The Rickie Lee Jones Guide

“Final Likelihood Texaco: Chronicles of an American Troubadour“

It’s superb she’s alive.

This e book has not gotten sufficient press. It’s the best possible e book about being an artist within the rock world that I’ve ever learn. It’s past sincere.

Most individuals are feeding the starmaking equipment behind the favored track, however not Rickie Lee, she stands alone, she does it her method or else it’s the freeway, the place she spent a number of time.

She grew up in Phoenix. When she wasn’t operating away. Stealing a automotive with a boyfriend and driving to L.A. Residing in a collapse Massive Sur. Hitchhiking from California to Ontario on a verbal settlement regardless of solely being fifteen years outdated. You’ll be riveted by the course of her life. However the purpose “Final Likelihood Texaco” is so rattling good is due to the underlying reality revealed. We’re not solely seeing the world by means of Rickie Lee’s eyes, she’s telling us how she feels about it. You keep in mind emotions, don’t you? Gone in at present’s arts all in service to constructing a model. You present no weak point in America at present, in any other case folks will push you to the facet, you’ll not be taken severely, you received’t ever get the massive cash.

However Rickie Lee Jones was by no means involved with the massive cash.

Now this was the late sixties and early seventies people. Which is fifty years in the past, however it wasn’t as quaint and unsophisticated as some would possibly imagine. Certain, there was no web, however it was removed from the wild west. I grew up within the suburbs, the place mother and father centered on their progeny entering into elite establishments of upper schooling. However Rickie Lee? She didn’t even graduate from highschool!

She was kicked out for a nasty angle. This occurs many times. Rickie Lee is canceled for simply being who she is. Have you ever ever skilled this? I actually have. You’re not attempting to make hassle, however your id simply doesn’t sq. with standard precepts and you could pay the value. For some purpose they imagine you’re silly, however then while you reveal larger intelligence than they possess they arrive down even more durable. Change into an automaton. Hew to the foundations. Don’t coloration exterior the traces. And you then’ll turn into a productive member of society.

Yeah, one wherein there’s no lifetime employment and no one cares about anyone else. The boomers have been offered a invoice of products. Ready for a world that was crumbling and in the end didn’t exist. They thought changing into professionals, medical doctors or attorneys, can be sufficient to insure success, to place them on the high of the financial ladder, however by the top of the eighties Michael Milken was making half a billion {dollars} a yr in finance and so they weren’t even within the inventory market.

So Rickie Lee is aware of her household is insane. They arrive from nothing and proceed residing on the underside. Her father rages and her mom’s temper swings are unpredictable. Rickie Lee comes dwelling from college sooner or later to search out out her mom has pulled all her enamel. Why? As a result of they have been hurting her. Huh?

Her older sister Janet spins wild, will get pregnant after which lords her age over Rickie, jealous that she didn’t get to be a free teenager.

In the meantime, the household retains shifting.

S

o Rickie Lee is at school, and everyone HATES HER! She’s simply being herself however she will be able to get no traction. She’s received cooties. Being widespread is the primary purpose at school, actually when you go to public college. To be on the opposite finish of the spectrum is to be a dreaded pariah, and Rickie Lee describes her emotions so nicely.

However in the end she is rescued by the Beatles. She’s a Beatles fanatic. What number of books have been written about this? What number of films made? However Rickie Lee nails the mania, what it felt prefer to be a younger woman impressed and adjusted by the foursome from Liverpool. She delineates the way it was completely different again then, and it actually was, regardless of wankers continually telling us that it’s the identical at present, that we’re simply too outdated to acknowledge it.

However no, again then we adopted the music, lived for the music!

Rickie Lee snuck in to see Hendrix.

