You can understand why the March 1979 US debut album "Rickie Lee Jones" on Warner Brothers caused the stir it did. Great tunes, seriously sleek production values that have made it an audiophile darling ever since and of course the half-bum half-hipster persona of Rickie that captured people right off the bat. It helped too that "Rickie Lee Jones" had "Chuck E.'s In Love" as a bona-fide storming single.
But spare a thought for the equally stunning follow-up album "Pirates" from July 1981 (also on Warner Brothers) that never seems to get the worship-at-your-feet accolades it so deserves - despite a Top 5 placing on the US Billboard Rock Albums chart. Maybe because it's because platter number two didn't have that killer single cut – I don't know - but I have adored this beautifully sophisticated singer-songwriter masterpiece for over 40 years now and its time I laid my yacht-rock bruised-and-disco-cruised heart down for the Sad-Eyed Sinatra's (keep the shirts I bought ya boys).
Oddly - outside of Rhino's 3CD Rickie Lee Jones career overhaul "Duchess Of Coolsville" in 2005 which has 5 of this LP's 8 tracks and expensive/deleted Mobile Fidelity Audiophile Ultra II CDs - both of these great albums have remained 'un-remastered' in singular form for the average Joe to buy with ease for decades since. So we have go to Japan - and that's where this superb SHM-CD reissue comes a bopping in - or as RLJ would say...James Dean is in the doorway...Natalie Wood is custom tucked...we got a radio that hurts and this is no game of chicken. Here are the rapping the fat scat details...
Released 12 June 2012 - "Pirates" on Warner Brothers Japan WPCR-14509 (Barcode 4943674118397) is a straightforward reissue/new remaster of the album on the SHM-CD format and breaks down as follows (39:08 minutes):
1. We Belong Together [Side 1]
2. Living it Up
3. Skeletons
4. Woody And Dutch On The Slow Train To Peking
5. Pirates (So Long Lonely Avenue) [Side 2]
6. A Lucky Guy
7. Traces Of The Western Slopes
8. The Returns
Tracks 1 to 8 are her second studio album "Pirates" - released July 1981 in the USA on Warner Brothers BSK 3432 and June 1979 in the UK on Warner Brothers K 56816. Produced by LENNY WARONKER and RUSS TITELMAN – it peaked at No. 5 in the USA and No. 37 in the UK.
MUSICIANS included:
Neil Larsen, Clarence McDonald, Russell Ferrante, Randy Kerber with Donald Fagen of Steely Dan on Keyboards
Buzzy Feiton, David Kalish, Dean Parks and Steve Lukather on Guitars
Tom Scott, Randy Brecker and David Sanborn on Horns
Chuck Rainey on Bass
Steve Gadd, Art Rodriguez, Lenny Castro with Victor Feldman on Drums and Percussion
Sal Bernardi, Arno Lucas, Joe Turano, Leslie Smith on Vocals
Strings Arranged by Nick DeCaro and Ralph Burns
A SHM-CD doesn't require a special CD player to play it on (compatible on all) nor does it need audiophile kit to hear the benefits. It's a new form of the format that picks up the nuances of the transfer better (top quality make). I own about 15 of them and they're uniformly superb. The 5" Mini LP Repro Sleeve is typical of Japanese quality - beautifully rendered (quite what they mean by 'Light Mellow 2012' on the outer sticker is anybody's guess). The black and white 20-page booklet inside has the lyrics in English and Japanese and little else by way of credits (who remastered what and where). But a nice touch is a repro of the Inner Sleeve that came with original vinyl copies - a photo of RLJ on one-side and musician credits on the other. The SHM-CD has the Warner Brothers cream-coloured label of the time and a protective plastic to hold the slightly heavier SHM-CD in the repro inner sleeve (lovely attention to detail...as there always is with these Japanese reissues).
But the big news is the sound... Once again Produced by Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman and Mastered by Lee Herschberg - the audio values originally laid down over four decades ago get to shine in such a sweetly subtle way – a beautiful remaster on SHM-CD that brings out all that world class playing. The chopping and changing and rhythm-popping that take place in the eight-minute Steely Dan complicated extravaganza that is "Traces Of The Western Slopes" over on Side 2 demands serious image control – and you get it here – along with all those speaker to speaker Horn and Keyboard jabs.
Side 1 opens with a magnificently arranged "We Belong Together" and along with "Pirates (So Long Lonely Avenue)" that opens Side 2 – both have always blown me away (Donald Fagen of Steely Dan and Rob Mounsey man the Synths for the latter). The huge slap bass of the great fun "Woody And Dutch..." threatens your spoken cones and I am shocked at the clarity and delicacy of the De Caro arranged strings on "The Returns" that ends Side 2 – a female Tom Waits to rival the great master over on Asylum Records (they dated once and she is the girl on the cover of his "Blue Valentine" album). Sure there is a faint whiff of hiss on "The Returns" and "Skeletons" but it is nothing to detract. "A Lucky Guy" and "Living it Up" seem to offer up more too each time you play them.
Rickie Lee Jones won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1979 and her follow-up albums "Pirates" (1981) and "The Magazine" (1984) articulated even more stunning emotional soundtracks – her second album especially opting for longer songs and richer arrangements and being all the better for it.
You could of course argue that you simply buy the "Duchess Of Coolsville" triple CD anthology and get a lot more bang for your bucks - but this is one of those occasions where only the 'whole album' will suffice. It doesn't just sound good - it is 'all' good...
The Light Mellow 2012 Japanese SHM-CD Reissue Series
for RICKIE LEE JONES
1. "Rickie Lee Jones" (1979), Warner Brothers Japan WPCR-14508 – use Barcode 4943674118373 to locate the right issue
2. "Pirates" (1981), Warner Brothers Japan WPCR-14509 - use Barcode 4943674118397 to locate the right issue
3. "The Magazine" (1983), Warner Brothers Japan WPCR-14510 - use Barcode 4943674118403 to locate the right issue
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