Hello, Ry. Where are you?

I'm in my house in Santa Monica. (1)

Have you been watching the Olympics? I'm in London where we've all been going crazy for the Games.

We see them late at night here, so we watch 'em a little.

Are you a sports fan?

Not really.

Did you see the opening ceremony? This will lead somewhere, this question, I hope ...

Oh, sure. Absolutely.

And what did you make of it?

Well, the whole thing with the beds and the National Health was interesting from over here, as you might well imagine.

Well, that's what I want to ask you about because we read here that there was some criticism of that segment of the ceremony in the US.

Well, I didn't know there was any criticism of it at all. I hadn't heard that. First of all, you can't believe the media. You know that. I know it and you know it. So the propaganda against that concept ... I would take it on the same level as I would take the gun lobby on any notion that following some slaughter like out in Colorado that anybody who says assault rifles should be banned is going to be roundly criticised and called a bad American. So naturally, in this particular year, we can look and see that the leading edge of Republican interference with our way of life is what they call Obamacare. And this is their flag that they hoist. So anyone that comes along with another idea, let alone anything as explicit as this piece in the opening ceremony, the first thing they have to do in the US media, which is pretty much controlled by the corporations, is to discredit it as fast and as hard as they possibly can. And any time you see anybody saying: "Oh, the American people didn't like this, they resented it, etc" ... they're lying.

It's not for your benefit, it's for our benefit. So our population here learns, once again, that anything that's done for the people is wrong.

I don't know if you're familiar with the mayor of London, a character called Boris Johnson ...

Never heard of him.

He's a Conservative buffoon. He's so ridiculous that there's a point at which some people start to find him funny. Is there an element of that with the Sarah Palins of this world? Or are they too dangerous to ever find them funny?

They're too insanely dangerous. Look, what did Gore Vidal say recently? The interviewer asked him what he thought of the Republican party and he said it's not a party any more, it's a Hitler Youth mindset and they're out to destroy the country, and he was 110% right. So in case anybody thinks Michele Bachman or Sarah Palin are clowns because they misspeak or don't know their history or they say silly things: that's just an act, and it's a useful act. Everything is a distraction from the core truths which are, first of all, that corporations have taken over the country.

This right now is the time of decision in this country. There's no other way to look at it. This is it. This is the most critical time in the history of the country, for chrissakes.

Is Mitt Romney the least worst candidate to have emerged from the Republican ranks? (2)

I don't agree with that. Romney is as bad as anyone can be. He's a dangerous man. He's a cruel man. He's a perfect creation for what the Republican party is all about. And that is to say, a rapacious capitalist. Anyone who ran Bain Capital is not your friend. All they're going to do is rape and pillage the land. That's what he did at Bain Capital and that's what he's going to continue to do. Plus he can go around and in this guise of being a good buisnessman, which he's not .... and this face – with the big grin and everything – is jovial, but hollow. And it's outrageous if you analyse what he's saying, because he'll say one thing and do the opposite. And the media gives him a lot of attention. You know the story of the Olympics at Salt Lake City? Then he goes over to Great Britain and bad mouths the Olympics over there ... But he's carrying an entourage of donors and he's putting on a dog and pony show for them. It takes a bit of study. People are so desperate over here now. They don't have the time to research and go back over the history of this guy. And everybody knows that. So what I'm trying to do with these little songs I write is say: let's look at this a different way. I don't write books and give speeches but with a four-minute song you can use allegory and other means to suggest a different point of view.

It's like looking around the corner, and that's what songs are good at sometimes. They hit you with a new thought – assuming that people will listen. For instance, I like that idea that the Koch brothers made a deal with Satan down at the crossroads. And that's useful because everyone understands what crossroads are all about – some of these songs call up and quote other songs. You've heard some of this material before, some of these lyric ideas, little inserts.

It's a bit different to the protest songs of the 60s. Is that because you think those songs were never really effective or because the times have changed?

