Jones, Rickie Lee
Rickie Lee Jones
Singer, songwriter
The story of Rickie Lee Jones is a classic rock ‘n’ roll fable, a story with a moral of its own that shows, in all of its extremes, the ups and downs of the rock life and the way that rock ‘n’ roll contains within itself the seeds of destruction and regeneration. In the years since her smash debut album, Rickie Lee Jones, which contained her trademark hit single “Chuck E.’s In Love,” Jones has endured the downside of success, the kick in the head fame saves for you after its first magical kiss, and arrived at the second, more lasting and valuable stage of rock stardom—that of the survivor. “Same old story,” writes Jay Cocks in Time. “A unique gift, a fresh voice, a knack for psychic immolation. When Rickie Lee Jones broke onto the scene with her surprising and successful 1979 debut album, she seemed to signal a fresh trail for rock. But uncertainty and self-destruction crowded close. An equivocal second album was followed by an enterprising third and diminishing commercial returns. Confusion enveloped, and Jones seemed to lunge toward the flash point. Then she pulled back, in a two-step away from the brink, consolidating and reconsidering her work. With personal turmoil put in perspective, Jones produced a new life and a new record.
That new record was 1989’s Flying Cowboys, a work that signalled the return of Rickie Lee Jones to fame, but also, more importantly, to a more mature, even plateau from which she can commit to a long-term artistic stance. Cocks continues: “Even the casual listener who knows Jones mostly from her 1979 hit single, ‘Chuck E.’s in Love,’ will recognize the smoky snap of her voice in the opening moments of the fine first track, “The Horses.” But just as quickly, the changes will be obvious. The jazz inflections and beat intonations are still intact, but all the mannerisms have been pared away. Jones isn’t hiding behind artifice anymore. Her lyrics may be enigmatic, her music an eccentric mixture of rock, electrified hipster jazz and reggae, but she makes it all flow by the sheer force of her feeling.”
The saga of Jones’s early childhood would sound strangely familiar to many artists. Born in Chicago, Jones was uprooted and dragged to a new home as soon as she had gotten settled down in the last one. Her father was primarily a waiter, but, coming from a family of vaudevillians himself, the elder Jones was also an amateur musician who wrote and sang songs for his children. Jones’s mother was a waitress. The couple had a stormy relationship and once broke up, only to reunite again. The family moved almost every year, Jones told Rolling Stone, mostly back and forth from Chicago to Phoenix. “All of us were so much trouble that my parents would say ‘Well, let’s try it someplace else.’”
For the Record…
Born November 8, 1954, in Chicago, III.; married Pascal Nabet-Meyer (a musician); children: Charlotte Rose.
Began working as a waitress and club singer in Los Angeles, where she met musician Tom Waits, 1977; signed recording contract with Warner Bros., 1978; released debut album, Rickie Lee Jones, 1979 (hit single “Chuck E.’s in Love” went to number four on charts); recorded three additional albums in early 1980s; took five-year hiatus from recording industry, 1984-88; recorded critically acclaimed comeback LP Flying Cowboys, 1989.
Addresses: Residence —Ojai, Calif. Record company — Geffen Records, 9130 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif. 90069-6197.
In 1969, while living with her father, Jones went off with some friends to a rock concert in California. She never came back, instead living a hippie road life and finally settling down, sort of, in Los Angeles, where she fell in with friends Tom Waits and Chuck E. Weiss, a local musician who became the inspiration for Jones’s first hit single. What happened next, according to Interview’s Dewey Nicks, was “Rickie Lee Jones made her public debut as a model. She was the silent after-hours siren slouched seductively on a chrome-laden auto on the dust jacket of Tom Waits’s Blue Valentine. A few months later she stepped out of the shadows and up to the mike for her own vinyl solo, and she carved out a niche in Coolsville with her hit single, ‘Chuck E.’s in Love.’”