She even went to the Devonshire Downs pageant, a pre-Woodstock occasion that nobody who wasn’t there appears to recollect in the event that they even heard about it: bit.ly/2VuwiJK She needed to make her option to Northridge, California in June of 1969 on the age of fourteen as a result of she wanted to be nearer to the music, she couldn’t miss it. And Rickie Lee was not the one one. However most different folks requested mommy and daddy to lend them the automotive, pay for all of it, however not Rickie Lee.

So she lives a peripatetic life-style, bouncing all around the west coast, being introduced dwelling by the legislation solely to run away once more. She retains speaking about her giant breasts overlaying up her younger age, however there’s additionally fixed interplay with boys/males, crashing at their locations, and you understand what which means…

However she will be able to sing.

However regardless of getting just a few breaks, after years she’s prepared to surrender, however she calls her mom who dangerous vibes her, saying she all the time wished to be a singer and she or he hangs in there till Lowell George decides to chop “Simple Cash” and…

I don’t care when you’ve by no means even heard of Rickie Lee Jones. Should you take into account your self an artist, you want to learn this e book. As a result of it’s the angle, the place she’s coming from, that blows your thoughts. You are feeling alone, and you then learn her e book and you end up on the identical web page and you’ll’t imagine it. Should you’re seeking to get wealthy, discover ways to community, leap from one conventional stone to a different, don’t even hassle, that’s not what this e book is about. It’s about seeing the world by means of a younger girl’s eyes who was broke, kicked round, and thru sheer pressure of will in the end succeed.

Oh, Rickie Lee is assured. She is aware of her expertise, is aware of she has a spine. However she additionally is aware of she’s on the innovative of girls’s energy. She’s breaking path. And that’s the toughest job there’s. It’s straightforward to comply with in footsteps however to slog by means of twenty inches of snow on their lonesome, with no actual concept the place you’re going, that’s almost unimaginable!

And Rickie Lee’s received an artist’s mentality. She hangs with Tom Waits and Chuck E. Weiss after which she doesn’t. When it not works, she strikes on. Continuously, all through her life. And she or he is aware of she’s not within the mainstream, generally she will be able to’t even get a backstage go, however that doesn’t hassle her.

So, the normal male rock e book is just a few pages about their upbringing, then how they made the data and tales of the highway, with a little bit dope thrown in for good measure. Rickie admits she received hooked on heroin for 3 years, however since then she’s been clear. And she or he ain’t dropping names, she’s telling her story, her actual story.

And you understand she wrote it. Due to the type.

And it’s imperfect. Typically the timeline doesn’t add up. However you retain studying anyway, believing it’s extra like poetry. Rickie Lee is uneducated however smarter than seemingly everyone who’s received a Ph.D. within the arts. She cast her personal method, she didn’t have to be informed what to do, what hoops to leap by means of, that was anathema!

So the reality is I nearly jumped as much as write this screed a number of occasions whereas I used to be studying the e book. However first I hadn’t completed it, after which it was so late at night time and…

I’m not fairly conveying the expertise of studying “Final Likelihood Texaco.”

My expectations have been low. As a result of these rock books are nearly all the time a disappointment. I can’t even title a great one. Apart from Kathy Valentine’s “All I Ever Wished.” Isn’t it fascinating that the 2 greatest rock books have been written by girls? And never prissy ones. Pinups. Not manufactured icons. I suppose girls will be extra sincere, they’re much less frightened how they’re perceived. Rickie Lee Jones doesn’t care in any respect how she’s perceived! She takes a swing at Annie Leibovitz regardless that the photographer barely figures in and Rickie Lee just isn’t busy placing down everyone else.

So I’m studying “Final Likelihood Texaco” and I’m shocked to search out somebody who’s on my web page, who thinks the best way I do, and that I didn’t anticipate. Have you learnt what it’s like not to slot in on this world? One wherein the purpose appears to repress your character sufficient to have scores of associates with whom you’ll be able to commerce favors to look good and succeed? We dwell in a world the place you’ll be able to’t even say something damaging! Oh, don’t inform me about social media, in the case of enterprise diss the powers that be at your peril. After they say you’ll by no means work on this city once more…the streets are suffering from individuals who received a toehold after which misplaced it. You could kiss ass to get in and keep in. Certain, there are exceptions, like there are to each rule, then once more, it’s the exceptions we’re drawn to.