Well, I don't know how to write soldier music. They were soldiers' songs so people could go out and hit the frontline. We shall overcome and so forth. And you need those types of songs. Especially in the Occupy movement. I think they're going to want to have songs like that, it'll be helpful. But I don't know how to do that really. That's a different kind of musical brain up there. So what I look at is these bleak stories: they're narratives and they introduce you to a character and the character says something.

Irish songs function that way. They tell a little story. Or old time country music did that. It's not as direct. It's a little different.

But do you still find something inspiring in the idea of Woody Guthrie with his guitar and the slogan on it saying: "This machine kills fascists"?

Sure. He was a great storyteller in music. He was perfect. He had a good visual sense, so those tunes ... you can see them, I always thought. He had a gift for making songs out of things. He went and saw [the 1940 film] The Grapes of Wrath, I was told, and wrote Tom Joad in one night, this whole epic song with umpteen verses. Because he'd seen it, he knew how to do it, I think.

He lived through the depression and the dustbowl and so he turned his mind there. It's always good to listen to his thing. Now we're listening to him again on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Is that something which has been lost from songwriting? I'm reminded of something I think Bob Dylan said about the sinking of the Titanic: within months, there were dozens of songs telling the story from a different perspective. Nowadays, people don't expect that from music, they turn to TV.

I know. The whole idea of lifestyle has corrupted everything. So if you're going to be a musician you have to present yourself as some sort of demonstration of some sort of lifestyle that's useful to people who have to demonstrate lifestyles: to sell clothes, liquor, or something. Disney started this. So the vocabulary of the music has changed a lot from, let's say, 1970 onwards. It's more about the person and what they seem to be, rather than what they think or what they've experienced.

Once the record companies grew to being corporations it was obvious that those corporate managers would say: "Hey, let's stop talking about unions, let's stop talking about bank fraud. We'd rather talk about sales. What can we sell here?" Then we put it up on TV and the advertisers get happy because it sells their product. You know it's useful that way.

Now, beneath the corporate level and beneath the lifestyle element, you're going to start to see more folks on the ground doing this again: playing instruments for that reason, expressing something. They have to find this again, young people, right? They might even want to do it again. I'm starting to see this, I think.

Does social media have a role in this?

I don't trust social media – I think it's all a bunch of bullshit. I think it's a manoeuvre. It's Orwellian. This small screen is going to hypnotise you. You're going to do what it wants you to do. What does it want you to do? It wants you to text your friend. What are you saying to your friend? You're going to say: "I'm on the corner!" – and your friend says: "I'm on the other corner!" Is that what you're saying ... is that what you're thinking? Wait a minute.You don't even know what you think and what you feel if that's what you're doing all day and night.

Besides, all this social media – they're hooked to transactions in some way and they're delivering this massive audience – to whom? So I don't like it and I don't trust it.

They say: "Oh, the Arab Spring!" Well, the goddamn military took over Egypt anyway in the end. Who says they got a revolution? What revolution? The fucking military went in there like they always have done.

To me, the point is you turn the screen off and listen to yourself and maybe you'll have an idea. Maybe it might be a good idea, something you can do to help out.

I hate to say it, but it's almost like California's gift to the world – both with music in the 70s and with people like Steve Jobs – they both appear to be about empowerment and choice but actually it's the opposite.

I agree.

Do you feel that's true of the the generation that you were part of? They pretended to be this great thing but you look back … and what did they really change? (3)

The idea of change is overrated. Change in what way? A big change was Lyndon Johnson passing the Voting Rights Act. They didn't want to do it. The Democrats didn't want to do it and the Republicans damn sure didn't want to do it. Eisenhower didn't want to do it and Kennedy didn't want to do it – but they had to do it. That's a whole story in itself. But now you have new Jim Crow laws – the stand-your-ground law is already responsible for about 80 shooting deaths of African Americans. That's bringing lynching back. That's bringing Jim Crow back. Can you imagine? Could this be true? Well, it is true, if you see it that way. I do. I keep trying to say it with these songs till I'm blue in the face. But it's a fact. That's what going on in this country right now. That's why Vidal called it a Hitler Youth mindset. This is real shocking stuff.

