Jump to content

Pirates (Rickie Lee Jones album): Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous edit
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
GreenC bot (talk | contribs)
Bots
2,517,471 edits
 
(42 intermediate revisions by 25 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Refimprove|date=March 2012}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox album | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Albums -->
{{Infobox album
| Name = Pirates
| name = Pirates
| Type = [[Album]]
| type = [[Album]]
| Artist = [[Rickie Lee Jones]]
| artist = [[Rickie Lee Jones]]
| Cover = Pirates - Rickie Lee Jones.jpg
| cover = Rickie Lee Jones - Pirates.png
| Released = July 15, 1981
| alt =
| Recorded = January 1980 - April 1981
| released = July 15, 1981
| recorded = January 1980 – April 1981
| Genre = [[Rock (music)|Rock]]
| Length = 38:38
| venue =
| Label = [[Warner Bros.]]
| studio = Warner Bros. Recording Studios, North Hollywood, California
| Producer = [[Lenny Waronker]], [[Russ Titelman]]
| genre = [[Rock (music)|Rock]]
| length = 38:38
| Last album = ''[[Rickie Lee Jones (album)|Rickie Lee Jones]]'' <br /> (1979)
| label = [[Warner Records|Warner Bros.]]
| This album = '''''Pirates''''' <br /> (1981)
| producer = {{hlist|[[Lenny Waronker]]|[[Russ Titelman]]}}
| Next album = ''[[Girl at Her Volcano]]'' <br /> (1983)
| prev_title = [[Rickie Lee Jones (album)|Rickie Lee Jones]]
| prev_year = 1979
| next_title = [[Girl at Her Volcano]]
| next_year = 1983
}}
}}


'''''Pirates''''' is the second [[album]] by [[Chicago]]-born singer, songwriter, and musician [[Rickie Lee Jones]], released in July 1981, two years after her eponymous debut ''[[Rickie Lee Jones (album)|Rickie Lee Jones]].'' The album is partially an account of her break-up with fellow musician [[Tom Waits]] after the success of her debut album. The cover is a 1976-copyrighted photo by [[Brassaï]].
'''''Pirates''''' is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter [[Rickie Lee Jones]], released on July 15, 1981, by [[Warner Records|Warner Bros. Records]]. The follow-up to her 1979 [[Rickie Lee Jones (album)|self-titled debut album]], ''Pirates'' is partially an account of her break-up with fellow musician [[Tom Waits]] after the success of her debut album. The cover is a 1976-copyrighted photo by [[Brassaï]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sigma-sein.com/en/curator/Brassai/|title=Brassaï and his night scenes of Paris|date=2019-10-23|access-date=2022-02-01|website=Sein Sigma|quote=I learned Brassaï thanks to the 1981 album “Pirates” by American singer-songwriter Ricky [''sic''] Lee Jones. The photo on the cover showed two lovers locking eyes in the dark of the night; the image and the white of the couple’s breath were a brilliant match for the album’s intimate and languid vocal. Fascinated, I searched the album credit’s for the name of the photographer capable of taking such a photo, and that became my first encounter with the name “Brassaï.”}}</ref>

The album peaked at No. 5 on the [[Billboard 200|''Billboard'' 200]]<ref name=billboard>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]|title=US Albums and Singles Charts > Rickie Lee Jones|url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/365042/rickie-lee-jones/chart|access-date=January 3, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170827114040/http://www.billboard.com/artist/365042/rickie-lee-jones/chart|archive-date=August 27, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> and was certified [[Music recording certification|Gold]] by the [[Recording Industry Association of America]] on September 30, 1981, for sales of 500,000 copies.<ref name=RIAA>{{cite web|url=https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&se=Rickie+Lee+Jones#search_section|publisher=[[Recording Industry Association of America]]|title=American certifications – Rickie Lee Jones|access-date=July 2, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220702003937/https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&se=Rickie+Lee+Jones|archive-date=July 2, 2022|url-status=live}}</ref> The album remained on the UK album charts for three months, and was certified [[British Phonographic Industry#Certifications|Silver]] by the [[British Phonographic Industry]].


== Recording ==
== Recording ==
Line 23: Line 29:
Jones came to album sessions at Warner Bros. Recording Studios in [[North Hollywood]] with five songs, which were recorded and arranged in a two-month spurt in early 1980 before Jones was given an extended break for further writing. Album sessions reconvened in November 1980 and concluded in April 1981, three months before the album release.
Jones came to album sessions at Warner Bros. Recording Studios in [[North Hollywood]] with five songs, which were recorded and arranged in a two-month spurt in early 1980 before Jones was given an extended break for further writing. Album sessions reconvened in November 1980 and concluded in April 1981, three months before the album release.


