DON´T LOSE THAT NUMBER

“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

As you know, we are in the process of building a bigger bookshelf. The pile of books in the corner of my office is floor to ceiling and half way up for a second time, so there is some urgency.

The book that is currently top of the pile is 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 (left) 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.

photo 2 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 (right) 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.

image

“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

As you know, we are in the process of building a bigger bookshelf. The pile of books in the corner of my office is floor to ceiling and half way up for a second time, so there is some urgency.

The book that is currently top of the pile is 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.

photo 2 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.

image

Title                        Last Chance Texaco

Author                    Ricke Lee Jones

Price                        16.74

Publisher                 Grove Press

Publication Date   5^th April 2022

Pages                      384

Dimensions             5.5 X 8.2 X 1.2 inches | 0.85 pounds

Language                 Englsih

Type                         Paperback

EAN/UPC                9780802159854

Rickie Lee Jones has released around twenty record albums and received two Grammy Awards. She lives in New Orleans.

Jones released his first self-titled album in 1979. In addition to Chuck E.’s in love , which peaked at #4 on the Billboard chart, Young Blood was released as a single , which peaked at #40. The album itself rose to #3 in sales in the US, and also had notable success in the UK (#18) and Australia (#1). The artist appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine and she earned five Grammy Award nominations , in which she ultimately won Best New Artist in January 1980 .

Jones refused to work on the soundtrack for the film that Francis Ford Coppola was preparing at the time, Hunch , for which he already had Tom Waits, from whom the artist had recently separated. In 1981, after a world tour, Jones settled in New York and released a second studio album, Pirates.. The lyrics of some of the songs suggest that the record is a response to the breakup of Jones and Waits; Without achieving the commercial success of their debut album, this album garnered very positive reviews and sold well in the UK, where it peaked at #18 on the charts, and in the US, where it peaked at #5 on Billboard and spawned three singles: Pirates (So Long Lonely Avenue) (#40), Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking (#31) and A Lucky Guy (#65). Jones returned to be the cover of Rolling Stone and embarked on a new international tour in 1982 , after which she settled in San Francisco .

Those of us who admire her for undertaking eclectic challenges and for constantly seeking to advance her music think of her as an important writer and something of a musical chameleon. It would be true to say though that might not have fopund anything more commercial in her canon

However, it might be argued that many people who found something extraordinary and infectious in Check E´s In Love who have.felt subsequently disappointed

The song Ricke Don´t Lose That Number added intrigue to the public perception of Lee Jones.

Remember how often we speak of those names that simply fall out in conversation? Rickie lee Jones´name often falls out in conversation in a small circle of friends in the UK  in love with Americana and its singer-writers.

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