It wasn’t quite that easy, however. Jones struggled for a few years, singing in L.A. bars, living in a dilapidated section of town which was peopled with many of the characters she later incorporated into her songs. At the insistence of her manager, Nick Mathe, Jones cut a demo tape that soon attracted the attention of several record companies, including Warner Bros. Warners’ executive Lenny Waronker, producer of Randy Newman, among others, had heard Jones performing at L.A.’s Troubador and signed Jones with the stipulation that he was to produce her first record. The result was an album, perplexing at first, which slowly grew upon the public. Jazzy, hip, decidedly uncontrived, the first LP was a fresh breath of air in the disco-saturated atmosphere of the late 1970s. “Jones’s sound, gracefully old-time, never turns antique,” wrote Time’s Jay Cocks in 1979. “She likes Van Morrison, Marvin Gaye and Laura Nyro, but she also talks of Peggy Lee and Sarah Vaughan with respect, performs a stops-out version of an old Louis Prima tune to close out her concerts. Her songs have their origins in, and owe a friendly debt to, the work of such all-night-joint bards as Tom Waits.”
After a successful first LP honeymoon, which included a spot on television’s Saturday Night Live, Jones continued to produce (three albums over the next five years), but with diminishing success. Part of the problem was Jones’s sudden slide back down the spiral of success. “Her sudden success could have made her a kept songbird in a gilded sound booth, but royalties slipped through her fingers like quicksilver, and platinum success fueled her desire for the forbidden fruit of the Golden Triangle,” wrote Dewey Nicks in Interview. “She became a regular at the Physician’s Desk Reference Cafe. Excess took a toll, turning her chimerical songs into bulletins from the abyss.”
Jones’s salvation finally came with a long turn inward. She dropped out of the music scene for nearly five years in the mid-1980s. While traveling in Tahiti, she met French musician Pascal Nabet-Meyer. The two never parted, and in 1988 Jones had her first child, daughter Charlotte Rose. Having regained control of her personal life, Jones was ready to regain control of her musical life as well. The result was Flying Cowboys, produced by Walter Becker (formerly of Steely Dan) and Jones’s most critically acclaimed LP since her debut. “The music on Flying Cowboys is spare but not starved,” writes David Gates in Newsweek. “Guitars, tastefully deployed synthesizers (I don’t like them either) for supplementary texture and color. Muscular, rocking rhythms. Jones’s singing is as wild and free as ever—from childlike piping to sluttish slurring, sometimes in overdubbed girl-group harmonies. And her unscrutinized metaphors tell all we need to know.” Writes Time’s Jay Cocks of Jones’s return to the work she was born to do: “Now she’s back, looking like her old self: the most gifted woman on the scene.”
Selected discography
Rickie Lee Jones, Warner Bros., 1979.
Pirates, Warner Bros., 1981.
Girl at Her Volcano, Warner Bros., 1983.
The Magazine, Warner Bros., 1984.
Flying Cowboys, Geffen, 1989.
Sources
Interview, November, 1989.
Newsweek, October 16, 1989.
Rolling Stone, May 31, 1979.
Time, May 21, 1979; October 23, 1989.
—David Collins
Jones, Rickie Lee
Jones, Rickie Lee
Singer, songwriter
The story of Rickie Lee Jones is a classic rock 'n' roll fable, a story that describes the ups and downs of the rock life and how it can contain the seeds of both failure and regeneration. In the years since her smash debut album Rickie Lee Jones, which contained her trademark hit single "Chuck E.'s In Love," Jones has experienced the downside of success, and has arrived at a second, more lasting and valuable stage of rock stardom—that of the survivor. "Same old story," wrote Jay Cocks in Time. "A unique gift, a fresh voice, a knack for psychic immolation."
When Jones broke onto the scene with her surprising and successful 1979 debut album, she seemed to signal a fresh direction for rock. But uncertainty and self-destruction crowded close. An equivocal second album was followed by an enterprising third accompanied by diminishing commercial returns. Jones seemed to lunge toward the flash point, but was eventually able to pull back, consolidating and reconsidering her work. With her personal turmoil put in perspective, Jones was able to produce a new life and a new record.
