Rickie Lee Jones, c/d?

Thanks, guys. And yeah, I'm pretty convinced that her hepcat side is where her fun is; the amrorphous, theoretically "jazzy" ballads haven't been reaching me at all. But I'll keep the tracks people mentioned in mind should I come across dollar copies of Pirates or The Magazine, even though I still expect I'll find them even more frustrating than the debut. Meanwhile, here's a talk on Frank Kogan's livejournal last year, centered around a '90s track by her than I do like; also curious if she ever did anything else like "White Girl":

http://koganbot.livejournal.com/172216.html

Woah, so weird. Didn't see this thread, but I'm listening to the self-titled right now.

I kind of think that me trying to really interest Xhuxk in RLJ's career is the definition of insanity, but I guess if there is any explanation for why she didn't do a lot of happy songs like chuck e's in love it was the huge writer's block that killed her after Pirates.

I will represent The Magazine forever because it saved my life one summer, and Pirates has at least two songs I cannot listen to because they are too much in my heart. Anyway, there's a lot of great stuff floating around from the rest of her career, as I've been learning by combing dollar bins. Here's a brief alternative Top 10:

"Nobody Knows My Name" (kinda like an alt.dylan version of "white girl" if you stretch your mind)
"Show Biz Kids" (actually the whole "it's like this" cover album is amazing-pants)
"Altar Boy" (about as punk as sinead o'connor)
"Tell Somebody (Repeal the Patriot Act)" (aka "chuck e hates george bush" with gospel seasonings)
"Ghost Train" (beat as fhuxk)
"Wild Girl" (loose, easy folkie pop from last year's balm in gilead)
"Love Is Gonna Bring Us Back Alive" (live at red rocks, barely over her version of "gloria")
"Dat Dere" (oscar brown jr song from pop pop, love the songs where she just sounds happy)
"Lucky Guy" (country weeper, probably written about tom waits' roving ways on the road)
"The Real End" (most underrated jam from 'the magazine')

I will represent The Magazine forever because it saved my life one summer, and Pirates has at least two songs I cannot listen to because they are too much in my heart.

which ones?

yeah "Lucky Guy" is a sleeper on Pirates but the whole album is great. I will also stand up for "Juke Box Fury" on Magazine.

Maybe I am the only person who has heard Traffic From Paradise from 1994? It inexplicably became my very favourite album when it came out (I was 11 at the time) and I still really enjoy it. produced with Leo Kottke.

don't forget -

Rickie lee Jones, S/D?

wow Matt we are kinda identical twins on this question

So -- as Tim F basically predicted -- I've decided I pretty much can't stand Pirates; don't hear at all what others hear. Even the only two cuts with any hint of energy at all -- "Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train To Peking" and maybe the title track -- don't come close to the stuff I like on her debut, beatnik scat schtick or no. And the rest, gawd, what a vague, empty snooze of a record. Thing is, I do like her writing in a few songs -- all the very-early -Springsteen type street characters and situations in "We Belong Together," "Living It Up," "Skeletons," "Traces of the Western Slopes" But the only way I know is from the lyric sheet, and given her nodded-out mumbling, which annoys the heck out of me and leaves me cold, I'm not even sure it'd work to read along while listening, which I'm not about to try.

Haven't heard Pirates in a long time, but you know what I really used to like was that covers record, Pop Pop.

she is doing dates performing her first two lp's!

xpActually, even in the songs where I said I liked the lyrics on paper, it's usually only a verse here and there, not entire songs. Basically just impressed when the writing gets specific, even if it's an idea she pretty clearly swiped from elsewhere. And I'd be way more impressed if the music wasn't too quiet and sleepwalked-through to hear the words.

dude, i gotta see this--is she planning on coming to NYC? If she'd throw in Live at the Volcano Live it would be truly perfect

I mean Girl at Her...smoking a bowl on a work night, not a good thing

looks like she is doing westbury and bergen PAC..

too bad...that's what i thought

thanks

Is it obvious to everyone else what "cunt-fingered Louie" means?

