I finished Rickie Lee Jones' autobiography last weekend, Last Chance Texaco.
I wasn't all that familiar with her personal life outside of some real generalities so this was so very insightful and interesting. Some of the writing was so poetic I felt like I was reading song lyrics in the making.
I have to say as someone that grew up when I did (which was much later than Ms. Jones' formative years) reading about her youth made me very uncomfortable. The narrative takes up about half the real estate of the book. I am not saying that her choices were bad, I mean really I think that they were her choices and I am in a way grateful for her openess and seeming giving nature to write about them. But... and here is my big but... reading about how basically she was a teenage runaway at 14 made me really sad for her childhood. She writes very openly about it. So many risks, so many chances and so many drugs. I don't want to dismiss that. It was really difficult to read for me at times. I had to set the book aside more than once.
The bulk of the book does to me read like a teenage road memoir and in that way it's interesting but for others it may not be. It wasn't triggering for me like it could be for others. I want to say this one more thing about that... her parents must have been so completely exasperated by that behavior and it really shows their deep love for their daughter to come and get her from where she landed as many times as they did. She was very fortunate. I don't want to say that she seemed ungrateful but she never outright says "wow was I glad my Dad drove from Arizona to California to get me when I called". That was sad to me.
Her career and musical highlights crammed to the end and her later life really was what I think I was more familiar with. But of course only small elements of it so it was interesting to her side of the industry. The last part of her life (say the last 15 to 20 years) was jammed into the last chapter. No fault of the author, life sometimes just happens that way.
A few years back we were fortunate enough to see Rickie Lee Jones on tour performing some hits. Some I knew, others I didn't. At that time the book was supposed to be released and was not. So I have to think that the book was reedited and maybe the first part of the book was what would have been released. The very last chapters seemed like an afterthought, maybe it's because it's more about the present? I am not sure.
I so enjoyed hearing about her desires (from men to getting her publishing and owning her songs outright - musicians out there.... take a very valuable lesson here) and navigating the harsh and vicious music industry. She is a VERY strong woman, with a very individual voice that comes through. She has shared a life that many of us can not even remotely understand. It was fascinating. I also have to say when I finished the book, I called my parents and let them know how grateful I am for my time as a kid and how supportive they were. I was inspired by that so I had to call and say" thank you" because that seemed missing in this book. I may have missed it in my frustration not sure to be candid.
I was also a little bummed out that some credit wasn't given to photographers. Ms. Jones references a VERY well known photo and doesn't give credit to the photographer... so I will do so now... His name is Adrian Boot. His photography is amazing. Check him out too.
I so very much appreciate being provided with the preview copy... and I did enjoy the book enough to buy a hard copy for our library.
It is a recommended book. If anything to go back to a time that I don't have any life experience with. I watched her SNL appearances, I revisited the first album and I have learned so much more about an artist that I didn't know much about. It's a beautiful read about some difficult subjects that I know I will want to reread again.
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