Ry Cooder has been a man starting like many do as a session musician and then following his own trail through American music in most if not all of its forms . His playing in my view has been that lovely balance between what the song needs and keeping a feel to the song . He is almost never flashy or playing for effect . Bop till you drop was in fact the very first ever popular record recorded and mixed fully digitally and used a Sony Video Machine as the recording device . As this was all new and the engineer was told that the world would end if he went in to overload it is one of the quietest recordings , but as mentioned a little more volume and the quality of the performance and recording do shine . If you want to get the best of Ry in one hit keep a look out for the Rhino Records 11 CD box set . Not only are these the best of his work as a solo artist but they were fully remastered with his Son sat in on the mastering to make sure they were what his father wanted.