Last chance Texaco : chronicles of an American troubadour / Rickie Lee Jones.

Title :

Last chance Texaco : chronicles of an American troubadour

Author:

Jones, Rickie Lee,

Format:

Books

Summary:

"A tender and intimate memoir by one of the most remarkable, trailblazing, and tenacious women in music, the two-time Grammy Award-winning "premiere song-stylist and songwriter of her generation" (New Yorker), Rickie Lee Jones. Have you met Ms. Jones? One weekend night on primetime television, a then-unknown singer and vital part of the burgeoning Los Angeles jazz pop scene skyrocketed to fame overnight after a now- iconic performance on Saturday Night Live. The year was 1979, the song "Chuck E's in Love," and the singer, donning her trademark red beret, was the soon-to-be-pronounced "Duchess of Coolsville" (Time), Rickie Lee Jones. Last Chance Texaco is the first-ever no-holds-barred account of the life of one of rock's hardest working women, in her own words. With candor and lyricism Rickie Lee Jones takes us on the journey of her exceptional life: from her nomadic childhood as the granddaughter of vaudevillian performers, to her father's abandonment of the family and her years as a teenage runaway, her beginnings at LA's Troubadour club, to her tumultuous relationship with Tom Waits, her battle with drugs, and longevity as a woman in rock and roll. These are never-before-told stories of the girl in "the raspberry beret," a songwriter who has inspired American culture for decades"--

Language:

English

ISBN - ISSN:

9780802127129

0802127126

Physical Description:

xviii, 364 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm

Contents:

Introduction : a prelude to gravity -- The back seat -- Riding shotgun -- Driver's seat -- The way back seat.

Subject:

Women rock musicians -- United States -- Biography.

Women singers -- United States -- Biography.

Rock musicians -- United States -- Biography.

Singers -- United States -- Biography.

Rock musicians.

Singers.

Women rock musicians.

First Title value, for Searching:

Last chance Texaco : chronicles of an American troubadour / Rickie Lee Jones.

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Library	Audience	Home Location	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Floating Collection	Adult	Biography	Book	B J78	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Heights	Adult	Biography	Book	B J78	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Kendall	Adult	Biography	Book	B J78	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

"Book of the Year." -- MOJO Magazine

"Outstanding Book of the Year." -- The Herald (Glasgow)

A Best Book of the Year by NPR, Pitchfork, The Telegraph , and Uncut

A tender and intimate memoir by one of the most remarkable, trailblazing, and tenacious women in music, the two-time Grammy Award-winning "premiere song-stylist and songwriter of her generation" (Hilton Als), Rickie Lee Jones.

This troubadour life is only for the fiercest hearts, only for those vessels that can be broken to smithereens and still keep beating out the rhythm for a new song.

Last Chance Texaco is the first-ever no-holds-barred account of the life of two-time Grammy Award-winner Rickie Lee Jones in her own words. It is a tale of desperate chances and impossible triumphs, an adventure story of a girl who beat the odds and grew up to become one of the most legendary artists of her time, turning adversity and hopelessness into timeless music.

With candor and lyricism, the "Duchess of Coolsville" (Time) takes us on a singular journey through her nomadic childhood, to her years as a teenage runaway, through her legendary love affair with Tom Waits and ultimately her longevity as the hardest working woman in rock and roll. Rickie Lee's stories are rich with the infamous characters of her early songs - "Chuck-E's in Love," "Weasel and the White Boys Cool," "Danny's All-Star Joint," and "Easy Money"-- but long before her notoriety in show business, there was a vaudevillian cast of hitchhikers, bank robbers, jail breaks, drug mules, a pimp with a heart of gold and tales of her fabled ancestors.

In this tender and intimate memoir by one of the most remarkable, trailblazing, and tenacious women in music are never-before-told stories of the girl in the raspberry beret, a singer-songwriter whose music defied categorization and inspired American pop culture for decades.

Author Notes

RICKIE LEE JONES has released seventeen record albums and received two Grammy Awards. She lives in New Orleans.

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Two-time Grammy Award--winning singer Jones delivers a crackling debut memoir recounting her roving early years. Coming of age in a struggling family of orphans and artists in Arizona, her worldview was shaped by the cultural upheaval of the 1960s as well as the trauma she inherited from her veteran father and narrowly escaped as a hitchhiking runaway. "Some of us are born to live lives on an exaggerated scale," writes Jones. Divided into driving-themed sections, she begins with her childhood in "The Back Seat" and makes it to the "Driver's Seat" when her career as a singer-songwriter took off in 1979. Her travels informed tracks like "Easy Money" and "Night Train," with help from a world of edgy characters and lovers who became her muses. ("We were religions, we converted to each other," she writes of her romance with Tom Waits.) Threading her account with song lyrics, Jones creates a narrative soundtrack of her influences, including Crosby, Stills & Nash, Marvin Gaye, and Laura Nyro. From a harrowing affair with heroin to bold career risks--for instance, not budging when SNL's Lorne Michael said her set might be cut short--Jones depicts both the pitfalls and bravery of living with nothing to lose. Wise and gorgeous, this story is as poetic as the songs that made Jones famous. (Apr.)

