rickie lee jones: pirates

anyway i am probably going to vote for the title track but i am also always totally spellbound by “traces of western slopes”

this album is perfect and it's pretty hard to pick. "skeletons" is probably her best lyric ever, and a song of profound power, but starting here & for two more albums her music does this thing where as the band gathers steam the power of the music seems to deepen every couple of measures -- usually leading into a chorus -- and then when the chorus hits it's this huge, profound release: "we belong together" is one of the greatest examples of this, but so's the resolve on the title track here - when she hits the note on "long," my heart breaks into a thousand pieces, and has for decades -- following on "you'll get the chance to make it / and nothing's gonna stop you / you'll just reach right out and take it / and you'll say:" -- like, LCD Soundsystem spent about half their career's worth of energy chasing that kind of moment. (not to say they didn't approach it plenty of times imo but ymmv.) "A Lucky Guy" may or may not get the shine it deserves in this poll, it's great. but the ones to beat are the first four, and it's very hard to pick between them - they flow seamlessly, shockingly, with a confidence that's hard to imagine.

the person who made this album was 27 years old.

I've never heard this record. Curious about how jazzy it is, as that is what put me off of the s/t (though I love "On Saturday Afternoons in 1963").

it was not jazzy enough for the critics who'd gone ape over the jazziness of the s/t iirc

the way the drums come in on we belong together is so huge, like Bonham sitting in we Steely Dan

"They speak fluently blonde" never fails to crack me up

Yeah the first time I heard the beat drop on "We Belong Together" my jaw exploded

steve gadd based god

obv i’ve loved his work for years but hearing this record earlier this year solidified him as my absolute favorite drummer ever. the beat in “pirates,” jesus christ

Best album ever.

I could vote for basically any of these songs in a heartbeat.

i’ll probably never do it but it’d be cool to one day make something as beautiful as “we belong together”

So much of the album, but that song in particular, has this sense of emotional extremity and striving that leaves me temporarily feeling very ambivalent about my general stability.

I mean have always had that kind of relationship to a lot of music, but Pirates is probably the exemplar.

I fucking love this album...sounds so right this time of year...really tough to pick a fave...probably between the title track and traces...will have to stew on that one for a while...

I love that moment late in A Lucky Guy where she cries a while and wakes up and it's a new day.

This got played at record club the other week. I wasn't overly struck but it was first contact. Didn't realise it was such an ILM fave.

never heard this album which makes me feel that needs a course correction. "we belong together" absolutely blows me away tho

i will be listening to this album soon as all the good music opinion havers love it

Oh god just listened again and the slow sad section of “pirates” always completely kills me. It’s almost as if the temperature drops all around you while it plays.

^^^^

when i first heard that song it was like “oh sweet this is the straight up steely dan jam of the record....oh wait...oh my god....”

I've never heard this record. Curious about how jazzy it is, as that is what put me off of the s/t (though I love "On Saturday Afternoons in 1963").

There's not much in the boho jazzy vein of "Chuck E" or "Danny's" except for "Woody & Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking" (which is a syncopated joy).

TS: Pirates vs. The Blue Nile Hats

I'd just have to shoot myself.

I kind of mentally cross-associated the two records even before I knew that they'd worked together.

For such an expansive and exploratory record this is also remarkably tight and well-structured, even the sequencing is perfect, like the way "Woody and Dutch" sort of spins itself into being as this carefree jam after the heartbreak of "Skeletons".

I voted "Skeletons." I discovered this album in September and it sounds even better in November.

I had never heard of this album before today and wow it's great

the drums on We Belong Together! all the shifts in Living It Up!

This got played at record club the other week. I wasn't overly struck but it was first contact. Didn't realise it was such an ILM fave.

I was the guy who took it to record club...I am overly struck, especially by We Belong Together.

https://devonrecordclub.com/2017/11/27/rickie-lee-jones-pirates-round-104-toms-selection/

Traces Of Western Slopes for me...kinda like Laura Nyro’s mentally unstable sister...just glorious and completely unique

had to vote for We Belong Together, the best song of all time

love this album.

Some kids like watching Saturday cartoons
Some girls listen to records all day in their rooms
But what do birds leave behind,
of the wings that they came with
If a son's in a tree building model planes?
Skeletons,
Skeletons.

voted for Living it Up but the first five songs are all pretty fantastic

Having lived with this album for a few months, I'm wondering how critic fans thought Pirates was anything but an advance from its predecessor?

I think Big Concept weariness was settling in. feel like after Tusk everybody was very down on ambition generally speaking unless it was Springsteen, who could do no wrong.

great album, first thing ever heard by rickie lee was woody & dutch, friend in college in 87 played it for me, loved it, got pirates and 1st album, cld vote for many selections but we belong together won out for me

Ugh sometimes reading this board is like that clown college Simpsons episode. Homers driving down the freeway and checking the billboards finding out what to buy next, then he gets to the clown college and is like "no way I'm interested in that!" but then it just nags at him and he's like hell no until it's all he can think about and he runs out of the house to become a clown. Well today I ran outta here like "I'm going to buy PIRATES by Rickie Lee Jones and you're not gonna stop me!!" Never expected myself to say that. Ugh of course it's great, dammit Brad. I also bought SOLACE by Sarah McLachlan today, it's great. This goddamned board, really.

This is her best. I hate to be the kind of dork that votes for Side 1/Track 1, but it is what it is.

Finally got around to listening to this. The lyric of "Skeletons" utterly blindsided me.