Cos I have spent some 10+ years not knowing.

hah. poetic license? that combination of words just sounded good next to one another? or maybe he was some manhattan beach character that her friends knew who...eh

anyway, did anyone see her on that tour last autumn?? i still regret not seeing her. i am a huge fan and she played in town on my effing birthday :(

From Henry Green's Paris Review interview:

I got the idea of Loving from a manservant in the Fire Service during the war. He was serving with me in the ranks, and he told me he had once asked the elderly butler who was over him what the old boy most liked in the world. The reply was: “Lying in bed on a summer morning, with the window open, listening to the church bells, eating buttered toast with cunty fingers.” I saw the book in a flash.

buttered toast, huh?

noted.

*fails to make strategic glazed donut joke*

Rickie Lee Jones albums always sneak up on me... I've been absolutely obsessed with The Magazine of late. So good!

I could not love The Magazine enough. Massive massive hooks, relentless weirdo visions...and it helped me through one of the weirdest summers of my life.

oh crap I already said that upstairs

I always think of you talking about that when I listen to it!

aw

Fine: I'm going to listen to The Magazine.

I find it helps to skip the opening piano instrumental. There's nothing particularly wrong with it but it makes the album appear more reaching and less fun than it is.

I've heard "The Real End" before! Sassy horns.

deep space from that record is amazin

also, in the past six years I think I've listened to living it up more than just about any other song by any other person or people. "feeling a little sad, a little lonely, and a little mean..."

and traces of the western slopes is so good. I love that she doesn't even sing on it at first. there's that ominous beginning, and when the vocals finally do begin, it's that dude, whatshisname, and then when she does finally come in she sounds all crazy, like someone you'd try to avoid sitting next to on the subway. it's so awesome that she did a song like that on her sophomore record, but then, something like company on the first record also seems really ambitious and is kind of mind-blowing in its own way.

"Living It Up" is so important to me. The word that always occurs to me to describe it is "vertiginous" (lol a quick search reveals I used it upthread).

She's doing a US tour right now, but I missed her local gig. Wonder how it was.

This is great:

Rickie L jones said...
HI

I have rarely read a review about myself that reminded me that journalists can teach us with just a word. A good writer and loving listener understands why even the weak part matters to the art. Thank you for this review of Flying Cowboys. but I am writing about your comment about The Magazine - it Was grandiose, this is just the word,
and no one had said it quite so clearly. It weighs oddly out of time with all my work. Sobriety makes this work fragile and cavernous - I was feeling my way. . it is dark, artificial happiness, no guidance. But of course, it had to be large, I was propelling myself out of the dark. it was my ode to addiction, everything was larger than reality for me. I would not change The Magazine (well actually i might, but not the size of it) - but this review of my work, at this time, is much appreciated. - RL Jones

MARCH 17, 2011

interesting, so where is that review, tim? i love magazine myself, haven't listened to it in a while though. it's one of the rather few albums my girl-friend introduced to me.

yeah I'm a huge fan of that magazine but wow what an insightful reflection from RLJ

i just picked up a used copy of her debut album...wow i should have checked her out before...definitely fits in well w/my love of court & spark joni

the second one, pirates, is as good if not better

She was reacting to the all music review of Flying Cowboys (http://www.allmusic.com/album/flying-cowboys-mw0000201326) which someone had copied and pasted (http://overdoseoffingalcocoa.blogspot.com/2010/06/rickie-lee-jones.html).

Just picked this up at Barnes and Noble for less than $10 after tax.

saw the Madonna one at Best Buy this morning for $15.

I know these sets have gotten kind of a bad rep for cheap packaging, but sheesh, at those prices, who could really be that upset?

(listening to that first album right now, by the way; it's good! Yep, it's my first time hearing)

her first two albums are two of my favorite records I belatedly discovered last year

i listened to pirates for the first time today and my life has changed

that's what happened to me when i first listened to girl at her volcano in 1985. that voice killed me.

even thinking of 'We Belong Together' makes me emotional.

So this thread got me to pull out Pirates which I haven't heard in probably 25 years. I was blown away. It's such a miraculously lyrical mix of r&b, jazz, and traces of Springsteen/Van/Steely Dan/Joni. Love the intra-song dynamics. Pro tip, lyric sheet is essential.

I said fuck it and downloaded a copy of Pirates.

So this thread got me to pull out Pirates which I haven't heard in probably 25 years. I was blown away. It's such a miraculously lyrical mix of r&b, jazz, and traces of Springsteen/Van/Steely Dan/Joni. Love the intra-song dynamics. Pro tip, lyric sheet is essential.

otm and similar revelations await on at least her next two albums imo