Kirkus Review

A memoir from the veteran singer and songwriter whose long career has involved plenty of ups and downs. Born in Chicago in 1954, Jones begins with vivid stories of her early childhood in Arizona, where her family moved in 1959. Throughout, she proves herself as engaging a storyteller on the page as in her songs. A peripatetic family life took her through countless schools. "Constant moving was my parents' version of running away," she writes, "and this inclination was reinforced in me every year of my life." She began hitchhiking early in her teens and was kicked out of high school, labeled "an undesirable element" by the reactionary vice principal, "the real life version of Dean Wormer of Animal House." But California hippie culture awaited, and more good luck than bad considering her propensity for taking risks and numerous illicit substances--though the latter eventually bit back hard. "I was living a life enchanted by impossible connections, narrow escapes, and the perfect timing of curiously strong coincidences," she writes, recounting the time she bumped into her cousin at a Jimi Hendrix concert. The great passions of her pop-star years--Lowell George, Dr. John, and, most of all, Tom Waits--still inspire dreamy prose arpeggios. "Now we were religions, we converted to each other, we inspired each other and we spoke in tongues," she writes about Waits. "He growled, I cooed. He softened, I growled….We were jellyfish, floating from day to night." Sadly, however, "the apex of my love life corresponds to the apex of my career success, and unfortunately my success corresponded with my drug use." The high times petered out by 1983, when she quit drugs and "headed to France." She chronicles her life since then, including marriage and motherhood, in just a few pages--a wise editorial choice. Men leave, fame fizzles, family breaks your heart…but Jones knows a good story and how to tell it. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Even after all these years, her image remains the same: elusive, mysterious, cool. Her physical presence is also indelible: a sleek singer-songwriter in a red beret. But Grammy--winning Rickie Lee Jones' life has not been as polished as her music. In her lyrical memoir, she writes about her rootless childhood as the granddaughter of vaudevillian performers, her difficult years as a teenage runaway, and her battles with drugs and other demons. But there was always music. "Performing is a religious experience for me," she writes. She also shares her stormy relationship with that other idiosyncratic troubadour, Tom Waits, and tales of her early gigs at L.A.'s famous Troubadour club, of friends and lovers, cowriters and producers, from Dr. John and Lowell George to a particularly weird encounter with Van Morrison. A nomad at heart, Jones has spent most of her life in cars, vans, and buses, traveling the world "via my thumb and VW Microbus" and even the now-gone Concorde. Jones was an old soul before she was even an adult. With gorgeous prose ("I did drugs like I did everything else. On fire, with no back door") interspersed with her lyrics, this is as distinctive as she is, a rich, bracing, and candid memoir dancing with the love of language.

Library Journal Review

Jones, a relatively unknown performer, shot to recognition overnight in 1979 with a legendary performance on Saturday Night Live, thanks to her captivating voice and distinctive red beret. A Grammy Award for Best New Artist and multiple covers of Rolling Stone magazine quickly followed. Jones takes readers on her wild journey to stardom in this memoir of her youth and early career. Her youth was transient, as she crisscrossed the country with her family until finally settling in the Pacific Northwest. As a teenager, she suffered from suburban malaise and ran away from home several times, even living in a Big Sur cave. Like her music, Jones's anecdotes bop with immediacy and are filled with unsavory--but somehow sweet--characters such as bank robbers, pimps, and drug dealers. In spite of her troubles, she is generous toward her family and her many collaborators. VERDICT Fans will enjoy this buoyant coming-of-age narrative by one of music's most idiosyncratic performers.--Amanda Westfall, Emmet O'Neal P.L., Mountain Brook, AL

Excerpts

The day of the show . . . I showed up early for the rehearsal. a lot of sitting around. The artist early in the morning, let's be sure to make them as uncomfortable as possible. I wore a blue kimono and my sweat pants. I just realized I dress about the same today. My Chinese shoes and my red beret. There was a photographer there, he introduced himself, "I was hired by your record company," he said. So I did not kick him out. I was telling jokes to the crew guys, I was really calm, and loved the feeling of excitement that just about was overwhelming. It was my day. Sound checks over, I went to eat and came back . . . one more run through with the whole show, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, while the two blues brothers were gone making a movie. I was not a fan of SNL, I didn't dislike it, I just didn't care about the silly skits. The bees. The sharks. I didn't get it. But it was huge. Huge, the single most influential show--musically--on TV, for many years. My debut was about to make all that had come before child's play. Excerpted from Rickie Lee by Rickie Lee Jones All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.