Sunday, June 7, 2020

RICKIE LEE JONES - Rickie Lee Jones 1979




This is it. My only Rickie Lee Jones entry, the eponymous debut album, bought on the strength of her first and biggest hit 'Chuck E.'s in Love'.
I never bought or really listened to anything else she did after this even though she has a solid 40 year recording history. Having said that, I go back to this album often. 
Firstly, a bit of background to the 'hit' single.
After singing at The Troubadour, she met the man, the myth, the legend who is Tom Waits and began a bit of a romantic relationship with him. She also met singer / songwriter Chuck E. Weiss. For a while the three of them lived in the Tropicana Hotel in Los Angeles. Chuck is forever immortalised in song, not only on this album but also in the title of a Tom Waits track, 'Jitterbug Boy (Sharing a Curbstone With Chuck E. Weiss, Robert Marchese, Paul Body And The Mug And Artie)'

Go past the first commercial track here - it's played enough on the radio - and listen to some of the song stories on the rest of this album. A jazzy, chatty almost conversational style takes you into other places and lives.

My picks .. 'Weasel and the White Boys Cool', 'Company' and 'Danny's All-Star Joint'.

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