Rickie Lee Jones

[David]

Originally Posted by PolishStevieFan

her lyrics can be read as poems.

They are poems. Christgau didn't like her songs or her attitude—he thought it was phony—but just about every other critic from 1979 to 1983 rated her alongside Joni Mitchell.

Are there any fans of Rickie Lee Jones amongst Ledgies?

I was a fan in the old days. I saw her on the Pirates tour in L.A. somewhere, maybe the Roxy. It was pretty harrowing: filled with musical highs and emotional lows, a bottle of bourbon in her right hand.

I saw her again on the Magazine tour, which had Christine McVie alumnus George Hawkins on bass.

I think she squandered her talents and her career. It's one thing to walk your own path and do your own thing, but she took deliberate steps to alienate her dwindling audience the past few decades. It's been a bizarre thing to witness. I think she's kind of screwed up, but in her heyday she was a brilliant storyteller. She created a gallery of characters in her interconnected songs that seem cinematic.

[Macfanforever]

Heres her wiki page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickie_Lee_Jones

Chuck E's In Love . I remember radio played the crap out of that tune.Too bad radio screwed her without the same treatment with her other tunes.






Rickie has Stevie hair in this video.

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by David

I think she squandered her talents and her career. It's one thing to walk your own path and do your own thing, but she took deliberate steps to alienate her dwindling audience the past few decades. It's been a bizarre thing to witness. I think she's kind of screwed up, but in her heyday she was a brilliant storyteller. She created a gallery of characters in her interconnected songs that seem cinematic.

I kinda agree; however, she did go through some heavy (self-inflicted) traumas in her life, involving drug addiction, financial problems, failed relationships, etc. I love the fact that she is constantly in search of new artistic direction, which makes it particularly ironic that she suffered writer's block for so many years. Nevertheless, I think her body of work up through and including Traffic from Paradise is astounding, reaching her apex with Flying Cowboys. It's sad that she has only released one strong album within the last twenty years (The Evening of My Best Day, and she has largely settled into this grungy-folk vibe these days that is pretty much unlistenable. I really tried to get into her last couple of albums, but... I just couldn't.

One of my favorite live performances by anyone ever: