'Bout An Automobile, Girls From Texas ), a couple of numbers featuring excellent bluesy slide playing ( Johnny Porter and Never Make Your Move Too Soon ) and two poignant and aching songs of damaged relationships ( Why Don't You Try Me and The Way We Make A Broken Heart ). Those familiar with the album can work out by a process of elimination which I consider to be the duff tracks since I haven't listed those. The Tex Mex border area had been a Ry Cooder pre-occupation but strangely, despite the album title, there isn't much of a border influence here musically.