a Rickie Lee Jones fan
April 24th, 2006 by Patti
A long time fan of Rickie Lee Jones - since my late teens - my mind was hunting for her name during the closing tiltes of Friends with Money. It is Rickie Lee sounding a bit like she is singing with the Rolling Stones, only Mick has a sore throat, so she is doing all the singing. The song is Circles in the Sand - and it takes me back, back in time. Back to sandy feet and foot long rainbow taffy. Back to simpler times and easier money.
Great to hear her - 2 new tracks in the movie: Circles in the Sand and Hillbilly Song. The movie, starring Jennifer Aniston, was generally depressing. But I left upbeat with the echo of Jones lyrics.
I completely enjoy the way music can take you places. No airfare. No luggage. Just quick glimpses of you, your friends, rockin’ out while driving along the beach. In another time. In a familiar place. I can feel the sunshine. I can smell the sea. I can hear the laughter. One song can truly transcend me. Heart racing. Fingers drumming. Eyes inviting others to smile. To share this memory, right here, right now.
If you cannot get away this coming May, pull out your LP’s, CD’s, MP3’s and dig up a song, or a musician and take a free trip on the 70’s.
Question for you. Have you been to a concert outdside of the countrry you live in? If so - where? What was different about your experience?
April 26th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
Sad story. I went to a Whitney Houston concert in London in 1988 and she came out VERY LATE and appeared drunk OR very, very silly, laughing… off beat to the music, you name it. THEN, she said, “I’m the best thing that’s come along since the Beatles…” and she was literally BOO’d off the stage until she came back on saying she was kidding. Looks like poor Whitney had problems with drugs (or something!) way back… I also snuck my camera into a George Michael concert (also in London) and got some great photos from the video he did LIVE for MTV… I took my mom when she came and visited and snuck the camera in her purse to which they never searched HER for it! HA! At the time, George was VERY popular and the fans were crazy… it was a riot. (it was also a very long time ago!)
September 8th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
Before leaving for Spain I was standing with a rather intense musical savant out side a bar here in Berkeley, I had been a periphriel member of the acoustic music scene that where this Blazing insane guitar boy amazes his friends & audience with feats of daring Insanity, He told me of this small place in Seville to hear Flamenco in its truth. Carbonaria he said, you have to go to the Carbonaria. After a rigorous drive from Toledo to Seville my compainon crashed into a 24 hour Snooze Leaving me to my hyperactive wanderlust. I can sleep Anytime. In Spain I was speeding on the new sites smells & sounds. No Sleep. I can back in Oakland.
I Left the hotel at 9:00pm & walked through the emptying shopping district, through plazas. across boulevards Past the sleeping Alcazar & the ever watchful Giralda. Tourist Map in hand A dreadlocked black woman following the narrowing streets alone. Labryntine streets with opned to a lovely large plaza with Gaslights & white roses on Laced in elegant synetrical vines on the plaza. the scent of Oranges & roses was overpowering & I believed that this was the lovliest place on earth. i hear Flamenco coming from a Brightly lit niteclub complete with glowing show card. No this wasnt hat my friend told me of.
I kept walking til I found the smell of woodfires. An imposing dorway & Dim sign told me this was my destination. Entering the warm room was like unto a swoon people were sitting & talking at rough tables & chairs beside the roughhewn fireplace. the entire place was consumed in wood fires & Cigarette smoke & the vibe was intimate yet animated.
I went to the next room with , Its corrugated walls puzzled me as did the long tables & barely distinguisable stage. I went to the bar & ordered the innocent looking Sangria (rife with Brandy & oranges in a tall glass). at 11:00 the group took the stage. Dark men & women, no dancers, the strains of the North african drone & the Intricacy of spanish guitars. no sequins …. no Amplifiers no drums … Handclaps & the Clarion voice of the womans singing. I drew closer & closer to the stage as they continued this music, brought forth from centuries of European & North African confluence all washing up on this humble stage. The muse kept me company training my ear to the shifting harmonies & middleastern scales set against the strict strum patterns of Flamenco. The Rythm, strictly prompted Handclaps. the Music shifting Swelling with the womens voice swelling into soaring wailing reminding me of the Muslim & jewish prayers I’d heard gowing up in Brooklyn., I was a long way from brooklyn or cambridge or berkeley I was in Spain & in the heart of Duende, The Carboneria I found out later is a cultural center devoted to keeping the spitit (DUENDE) of Flamenco alive. There are lessons in Dance & Guitar. On the next night I dragged my copmanion there again & was told that the previous night has been a true Gypsy performance. I’ll never forget it though. I can hear it still.
five years later I find myself at a Guerga in the Santa Cruz mountains here in northern cali. The Maestro Juan DeGustor is brilliantly playing. & I am in converation with his wife. she asks me If I have heard much Flamenco. i told her no. Only played by friends & I recounted this memory. She Smiled at me & told me that I’d found the heart of Flamenco. wow. Thanks for giving me a chance to write this down. Peace… Coda
January 24th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
RICKIE LEE JONES IN CHICAGO!!!
at the Portage Theater
Saturday, February 24
September 12th, 2007 at 7:45 am
Hello, nice post. Bookmark it.
December 7th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Hello.—————- there come a- time -in everybody’s life that they experience this fact! { “A cry in the wildernese is a Beacon for new horizon’s” qoute of chuck Kodatt’s} With the exposition , What are your comment’s? I believe you are a most beautiful woman in all regards and Yes I Underatand You! I want and am Thanking You!!!!!!!!!! Charles L. Kodatt ( Forestood)