¡ ! ¡ GhostyHead ¡ ! ¡
It has been 18 years since Rickie
Lee Jones breezed in with the eccentric bop of Chuck E.'s in Love. A one-hit
wonder
on radio, she has followed that spotlight moment with richly textured,
lyrical albums that draw from myriad musical
and verbal influences. She has eluded categorization throughout and probably
couldn't be more unique if she tried. So
does she try? "That's like asking a beautiful girl if she's purposefully
beautiful," she says in an e-mail reply. "I think I
have always been, personally, a bit offbeat. But I do not strive to be
weird in music." Ghostyhead, out June 17, borrows
modern aural elements without compromising an existing and distinctive
style. Jones incorporates trip-hop, electronica
and a host of effects but still sounds most like herself. Her honeyed voice,
which has gained considerable strength and
depth over the years, alternates between the strident and the ethereal.
Ghostyhead is her first all-new album since 1993's
Traffic From Paradise. (1995's Naked Songs, her understated entry in the
"unplugged" sweepstakes, featured stripped
down versions of her best songs.) Elements of her lyrical and musical vocabulary
pepper the work of many modern
singers. Jewel's Who Will Save Your Soul came from the rib of Chuck E.'s
in Love. And anyone hearing Sheryl Crow's
All I Want to Do at a noisy party might think it was an early Rickie Lee
outtake. She finds this kind of borrowing "gratifying,
but sometimes it can be bewildering." The obligatory Web site (http://www.ghostyhead.com),
to premiere with the album,
will contain more than standard promotional fodder. Jones' poems, stories
and miscellaneous faxes to friends will be posted,
and the site will be the only place listeners can access lyrics, which
aren't printed in the CD booklet. Jones, 42, has always
disliked printed lyrics and would prefer to omit them entirely, forcing
people to listen. This will certainly frustrate some
fans, as her diction isn't always clear. Jones' own writing, however, is
intended just to prime the pump. The idea is to create
a literary magazine, an on-line sponsor of poetry, prose and, perhaps,
multimedia manifestations of modern creativity. She's
wary of the on-line process, saying "advertising has quickly polluted
the water. I go into chat rooms and people are illiterate
or insulting or both. People have this marvelous opportunity to open amazing
dialogues, and all they have to say is, 'What
do you look like?' " That's a question she prefers to dodge. The skeletal
drawing on the Ghostyhead cover continues the
Jones tendency to obscure her image. Though her first album boasted a clear
head shot, attention was drawn to her beret
and cigarette, eclipsing any sense of her true appearance. Seeing her in
concert or on the street doesn't really clear things
up: She looks like all and none of her pictures, as if you need to see
her in motion to get the whole story. "I prefer people
do not know what I look like unless they are really involved in my music,"
she says. "Now, if someone knows me, they are
close to me, at least they have experienced their lives with the songs
I have written, and so I am not threatened by their
attention or advances." Still, she maintains a certain protective
wall. "When you least expect it, someone will say something
really cruel . . . and you'll have been open and unprepared. And the cruel
words will devastate you. Then you have to go on,
pick your kid up from school, talk to the people who work with you, buy
milk, you know, and you're wiped out. "So I keep
both the flattering stuff and the criticism out of my realm of thought.
But if you need to tell me where you were when you
heard some song, I will stop and listen." By Charles Bermant, Special
for USA TODAY Rickie Lee Jones was born in
Chicago and raised in Phoenix and Olympia, Washington. In 1973 she moved
to Los Angeles, performing original music
and spoken word pieces in local clubs. By the mid-70's, she had penned
such memorable early material as "Last Chance
Texaco" and "Easy Money," recorded by Lowell George. Signed
to Warner Bros. Records in 1978, she released her first
album Rickie Lee Jones, featuring the hits "Chuck E's. In Love"
and "Young Blood." She went on to win a Grammy for Best
New Artist of the Year and, in 1981, released her second album, the innovative
and influential Pirates. The artist subsequently
relocated to New York and Paris and in 1983 recorded a 7-song, 8-inch mini-album,
Girl At Her Volcano, featuring her
definitive rendition of "My Funny Valentine." It was followed
by The Magazine and an extensive round of touring, highlighted
a mix of musical and spoken-word performances. Five years later, following
the birth of her daughter, she signed to Geffen
Records and released Flying Cowboys, produced by Steely Dan's Walter Becker.
In 1990, she landed her second Grammy
for Best Jazz Vocal Performance with "Makin' Whoopee," a duet
with Dr. John.