That new record was 1989's Flying Cowboys, a work that signaled Jones's return to fame and, more important, to a more stable plateau from which to develop a new artistic stance. Cocks wrote, "Even the casual listener who knows Jones mostly from her 1979 hit single, 'Chuck E.'s in Love,' will recognize the smoky snap of her voice in the opening moments of the fine first track, "The Horses." But just as quickly, the changes will be obvious. The jazz inflections and beat intonations are still intact, but all the mannerisms have been pared away. Jones isn't hiding behind artifice anymore. Her lyrics may be enigmatic, her music an eccentric mixture of rock, electrified hipster jazz and reggae, but she makes it all flow by the sheer force of her feeling."
Moved Around as a Child
The saga of Jones's early childhood would sound strangely familiar to many artists. Born in Chicago, Jones was uprooted and dragged to a new home as soon as she had gotten settled in the last one. Jones's mother was a waitress and her father was a waiter. He came from a family of vaudevillians, and was also an amateur musician who wrote and sang songs for his children. The couple had a stormy relationship and once broke up, only to reunite again. The family moved almost every year, Jones told Rolling Stone, mostly back and forth from Chicago to Phoenix. "All of us were so much trouble that my parents would say, 'Well, let's try it someplace else.'"
In 1969, while living with her father, Jones went off with some friends to a rock concert in California. She never returned home, instead beginning a hippie road life and finally settling down in Los Angeles, where she fell in with friends Tom Waits and with Chuck E. Weiss, a local musician who became the inspiration for Jones's first hit single. According to Interview 's Dewey Nicks, "Rickie Lee Jones made her public debut as a model. She was the silent after-hours siren slouched seductively on a chrome-laden auto on the dust jacket of Tom Waits's Blue Valentine. A few months later she stepped out of the shadows and up to the mike for her own vinyl solo, and she carved out a niche in Coolsville with her hit single, 'Chuck E.'s in Love.'"
It wasn't quite that easy, however. Jones struggled for a few years, singing in L.A. bars, living in a dilapidated section of town that was peopled with many of the characters she later incorporated into her songs. At the insistence of her manager, Nick Mathe, Jones cut a demo tape that soon attracted the attention of several record companies, including Warner Brothers. Warner's executive Lenny Waronker, producer of Randy Newman among others, heard Jones performing at L.A.'s Troubador and signed her, with the stipulation that he would produce her first record. The result was an album that slowly grew upon the public. Jazzy, hip, and uncontrived, Rickie Lee Jones provided a breath of fresh air in the disco-saturated atmosphere of the late 1970s. "Jones's sound, gracefully old-time, never turns antique," wrote Cocks in 1979. "She likes Van Morrison, Marvin Gaye and Laura Nyro, but she also talks of Peggy Lee and Sarah Vaughan with respect. ... Her songs have their origins in, and owe a friendly debt to, the work of such all-night-joint bards as Tom Waits."
After a successful first LP honeymoon, which included a spot on television's Saturday Night Live, Jones produced three albums over the next five years, but with diminishing success. Nicks wrote that "she became a regular at the Physician's Desk Reference Cafe. Excess took a toll, turning her chimerical songs into bulletins from the abyss."
Personal and Professional Rebirth
Jones's salvation finally came with a long turn inward. She dropped out of the music scene for nearly five years in the mid-1980s. While traveling in Tahiti, she met French musician Pascal Nabet-Meyer, and in 1988 Jones had her first child, daughter Charlotte Rose. Having regained some control over her personal life, Jones was ready to regain control of her musical life as well. The result was Flying Cowboys, produced by Walter Becker (formerly of Steely Dan), and Jones's most critically acclaimed LP since her debut. "The music on Flying Cowboys is spare but not starved," wrote David Gates in Newsweek. He added, "Jones's singing is as wild and free as ever—from childlike piping to sluttish slurring, sometimes in overdubbed girl-group harmonies." Of her return, Cocks wrote, "Now she's back, looking like her old self: the most gifted woman on the scene."
In 1990, Jones continued her comeback when she won a Grammy for her remake of "Making Whoopee" with Dr. John. The following year she released Pop Pop, an eclectic album on which she covered songs as divergent as Jimi Hendrix's "Up From the Skies" to "I Won't Grow Up" from Peter Pan. Each of the songs was embellished by quietly orchestrated arrangements, featuring well-know jazz performers Charlie Haden, Joe Henderson, and Robben Ford.