I imply who’re we drawn to in at present’s musical panorama? The moist behind the ears Billie Eilish with a manufactured look who can barely sing?

Or Ariana Grande who can solely sing?

By no means thoughts the rappers seeking to take a look at limits for publicity.

The emperor ain’t carrying many garments if any in any respect, however everyone has purchased into the paradigm, for financial success.

However not Rickie Lee Jones. Not so many who grew up in that age and have been influenced by the considering of artists again in that period.

“Final Likelihood Texaco” is a private learn. Simply you and the web page. And also you’ll love being within the cocoon. And even when she makes it Rickie Lee continues to be attempting to determine it out, after betrayals, making her personal errors, however she troopers on.

Should you simply need to learn historical past, there’s most likely a greater place. As a matter of reality, nearly the entire e book takes place earlier than Rickie Lee even makes it. This isn’t an album by album paint-by-numbers concoction. That is the story of an individual, with a life, whose uniqueness aligned with most people after which didn’t. Somebody who didn’t change herself to remain on the journey of fame and fortune.

Nothing I write right here can equal the expertise of studying “Final Likelihood Texaco.” I’d cease by and replenish, as a result of this could be the final likelihood you get to learn how it actually was, rising up when music meant every part and was value dedicating your life to.

P.S. I didn’t learn “Final Likelihood Texaco” for classes, however I stored coming throughout knowledge and I need to share a few of it right here.

“She was a bully and bullies can solely eat the fearful.”

All of the mother and father complaining concerning the bullying of their youngsters don’t notice they should stand down and shut up. There are bullies all through life, and when you don’t discover ways to cope with them at a younger age, you’re going to be harm by them later. They prey in your worry. Stand as much as them and so they transfer on.

“‘The Lew King Present’ was my first lesson at nighttime corridors of the music biz, the place favors are exchanged and sins provided up as collateral.

…plus the various songs which might be solely sung in childhood however are remembered by just a few adults whose hearts preserve a chunk of the enchantment of their youth.”

She’s speaking concerning the early years, being on the playground, she’s not speaking concerning the hit parade, however these songs you sing at school. Like ‘Track of the Volga Boatmen’ and ‘Kookaburra Sits within the Outdated Gum Tree.’” Superb how they undergo my mind regularly.

“He wanted extra to life than survival.”

Bingo! That is it. Not solely would you like extra, however would you like what satisfies you as opposed to what’s secure.

“Dad is about residing proper now, having some good issues, assembly fascinating folks.”

My eyes bugged out. That is what it’s all about, the fascinating folks! Studying the place they got here from, what they should say, these interactions are extra satisfying than any possession.

“I knew higher than to ask twice.”

The {couples} therapist we see continually wonders why I by no means ask once more. Should you did so in my household, you have been hit, abused bodily and mentally, you realized to carry your tongue.

“I might by no means be the ‘seamstress for the band’ – I used to be the band.”

Not that my mother and father ever informed me this. Any person was all the time higher. However the shrink I noticed within the seventies informed me my dream of being an A&R man was specious, why not be president of the label? I nonetheless don’t suppose I’m adequate. And it wasn’t till possibly two years in the past that I spotted everyone else was simply regular, my mom all the time informed me they have been higher and who was I to suppose I may compete? By no means thoughts their opinion ruling.

“It’s an ideal second when the underdog turns into the alpha canine for a similar purpose she was as soon as the ‘ugly duckling.’”

Rickie Lee is named ugly, and it hurts. At this time your appears to be like are a key ingredient of your success, you’ll be able to’t even get your foot within the door when you’re not lovely.

