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I'll vote for the second album. Sure, the first was great, I loved "Weasel and the White Boys Cool", but the second, "Pirates", begins with a one-two punch that's undeniable, it knocks you out cold, you wake up on the floor, staring at the ceiling.
We belong together.
Have you ever laid in bed, wondering about the distance between the two of you, deciding whether to break it off or try and continue and you suddenly decide "we belong together"?
The operative word is "we". That's when relationships are on fire, when it's no longer about you and her, but when you can't imagine life without your other half, when you think the cosmos has determined you belong together.
I actually called up a girl and told her this. We'd had a hard time docking, we were unable to make it fit, frustrated, it looked like it was best to return to our respective corners, permanently. But this night I determined we belonged together.
She didn't see it the same way.
And, in retrospect, she was right. We didn't belong together. But that doesn't mean I don't remember that feeling. Just like Rickie Lee Jones sings it in this song. It's a private moment, not a diva onstage singing for everybody, but a private symphony playing in your own head.
The follow-up, "Living It Up", has got a completely different vibe. But it's no less touching, no less meaningful. You may think you're living it up, you might put a sunny face on the situation, but is that the truth?
Then Rickie lost the plot. She stopped working with Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman. She did a great cover of "Walk Away Renee", but the albums no longer hit you in the same way. She was Rickie Lee Jones once. Now?
It's a beautiful day in L.A.
And I'm driving west on Wilshire and I hear the new Rickie Lee Jones song for the second time, "Wild Girl".
On Sirius XM's Loft. Meg Griffin was spinning it from her perch on the coast of Massachusetts.
And the song speaks for itself. But you can't hear it. I found it nowhere online.
You can hear a snippet at http://www.rickieleejones.com/ It's not the first track, still the first track works too.
How did Rickie Lee come back twenty years later?
By finishing twenty year old songs.
Her Website has too much Flash, you'd never go back. But the TV-type images are fascinating. They've got the feel of the music. This is not some babe of the moment in a video clip, this is meaning. We're all lonely at heart, but we're yearning to feel connected. Music, when done right, brings us together.
The second track on the Website player is "Wild Girl". You'll get a taste. Longer than thirty seconds, but not long enough. It's snappy, yet not mindless. It's visceral, it opens your skin and tucks itself inside.
But you can check out this live YouTube clip from last May.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBBJ2yBn_BU
The sound is not perfect, but Rickie Lee's voice is. She's aged, but her voice has lost nothing. It's stunning, you look at the image and you can't believe anyone can sound this good without some kind of aural trick.
Concord also has a clip, but although the audio is better than the YouTube video, it doesn't have quite the same punch and it stutters, still, it's great.
http://concordmusicgroup.com/newmedia/video/rickieleejones/rickie_lee_jones_wild_girl_clip.html
I don't think Rickie Lee Jones will return to her seventies perch. Where she was the hipster who dominated the country. But if you listen to "Wild Girl", not only will you believe she's still got it, you'll be blown away that she blows all the poseurs away.
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