Like, on the whole this is still boho-jazz enough that I get antsy a few times, but as a lyricist, she's impeccable. A few of these songs could be Raymond Carver stories.

so this is amazing

what's with it not being available on standard streaming services? label issue?

It's on Spotify.

i'm not seeing it -- songs are on youtube, though. can you post a spottily link?

https://open.spotify.com/album/22TMqh5beK00rWO5nm0Xf6

ty, but still not working for me, maybe it's premium-only? i am poor

Huh. I don't pay for Premium -- shit's free.

I've been listening to it on Spotify all weekend, and I'm one of those cheapskates who doesn't pay.

And can I just say "holy shit!" about this lyric:

Eddie's got one crazy eye
That turns him into a cartoon
When a pretty girl comes by
And there's nothin' here to do anymore
He sits on the stoop all day
Like there's something he's waiting for
Cunt-finger Louie picks up Eddie in the alley
He's got all those guys with him
From that town where they all look like Frankie Valli
They speak fluently blonde
From her legs to her cigarette
And Louie told Eddie that he'd fix him up
But he ain't come back yet

Yeah “Living It Up” is such a masterpiece, simultaneously breezy, funny and devastating.

I just remembered that I was very close to nominating this for Jordan’s listening thread.

I went with Hats instead lol.

I've the piano melody line from Living It Up in my head for a few days. It's a friendly presence. Happy for it to stay for a while.

The best songs on this album are damn near the best pop songs that anyone has written, at any time. Living It Up (my vote), Pirates, A Lucky Guy. Impossibly gorgeous songs, all of them.
But I remember Woody and Dutch being a real turkey, and thought the other big epic of the album was too ambitious for her own good. I'm listening to Traces of the Western Slopes again now, and it is a lot better than I remember (the self-harmony bits are taking me most of the way there), but it'll take a while to come around to the idea of this song being a successful experiment, and not just a weak Aja imitation.

think i'm going for "living it up" -- it's like a walk through life, so many feelings in six minutes

I struggled to find a favourite album for 1981 before I heard Pirates.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

love the tie for no. 2

Yep that is basically perfect.

I ended up voting for "Pirates" but can't argue with that ordering at all.

my Oldie Album of the Year.

this is simply astonishing. last week in Paris. I am having an emotional collapse on an airport concourse rn and this is my soundtrack and I'm grateful for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOgaOtL3akc&sns=tw

I miss Brad

so good, thanks for posting xp

well goodbye boys
oh my buddy boys
oh my sad-eyed sinatras

Few moments in music give me as much chills as that moment. If i’m listening while out I just have to stop and stand there until the groove kicks back in.

I owe y'all for breaking my resistance.

My favourite classic album discovery of the last few years.

The drum sound on the opening two seconds of "Pirates" is phenomenal.

I've had a mix of We Belong Together, Living It Up, and Danny's All Star Joint running in my head for the past few days. It's a happy thing.

Found this pretty much by accident on YouTube, and still can't really believe it exists:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO48NG_vMNA

uh

7035051589
6 years ago
WOW SO MANY MEMORIES! I USED TO FUCK THE FLOOR TO THIS RECORD!

I owe y'all so much for revealing this album to me.

Yeah, really. It's incredible, all of it.
Is it weird if I say I'd like to put these background vocals in every song ever? Just have a synthesizer that produces those Rickie Lee "ba-da baaa"s.

got Pirates on again and this is how i wish Weyes Blood or indeed anyone putting out LPs with this vibe nowadays sounded. where are my TRUE GANGSTA modern day rickie lee/jonis ???

i have just invented the indie band name RICKIE LEE JONI.
don't steal it please. best new music here i come.

What's going on with Rickie Lee's autobiography? It was supposed to come out several years ago but has been
repeatedly delayed, and I think the title changed as well.

pirates season

Listening to it now. You're right. It is.

^

Traces Of The Western Slopes intro is so incredible. i've always thought of this LP as being an even-more-steely-dan Court & Spark - and this track hits that combined vibe the hardest.

Do you got a map to the next joint??

> I've always thought of this LP as being an even-more-steely-dan Court & Spark

otm

How did Skeletons only get 1 vote? I know We Belong Together is basically perfect but jesus, Skeletons is enough to destroy the best of us.

Try sitting still while listening to Woody & Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking.

I got the boogie woogie in my socks!

This album is truly all killer, no filler. Most of the songs can bring me to tears.

watching her at jazzfest rn. cried when she broke into “pirates”

her voice still sounds like a million billion bucks and her band rules, see her if you can

that’s awesome

She is opening here for Indigo Girls, I'd go just to see her.

I was thinking of picking up a compilation - from what I can tell, there's only one (a 3 CD set from Rhino), but why is it sequenced in alphabetical order? As a joke?

Because she could?

FWIW, her debut and Pirates remain staples of cheapie vinyl bins, where nice copies can still be found for less than $5 a disc.

Yeah, but I mainly stick with digital and Pirates was reissued by MFSL on SACD some years ago. (Straight from the original master tapes. Sunds great.) Expensive now but I think I got it on clearance for like $15 and change.

https://www.popmatters.com/rickie-lee-jones-pirates-atr

Interesting take. Thanks.

Someday would like to read her memoir Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of an American Troubadour.

It’s that time of year…

Some kids like watching Saturday cartoons
Some girls listen to records all day in their rooms
But what do birds leave behind,
of the wings that they came with
If a son's in a tree building model planes?
Skeletons,
Skeletons.

Still so blown away by this album Every Time I put it on
No aspersions cast but what artist (aside from her) can make an album like this nowadays?

Steve Gadd man