“The Beatles have been the supply, the holy miracle that gave rise to the faith of the brand new hippie tradition. None that got here earlier than them (or after) had the Beatles spark that might encourage a complete era to dedicate themselves to music as their private salvation.”

You needed to be there to know.

“Maybe we develop out of individuals like we develop out of sneakers. They turn into uncomfortable, too unfastened or too tight. We keep in mind how a lot we favored them at first, however now they only don’t match. There is no such thing as a use saying good day backstage. We’d not keep in mind why it had ever mattered a lot. A tragic look, simply sufficient to interrupt the center. No, greatest depart it lie the place it fell. It was good, our journey collectively, however then we crossed a bridge, and it was over.”

You suppose friendship is meant to final ceaselessly. I’ve wrestled with this. However folks and conditions change.

“Extra goes into the phrases than what you propose.”

Your unconscious provides layers you’re not even conscious of.

“Within the decrease echelons, little favors imply every part. Respect is foreign money.”

Thank the stagehands and so they always remember you.

“Issues had been getting higher, so once I fell, I fell additional. It appeared as if they might by no means go my method. Getting nearer to the mountain had made the mountaintop appears unreachable. What had I been considering? Who did I feel I used to be?”

Artists have self-doubt. Should you’ve received none, you’re not an artist. Additionally, artists have a tough time protecting perspective, they will’t see what they’ve already gained, the perch they’re on.

“My deepest feelings are common; the additional inside myself I am going, the nearer I’m to mankind. After I sing, you’ll be able to hear your personal teardrops falling on my windowsill.”

I’ve been telling songwriters, prose writers, this for years. The private is common! However by some means they suppose by attempting to enchantment to everyone they will attain everyone, unsuitable. That’s why “Final Likelihood Texaco” is so good, it’s not written frightened about viewers notion, you’ll be able to relate to Rickie Lee’s private emotions.

“However even the best moments of life merely slide off our pores and skin with the lightness of fairy mud. They’re great however should not have weight. The best moments of life don’t embed just like the hurts of disappointment and tragedy.”

Win the gold medal and also you’re elated at present. However tomorrow? And you’ll keep in mind the dangerous overview, the loss from twenty years in the past, and really feel it almost as deeply.

“Should you’re broke you’ll be able to’t get a free something, however when you’ve received cash, folks provide you with every part without cost.

…since I had realized from my mother to cover good issues so no one may take them.”

I don’t inform folks about my victories, my triumphs, so I can personal the nice feeling. Others don’t have the suitable response, they don’t perceive what the wins imply to me, or they undercut them, and even worse they ignore them. This was what it was like for me rising up.

“My first lesson within the complicated methods cash hammers friendship.”

It’s all hunky-dory and you then make it and people surrounding you…need a few of what you’ve received, or resent you for having it.

“I had not but realized that each single second, each accomplishment, deserves a hallelujah and a smile to rejoice the right here and now of it (that’s like nowhere else). However when it’s over, nicely, it’s performed.”

The great emotions by no means final. They fade and turn into myths, you’re not even positive you skilled them.

“It has all the time been onerous for me to attend out anger. The unresolved is painful.”

The ready is the toughest half. We’re all on the lookout for decision. All of us have various levels to which we will deal with the dearth of decision. My fuse was once very brief, it’s gotten longer, however not by an entire hell of rather a lot.

“If an act insists on not altering and making the music viewers come to them they will find yourself an oldies act.”

Many individuals would possibly come to see you, however you’ll by no means have one other hit and also you’ll dread singing the identical rattling songs again and again each rattling night time.

“Present enterprise is the enterprise of exhibiting your life to the entire broad world.”

Know that up entrance. And she or he who exhibits essentially the most has one of the best odds of connecting with the general public.

“Fame was by no means meant for the fifteen-minute model. This troubadour life is just for the fiercest hearts, just for these vessels that may be damaged to smithereens and nonetheless preserve beating out the rhythm for a brand new track.”

~~~

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