For the Record . . .
Born on November 8, 1954, in Chicago, IL; married Pascal Nabet-Meyer (divorced); children: Charlotte Rose.
Began working as a waitress and club singer in Los Angeles, 1977; signed recording contract with Warner Bros., 1978; released debut album, Rickie Lee Jones, 1979; recorded three additional albums in early 1980s; took five-year hiatus from recording industry, 1984-88; recorded critically acclaimed comeback LP Flying Cowboys, 1989; released Pop Pop, 1991, and Traffic FromParadise, 1993; charted on Billboard with NakedSongs, 1995, Ghostyhead, 1997, and It's Like This, 2000; released The Evening of My Best Day, 2003, and the career retrospective Duchess of Coolsville, 2005.
Awards: Grammy Award, Best New Artist, 1979; Grammy Award, Best Jazz Vocal Performance for Duo or Group, for "Makin' Whoopee!," 1990.
Addresses: Record company—Warner Brothers, 3300 Warner Blvd., Burbank, CA 9150. Website—Rickie Lee Jones Official Website: http://www.rickieleejones.com.
In 1993 Jones delved into much more personal territory, writing and co-writing songs about her own life on Traffic From Paradise. The subject for the title cut came from a short story she had written about receiving an abortion in Washington State when she was 18, while "The Albatross" investigated the legacy that dysfunctional parents leave to their children. The heavy emotions of the album were further complicated by the fact that Jones was in the midst of a two-year divorce with Pascal Nabet-Meyer, whom she had married in 1985. "The self-produced Traffic From Paradise," wrote Timothy White in Billboard, "is ... a near-perfect record about human imperfection."
In 1997 Jones released Naked Songs, a concert album featuring her vocals against a simple backdrop of guitar and piano. Ghostyhead, on the other hand, dived head first into trip hop and other contemporary styles, successfully marrying her approach to that of a younger generation of musicians. Neither of these efforts, however, prepared fans for 2000's Like It Is. While the album, like Pop Pop, included only covers, it also found Jones re-defining herself as an artist by leaving her own stamp on well-known songs like the Beatles' "For No One" and Steely Dan's "Show Biz Kids." "Recorded with a sense of informal joy and spontaneity, the record centers around Jones's remarkable voice—alternatively fragile and sassy, playful and heartbroken, jazzy and blue, wizened and childlike," wrote George H. Lewis in Popular Music and Society, "as she explores the subtleties and nuances of these seemingly unrelated songs." Jones followed with Live at Red Rocks in 2001 and The Evening of My Best Day in 2003.
With 13 albums and 26 years in the music business, Jones has molded her artistic presence by taking chances. She has likewise proven apt at transforming personal demons into songs with soaring melodies and searing lyrics, offering a musical vision that digs much deeper than the typical pop song. Jones, like Billie Holiday and Joni Mitchell, is a living testament to the transforming powers of music. "From the beginning of her career, when she won a Grammy as the best new artist of 1979," Lewis wrote, "this unique and adventurous free spirit has, quite definitely, done it her way."
Selected discography
Rickie Lee Jones, Warner Bros., 1979.
Pirates, Warner Bros., 1981.
Girl at Her Volcano, Warner Bros., 1983.
The Magazine, Warner Bros., 1984.
Flying Cowboys, Geffen, 1989.
Pop Pop, Geffen, 1991.
Traffic From Paradise, Geffen, 1993.
Naked Songs, Reprise, 1995.
Ghostyhead, Warner Bros., 1997.
It's Like This, Artemis, 2000.
Live at Red Rocks, Artemis, 2001.
The Evening of My Best Day, V2, 2003.
Duchess of Coolsville: An Anthology, Rhino, 2005.
Sources
Periodicals
Billboard, August 21, 1993.
Interview, November 1989.
Newsweek, October 16, 1989.
Popular Music and Society, December 2003.
Rolling Stone, May 31, 1979.
Time, May 21, 1979; October 23, 1989.