All songs were copyrighted on June 9, 1980, as well as “Hey Bub,” which was omitted from the album release, except for “Living It Up” and “Traces of the Western Slopes,” copyrighted in July 1981, at the time of the album release.
All songs were copyrighted on June 9, 1980, as well as "Hey Bub", which was omitted from the album release, except for "Living It Up" and "Traces of the Western Slopes", copyrighted in July 1981, at the time of the album release.


== Overview ==
== Overview ==
Jones relocated to [[New York City]] after her split from Tom Waits, and soon set up home with a fellow musician, Sal Bernardi from [[New Jersey]], whom she had met in [[Venice, California]] in the mid-1970s, writing in their apartment in [[Greenwich Village]]. Bernardi, who had been referenced in the lyrics to "Weasel and the White Boys Cool" from her debut, was to become a frequent collaborator with Jones, and they composed the epic eight-minute suite "Traces of the Western Slopes" together.
Jones relocated to [[New York City]] after her split from Tom Waits and soon set up home with a fellow musician, Sal Bernardi from [[New Jersey]], whom she had met in [[Venice, California]], in the mid-1970s, writing in their apartment in [[Greenwich Village]]. Bernardi, who had been referenced in the lyrics to "Weasel and the White Boys Cool" from her debut, was to become a frequent collaborator with Jones, and they composed the epic eight-minute suite "Traces of the Western Slopes" together.


Jones started writing the first songs from the album - "Hey Bub" (unreleased until 1983), "We Belong Together" and "Pirates" - in the autumn of 1979.
Jones started writing the first songs from the album - "Hey Bub" (unreleased until 1983), "We Belong Together" and "Pirates" - in the autumn of 1979.


Elsewhere, the music on ''Pirates'' is often cinematic, with influences ranging from [[Leonard Bernstein]] to [[Bruce Springsteen]] and [[Laura Nyro]]. The album is more musically ambitious than its predecessor, and explores elements of [[jazz]], [[R&B]], [[bebop]], [[pop (music)|pop]] and [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]], with multiple changes in tempo and mood within most songs.
Elsewhere, the music on ''Pirates'' is often cinematic, with influences ranging from [[Leonard Bernstein]] to [[Bruce Springsteen]] and [[Laura Nyro]]. The album is more musically ambitious than its predecessor and explores elements of [[jazz]], [[R&B]], [[bebop]], [[pop (music)|pop]] and [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]], with multiple changes in tempo and mood within most songs.


== Critical reception ==
== Critical reception ==
{{Album ratings
{{Album ratings
| rev1 = [[Allmusic]]
| rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite web |last=Iyengar |first=Vik |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/pirates-mw0000650332 |title=Pirates – Rickie Lee Jones |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=December 8, 2020}}</ref>
| rev1Score = {{Rating|4|5}} [{{Allmusic|class=album|id=r10589|pure_url=yes}} link]
| rev2 = ''[[Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s|Christgau's Record Guide]]''
| rev2 = [[Robert Christgau]]
| rev2Score = {{Rating-Christgau|C+}} <ref name="Christgau">{{cite web |last=Christgau |first=Robert |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=5107 |title=Rickie Lee Jones: ''Pirates'' > Consumer Guide Album |publisher=[[Robert Christgau]] |date= |accessdate={{Date|2008-03-05}} }}</ref>
| rev2score = C+<ref>{{cite book |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau |chapter=Rickie Lee Jones: Pirates |chapter-url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=5107 |access-date=March 5, 2008 |title=Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s |title-link=Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s |publisher=[[Pantheon Books]] |year=1990 |isbn=0-679-73015-X}}</ref>
| rev3 = ''[[Rolling Stone (magazine)|Rolling Stone]]''
| rev3 = ''[[Record Mirror]]''
| rev3score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Cooper |first=Mark |title=No one trick pony |magazine=[[Record Mirror]] |date=August 15, 1981 |page=18}}</ref>
| rev3Score = {{Rating|5|5}} <ref name=RS1981>{{Cite news|newspaper=[[Rolling Stone]] |issue=351 |date=September 3, 1981 |first=Stephen |last=Holden |author-link=Stephen Holden |title=Rickie Lee Jones ''Pirates'' > Album Review |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/rickieleejones/albums/album/216734/review/5943218 |accessdate={{Date|2006-05-25}} |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071112164243/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/rickieleejones/albums/album/216734/review/5943218/pirates |archivedate=2007-11-12 |deadurl=yes }}</ref>
| rev4 = ''[[Rolling Stone]]''

