This is another one of my favorites by Rickie. She has such a unique voice. You can hear her influence on artists like Sheryl Crow and Lisa Loeb.
Did you know?
"Rickie Lee Jones was born on the north side of Chicago to Bettye and Richard Jones. Her paternal grandfather, Frank Jones, the son a West Virginia dry goods store owner, lost a leg as a young boy, playing by the railroad tracks. This handicap would become an asset on stage, when Frank 'Peg Leg Jones' became a Vaudevillian of some notoriety, A singer/dancer/comedian, Peg Leg Jones routine consisted of playing the ukelele, singing songs like 'Bye Bye Blackbird' and 'The Sunny Side of the Street', danced the soft shoe, and telling stories in a Civil War costume.
His wife, Myrtle Lee, a chorus girl, had been adopted into a Virginia family, and while her ethnic origin is unknown, Frank was Welsh and Irish. The family traveled the Vaudeville circuit with their four children, making Chicago their home when not on the road. Richard Loris, the third child, returned to Chicago after four years in the army in WW II. There he met Rickie Lee's mother, Bettye Glen. Rickie was the third child, named after her father and grandmother, spending her early childhood in Chicago. Her elder brother and sister spent formative years in catholic boarding schools, before their father moved the family to Phoenix in 1960.
Rickie grew up in the wide open spaces of Arizona, a powerful imagery that would haunt much of her writing throughout her life. Her early childhood was spent in the company of imaginary friends. Her elder sister was married at the age of 15, while her elder brother was severely hurt in a motorcycle accident at the age of 16. The young Rickie Lee struggled socially, the itinerant outside, the family moving and changing schools every year or two. Luckily she was a gifted student, though teachers reported that she 'daydreamed' all day. It was hard enough being new, but having a name like 'Rickie' put her on the defensive in each new school. Like a boy named Sue, perhaps, Rickie got tough or died and her sense of self was indisputable. This uniqueness of character would eventually find a home on stage. By 1966, her father had become a violent alcoholic. Bettye, on the other hand, had an intrinsic strength that carried the family no matter what befell them, perhaps due largely to her own childhood spent in orphanages with her three brothers.
She vowed her children would never know poverty and would have a chance to do everything she could not. Richard, it seemed, provided the dreams and Betty provided the food. She often worked two shifts at her waitress jobs and made sure her children wanted for nothing. By the age of twelve, Rickie Lee had studied ballet and tap, acting, modeling, and was an AAU swimmer. When she ran away from home in 1969, she enrolled in Little Theater in Phoenix."
