I have a hard time thinking of Rickie Lee Jones as a one hit wonder, but in reality, she has only had one hit, a song from her eponymous debut about Chuck E. Weiss. Preceding her third album, she went to Paris to get sober. The Magazine was recorded in collaboration with James Newton Howard, a fact that I was not aware of until just now. He is now better known as a film composer, nominated for 8 Academy Awards. I had what I could best describe as an interest in Ms. Jones before The Magazine came out, but as I encountered her new music, I would become a life long fan. The first time was when a director used the first instrumental song, Prelude to Gravity, for a studio production of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds. (In high school, the sound person chose to use Vangelis score from the film Antarctica to underscore scenes.) I took note of the song but did not rush out to buy a copy of the record. In December, I was at an Ornament Party thrown by the party queens of the Goodman School; Francesca, Caroline and Kelly. They were masters acting students and while I dont know what became of the first two women, Kelly Coffield would later turn up in Field of Dreams and as a cast member of In Living Color. (the ornament I brought was made from the side panels of a box of Mr. T cereal that I had saved. I cut out the pictures and glued them together with a paper clip in between to hang it.) Anyway, they had a copy of the album in their collection and as the party wound down, I asked if I could listen to it. By that time, there were just the hostesses and a few others, and we just sat and talked while the record played. As the needle made its way toward the middle, the music made quite an impression on me. The Magazine would go on to become one of my top-five favorite albums of all time. The first time I would see Rickie Lee live would not be until her tour with Lyle Lovett in 1990, but it was special because I somehow got front row seats. I dont recall seeing this appearance on Lettermans NBC show, but it is worth watching: youtube/watch?v=MIKbOpac1VE
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 13:00:01 +0000
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