The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, June 07, 1979, Page Page 9, Image 9
Evi
HnBBHHBIKnAll/MK - <
7 Tom Robinson, The Shirts. .
8 Jacksons, Sister Sledge, Foj
1 0 Eddie Rabbitt
16 Patti LaBelle
22 Journey, Sweet
22 Kiss
23 Kenny Rogers
24 Kiss
25 Yes
26 Kiss
29 Aretha Franklin, Ashford c S
Bar-Kays, Peabo Bryson, Ric
30 (ifinrop Rflncnn Honico Willi
Chic, Rose Royce, B. B. Kin$
2 Waylon Jennings
4 Peaches and Herb
7 Crystal Gayle
20 Kinks
2 1 Kinks
29 Bay City Rollers
c i r -A-.
J LUII uorrczu
18 Dolly Parton
27 Steve Martin
ALSO COMING: Blondi
... a non-pr
ventune c
Social C
Ca&o LiVI
veqetaK/'an menu
fme^ fie&rz <$c
a twosphexALs
HtaCii
}Q BLujj fiv"
Thursday
W
fMUIC nil <
CAROL Bl
BROWN
zryone's
?;v J"'"' ?V- ?*"s"i r-";""'"'vr ";g|U*
: -
nss
JUNE
Agora Ballroom, Atlanta
<y Charlotte Coliseum
Ovens Auditorium, Charlotte
Fox Theatre, Atlanta
Greensboro Coliseum
Carolina Coliseum
Carowinds
P rvlioni i rv>
IUI IVJllti V>ui IOUUI I I
Omni, Atlanta
Greenville Memorial Auditorium
impson,
:k James Atlanta Stadium
ams,
3 Atlanta Stadium
JULY
Carowinds
Carowinds
Carowinds
Fox Theatre, Atlanta
Fox Theatre, Atlanta
Carowinds
AUGUST
Carowinds
Carowinds
Carowinds
e, Pattie Smith Group, The Bee Gees
10fit, coopeRat i ve
>epicatep to
kantfe in 5outh
<x . . . us c
VHALEY sr. ^
Is i>
I > u
/ C/\
-v. J >K ^
v* ca
-s
771-9999
Friday Saturday
V (J4L (UK
rMliu1 OIII nuiir t/m
.UEGRASS DRINK
NIGHT SMALL I
in love wit
By Lehman Stiles
Asst. Entertainment Editor
Sometimes an album comes seemingly from out of
the blue, totally devoid of musical precedents. Who
could have predicted Costello's My Aim is True or
George Thorogood's Move It On Over? These sudden
breaks in the course of musical evolution are always
intriguing and attention-getting, and Rickie Lee
Jones on her debut has created just such an album,
full of charm and mystery.
Jones doesn't sound like any other popular music
performer, but some comparisons are appropriate.
She has the tricky lyric snap of Randy Newman (who
plays synthesizer on one cut) and the brooding,
highly detailed descriptiveness of Dire Straits' Mark
Knopf ler.
But Jones' performing style is all her own, with a
voice that ranges from a playful, bluesy ad-libbing to
an almost classical style in the upper register. She
uses the styles interchangeably, adding to the
delightful ambiguity that permeates the album.
Thrnnah all this .Innpc manacfpc tn punlrp an almnct
v ...wv.fjx.u "V v"^ M"?VUV
religious aura; she conforms to every accepted
standard of humanity while she plays dangerously
close to the slums and back streets.Through Jones
a voice that ranges from
classical stv/e..."
w - the
hot jazz licks and long, empty highways gain
redemption, and she testifies to their overpowering
reality.
And it is impossible to ignore Jones' innocence in
songs like "On Saturday Afternoons in 1963": "So
hold on to your special friend; here you'll need
CAmafhinrt f a l/nnrv Imr iri " lannp' rf Anr ?c* nr?r* nf
ounivviiiiig iv iiv-i in uunto oiui y is uuc ui
images shattered and dreams deferred; she sets
herself up to knock herself down, creating in the
process an allegory for all of human life.
The street people who live in her songs are
basically all echoes of each other, of a lost virginity
that is doomed and blessed to remain ambiguous:
"City will make you dirty, but you look alright; you
feel real pretty when he's holding you tight."
This startling mix of innocence and experience
infuses these songs with a static energy that Jones
evokes perfectly with her singing. The images, highly
personal and vague, are sung with such intimate
freedom that we accept them although we can't share
Fitnn cq A
IW W % 9 W w W W W*
| For M<
901 HrtRDCN ST.
(N rfR OLD c ^
| PH. 799-8385 v
u
ii ciuiicd
them. We hear the currents of basic human existence
flowing beneath the songs; we feel that, somewhere,
we have encountered the images before.
The album opens with "Chuck E.'s in Love," the
successful single that is the album's most ap
proachable cut. The description of Chuck's change in
behavior ("He sure is acquired a cool and inspired
sorta jazz when he walk") is both touchingly funny
and universally recognizable.
"Easy Money" is a typical example of Jones'
ability to match subject and style; a story about a
blackmail setup that falls through is sung as if it were
being told by one hooker to another on some dark
street corner and ends with a street-wise observation:
"There ain't no man who got the money in
his hand who got any of that bread bein' slow in the
head; there ain't no such thing as Easy Money.''
Side one closes with "Last Chance Texaco," an
allegory that would be almost sophomoric were it not
done in Jones' tender, innocent, searrhiny stvle Its
image of life as a constant string of last chances, a
neverending highway on which each mile is a
calculated risk, strikes a deep and responsive note
for a generation that has consigned itself to being
continually on the road.
Jones proves that she is no stranger to classic blues
bluesy ad-libbing to an almost
style on the side two opener, "Danny's All-Star
Joint," the imagery of which is delightfully familiar
and honest: "Downstairs at Danny's All-Star Joint
they gotta juke box that goes doyt-doyt." Following is
"Coolsville," a moody, impressionist piece that
conveys a haunting sense of social decay.
The album closes, in "After Hours'' (Twelve Bars
Past Goodnight)," with the lines "and all the gang
has gone home, and I'm standing on the corner - all
alone." Jones has captured something essential
about America here, the fact that it both worships
and brutally destroys innocence at the same time. We
are left on lonely corners; our only hope is that we
can choose which street to take. We take to the road
again and again, leaving all the Coolsvilles and
Texaco stations behind, and we search. Rickie I^ee
Jones helps light the way and makes it a little more
pleasant with her debut album, a roadsign pointing
lowara a irigntlully unknown but constantly hopeful
future.
?
g
MeroDic Clinic hw
en and Women I
C,C- INTOKeCTION C NT R
(N rtR MM 90L0PMN)
PH. 77Q-9607