Online
"Rickie Lee Jones," All Music Guide,http://www.allmusic.com/(June 10, 2005).
—David Collins andRonnie D. Lankford, Jr.
Jones, Rickie Lee
RICKIE LEE JONES
Born: Chicago, Illinois, 8 November 1954
Genre: Rock, Pop
Best-selling album since 1990: Traffic from Paradise (1993)
Identified primarily by the success of her 1979 hit, "Chuck E.'s in Love," singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones has made an indelible mark as a musical adventurer whose literate songs combine post–beat era poetry with jazz, folk, rock, and even trip-hop exploration. In addition, Jones is unafraid to impose her artistry on classic songs of all genres.
Jones was born the third of four children to a struggling family rife with numerous dysfunctional elements. Her father was an aspiring actor/musician who worked mostly as a waiter, and her mother became a nurse after her brother lost a leg and suffered partial paralysis from a motorcycle accident. Both parents were products of orphanage upbringings and their marriage was volatile at best. The family lived a nomadic lifestyle, uprooting from one city to the next. Jones escaped the turmoil by creating musical imaginary friends and later, at age fourteen, by running away.
After some time spent drifting around, Jones finished high school in Olympia, Washington, before taking off alone to live in Los Angeles where she worked as a waitress while singing in clubs and coffeehouses for several years. Jones resided in West Hollywood's famed artist bunkhouse, the Tropicana Motel, and took up friendships with musicians Tom Waits and Los Angeles eccentric, Chuck E. Weiss, the subject of her hit "Chuck E.'s in Love." On the strength of that song, her debut album, Rickie Lee Jones (1979), scored six 1979 Grammy Award nominations and she won for Best New Artist. Her second album, Pirates (1981), also received high acclaim and the free-spirited Jones was likened to singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell. Jones's idiosyncratic, often blues-influenced songs come off as flippant, but are laced with emotional intensity. She sings—sometimes speaks—her music with a voice that ranges wide and she is as comfortable with raw sexuality as delicate jazz phrasing. Jones reached her pinnacle fast and the pop music world was hers for the taking. However, Jones's next two recordings, artistic experiments, fared poorly and she struggled with substance abuse for the latter half of the 1980s, disappearing from music for almost five years.
After touring with Lyle Lovett throughout 1990, Jones reestablished her forte as a song stylist by releasing Pop Pop (1991), a musically spare album of jazz standards interpreted by her flexible vocal dynamics. Two years later, Jones released Traffic from Paradise, a mercurial change in style more reminiscent of her debut. Except for David Bowie's "Rebel, Rebel," the album is her first collection of original material since Pirates. Ripe with Jones's unique combination of ethereal melodies and vivid lyrics, Traffic from Paradise features several guest artists, such as Lyle Lovett singing back up and Leo Kottke on acoustic guitar.
After an acoustic live solo release, Naked Songs (1995), Jones, one of music's most organic artists, turned heads when she delved into the industrial-funk sounds of trip-hop (a more produced, electronic cousin to hip-hop) on Ghostyhead (1997). Her manipulated vocals fade in and out while studio special effects transform her music into a dreamy club beat sound.
Jones received a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Recording with It's Like This (2000), an album of pop music standards crossing into a variety of genres. She lends her vocal agility, including scat style jazz, to songs by the Beatles, Traffic, Steely Dan, Marvin Gaye, and Ira Gershwin, among others, and even includes her rendition of a Charlie Chaplin composition, "Smile." In 2001 she released a live album of twelve songs called Red Rocks Live. Although Jones detoured from a once promising pop music career, she has found a comfortable niche as one of music's foremost song stylists.
SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:
Rickie Lee Jones (Warner Bros., 1979); Pirates (Warner Bros., 1981); Girl at Her Volcano (Warner Bros., 1983); The Magazine (Warner Bros., 1984); Flying Cowboys (Geffen, 1989); Pop Pop (Geffen, 1991); Traffic from Paradise (Geffen, 1993); Naked Songs (Reprise, 1995); Ghostyhead (Warner Bros., 1997); It's Like This (Artemis, 2000); Red Rocks Live (Artemis, 2001).
donald lowe
Jones, Rickie Lee
Jones, Rickie Lee
Jones, Rickie Lee, hipster singer/songwriter; b. Chicago, III., Nov. 8, 1954. While her fathdr, an actor and musician, taught her how to play guitar, Rickie Lee Jones’s home life was not pacific. Her parents fought often and moved around a lot. Eventually, her father abandoned the family. Rickie became a teen-aged alcoholic and was thrown out of school in Washington. She migrated south and wound up waiting tables in L.A., playing at occasional open-mike nights, performing beat-like poetry and jazzy songs accompanied by her acoustic guitar. She met Tom Waits, and appeared on his Blue Valentine album; not in the grooves, but on the cover. She also performed one of his songs on the soundtrack to The King of Comedy.
Lowell George heard one of Jones’s early songs, “Easy Money,” and recorded it on his lone solo album, Thanks, I’ll Eat It Here. This brought her to the attention of Warner Bros. (George’s record company). A four-song demo clinched the deal, and Warner signed her. Her eponymous debut album became the surprise hit of 1979, with the #4 hit single “Chuck E.’s in Love” and the #40 follow-up “Youngblood.” It marked the last time Jones hit the pop charts. The album went platinum and Jones earned Best New Artist honors at the Gram-mys. Her next effort, Pirates, was an even more fully realized project. Though it didn’t generate any pop hits, it contained some of the most sophisticated music masquerading as pop. Tunes like “Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking” maintained the bebopping stance of the first adbum while expanding on it. Coupled with the heartwrenchingly beautiful ballad “We Belong Together,” it made for an astounding album. Despite the lack of a hit, it rose to #5 on the album charts and went gold.
Jones didn’t release her next album for two years, and when she did it was a curiosity. Girl at Her Volcano was a 10 inch vinyl EP, mostly of covers, including a ballad reading of “Under the Boardwalk” and her bohemian take on “My Funny Valentine” The collection hit #39 despite the odd configuration. Jones’s 1984 release, Magazine, brought the twin urges of commercial constraint and jazzy freedom to a somewhat overproduced détente that ultimately satisfied no one. Five years later, Flying Cowboys remedied this. Sparely produced by Steely Dan’s Walter Becker, the album featured several tracks with the Scottish band The Blue Nile. While you still couldn’t hear Jones on the radio, she continued to sell better than the average cult artist.
The mixture of Jones and Becker breaking his long post-Steely Dan silence took this one to #39. With a reputation for reviving stalled careers, Don Was came in to produce Jones’s next effort, 1991’s Pop Pop. A sprawling album of covers, the songs ranged from Jimi Hen-drix and The Jefferson Airplane to show tunes from Peter Pan and Lili. The album had guest musicians ranging from bandoneon virtuoso Dino Saluzzi to jazz greats Charlie Haden and Joe Henderson. It stalled without even cracking the Top 100. In between her own projects, Jones duetted with John Mellencamp and Dr. John, the latter earning the duo a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance. She also produced an album for 12-string guitar shaman Leo Kottke. Kottke performed on Jones’s next album, Traffic from Paradise (1993), along with guests like Lyle Lovett, Brian Setzer, and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos. A cover of David Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel” got some radio attention.
Jones came back with 1995’s Naked Songs, an album consisting mostly of her acoustic guitar and vocals. A stint with the HORDE tour, however, put her in mind to record what she described as a “loud, electric, and very powerful” album. That record, 1997’s Ghostyhead, took Jones’s musical visions and translated it into trip-hop music with surprising success. Jones remains a remarkable artist who lives to surprise her audiences. Her 2000 release, It’s Like This, is another unusual mix of cover songs.
Discography
Rickie Lee Jones (1979); Pirates (1981); Girl at Her Volcano (1983); Rickie Lee Jones/Pirates (1983); The Magazine (1984); Flying Cowboys (1989); Pop Pop (1991); Trafic from Paradise (1993); Naked Songs (1995); Ghostyhead (1997); It’s Like This (2000). Various Artists: The King of Comedy (1983).
—Hank Bordowitz