|
Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZJONES, Rickie Lee(b 8 November 1954, Chicago) Singer, songwriter. 'Easy Money', a low-life tale of good-time girls, was recorded by Lowell George on his solo LP Thanks I'll Eat It Here '79, brought her to WB's attention; she was unfairly categorized as West Coast soft rock when her first (eponymous) LP '79 was produced by Larry Waronker (Randy Newman, Maria Muldaur), though she was accompanied by a big band including many fine jazzmen; that she had roots wide and deep in 1940s pop, folk, jazz etc soon became obvious. The LP included a no. 4 hit (top 20 UK) 'Chuck E's In Love', also depth in songs like 'On Saturday Afternoons In 1963'. That album and Pirates '81 were top five USA, but her widely-spaced output seemed to reduce her public profile. Girl At Her Volcano '83 was a 10-inch LP with covers: Left Banke's 'Walk Away Rene', Drifters' 'Under The Boardwalk'; also Rodgers and Hart's 'My Funny Valentine'. Her between-songs monologues showed the influence of Beat poets, which she shares with former boyfriend Tom Waits (cover of whose Blue Valentine '78 she adorned); with her ability to move from jazzy croon to scat to energetic pop, The Magazine '84 got mixed reviews, par for the course for an artist like her; she's too good for the pop charts. She switched from WB to Geffen for Flying Cowboys '89, Pop Pop '91, Traffic From Paradise '93; to Reprise for Naked Songs -- Live And Acoustic '95; Ghostyhead '97 brought together more ghosts from her machine. There were more albums on Artemis, New West, Concord etc. A new album was Pieces of Treasure on Modern Recordings, a selection of jazz standards, of which Ted Gioia wrote on Substack, "It's no small thing to make these old songs sound morning-dew fresh, and we don't have Blossom Dearie, Nancy Wilson, Jo Stafford, Shirley Horn, June Christy, or those other masters of understatement to show us how. But RLJ somehow pulls it off in the year 2023, and makes a case that she belongs in that elite company." |