On the new album, the song Cold Cold Feeling pictures President Obama pacing the Oval Office on his own in the dark. Is he a good man trapped in an impossible situation?

Yes, 110%. He's set upon by dogs. He's prevented from doing anything because the Republicans ensured that no president and no Democrat president can ever do good again. That's what Bush was sent in there to do: destroy the presidency, and that's what I think he did. How do you come back from that? How do you make the presidency good again? They talk about bi-partisanship but that's an empty word, doesn't mean a thing. So what is Obama supposed to do? How can he operate? This healthcare thing is really quite something, if it lives. They're going to go after it and try to destroy it, that's the leading end of the Republican effort right now, that's going to sink the Titanic, you know?

I mean, I think he's a good man. He's a smart man. He understands the constitution, therefore he must respect it. They don't. I believe that he does.

Was this record born of a sense of duty – because someone needs to stand up and say something – or therapy to work out your anger?

It's a bit of both. I want to say something because I think you should if you can. It's challenging, but it's fun. I like to write these songs. I mean, yeah, otherwise what are you going to do, pound your fist on the table? That's no good. Then they win big time because they got you cornered. Music is the way that I know. It's the thing I have.

Do you sometimes feel like you've had enough – isn't there the temptation to flee somewhere else, and do something like make another record with the Buena Vista crew? (4)

First of all, the old-timers are gone, or they are in places where I can't find 'em, or wouldn't know where to look. It's 2012 right now, so who's left?

The thing about music is you never know when the next impulse is coming from. So since we're surrounded with issues, in this very unstable time ... there's that sense of "let's do this now... let's write something here".

Do you listen to much new music? Any hip-hop?

No, I don't. It's better to listen to something I like. There's always something there that's helpful or interesting – that's how I get myself moving. Plus, I sit and play the instruments. That doesn't change so much. I get better at it, but it's the same music.

Is it important that people realise that music is something you can make – you don't just consume it?

That's right.

Do you worry that the world's cultures are disappearing?

Of course. Like with any species. You worry about birds, you worry about insects. you worry about plants … the Earth. Yes, what a struggle. Culture is fragile. Look at Mali right now. That's the death of music there. That's gone now ...

In the face of all this, what do you do? What do you take pleasure in apart from music?

I'm a big fan of trees. I like to go see where they grow. California is beautiful – apart from the freeways and the malls and the prisons. You can still go out into nature. I'm a big fan of light. I'm a big fan of the way the sun is in the air here.

We have a very nice life here. Our little house where little Susie and me are ... and Joachim is great. Playing music with him, just the two of us, we have a great time. (5) I'm having the best time of life I've had in 65 years.

Footnotes

(1). Santa Monica, California. Ry grew up there, going to Santa Monica High School. Three of his most recent albums – Chavez Ravine, My Name Is Buddy and I, Flathead – are seen as his "California trilogy". Back to article

(2). If you're wondering why we're on this subject, Ry's forthcoming new album, Election Special, is a deeply political record, timed to pre-empt the US presidential election. Its first track is called Mutt Romney Blues. Back to article

(3). It may be relevant to learn that Ry taught Keith Richards the five-string open-G blues tuning in 1968, which the Rolling Stones guitarist used to write some of his greatest riffs. The pair fell out. Ry doesn't like to talk about the Stones. Back to article

(4). In the 1990s, following solo success with albums such as Chicken Skin Music and the soundtrack to the film Paris, Texas, Ry recorded with the late Ali Farka Toure and the Buena Vista Social Club. Back to article

(5). Ry's wife Susan Titelman is a photographer; their son, Joachim, is a drummer who has played on several records with his father. Back to article