| rev4score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref name="RS1981">{{cite magazine |last=Holden |first=Stephen |author-link=Stephen Holden |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/rickieleejones/albums/album/216734/review/5943218 |title=Rickie Lee Jones: Pirates |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |issue=351 |date=September 3, 1981 |access-date=May 25, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071112164243/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/rickieleejones/albums/album/216734/review/5943218/pirates |archive-date=November 12, 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
}}
}}
''Pirates'' received a perfect five-star rating in ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', with [[Stephen Holden]] writing; "Rickie Lee Jones' ''Pirates'' arrives like a cloudburst in the desert of Eighties formula pop music and recycled heavy-metal rock. Explosively passionate and exhilaratingly eccentric, this freeform, piano-based song cycle compares with [[Van Morrison]]'s ''[[Astral Weeks]]'', [[Bruce Springsteen]]'s ''[[The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle]]'', and [[Joni Mitchell]]'s ''[[Court and Spark]]'' in the bravura way it weaves autobiography and personal myth into a flexible musical setting that conjures a lifetime's worth of character and incident." He concluded his review by stating; "[i]t's Rickie Lee Jones' voice that carries ''Pirates'' to the stars and makes her whole crazy vision not only comprehensible but compulsive, compelling and as welcome as Christmas in July."<ref name="RS1981"/>
''Pirates'' was well received by most critics achieving a five-star rating in ''[[Rolling Stone magazine|Rolling Stone]]'',<ref name=RS1981/> which featured Jones for a second time on the cover of the August 6, 1981, issue. The album also became a Top 5 US chart success and remained on the UK album charts for three months without the aid of a major hit single.

* '''[[The Age (newspaper)|The Age]] (Australia), Aug 6, 1981''' - "On ''Pirates'', Rickie Lee Jones executes a brilliant artistic leap which not only outshines her Grammy-winning debut album but establishes her as one of the most important singer/songwriters of the decade."

[[Stephen Holden]] writing in ''Rolling Stone'' concluded his review by saying "[i]t's Rickie Lee Jones' voice that carries ''Pirates'' to the stars and makes her whole crazy vision not only comprehensible but compulsive, compelling and as welcome as Christmas in July."<ref name=RS1981/>

* '''[[Time Magazine|Time]] (US), Jan 4, 1982''' - Best of 1981 - "Tales of lovers, losers and wanderers, delivered with a bopster's inflection and the sidling sensuality of a carhop."

In recent years, ''Pirates''' reputation has grown considerably, with British-based music magazine ''Word'' magazine proclaiming it as one of pop music's 25 Most Underrated Albums of All Time in 2005.

== Songs ==
{{original research|section|date=January 2018}}
All songs written and composed by Rickie Lee Jones, excepted when noted:

'''"We Belong Together"'''<br />
Here, Jones appears to lament the end of her relationship with Waits, populating her narrative with intriguing bohemian characters such as Johnny the King. The song also references movie icons [[Marlon Brando]] and [[Natalie Wood]]. Jones plays an elegant piano melody with the arrangement building around her.

'''"Living It Up"'''<br />
One of the last songs recorded for ''Pirates'', "Living It Up" details the lives of a succession of bohemian street characters, with Jones introducing Louie, Eddie, and the down-and-out teenage domestic violence victim Zero. Jones' jaunty piano melody is embellished by sweeps of orchestration, lavish vocal harmonies, and tempo changes.

'''"Skeletons"'''<br />
Along with "The Returns," the first song to be recorded for the album on January 30, 1980. The song delivered solo on piano with a string arrangement, is based on the true story of a man who, in a case of mistaken identity, was killed by police in [[Los Angeles]] while taking his wife to hospital to give birth.

'''"Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking"''' (Jones, David Kalish)<br />
Co-written with David Kalish, this is a [[bebop]] tribute to 1950s R&B icons, with a finger-snapping guitar riff and an in-studio male vocal chorus. It is one of the album's most upbeat songs and one of the few not to feature significant tempo/rhythm changes. The rhythm of the song is driven by a funk style bass line played by Chuck Rainey and percussion boxes and thighs played by Steve Gadd.

'''"Pirates (So Long Lonely Avenue)"'''<br />
Another ode to Waits, this references "rainbow sleeves" in its lyrics; Waits' song "Rainbow Sleeves" was later to be recorded by Jones on her EP album ''Girl at Her Volcano''. The song begins jauntily with a jazz horn melody before the horns fade out, making a return for the coda.

'''"A Lucky Guy"'''<br />
Along with "The Returns," perhaps the album's simplest song musically, here Jones appears jealous of Waits' apparent ease to get on with life at the end of the relationship ("he's a lucky guy/he doesn't worry about me when I'm gone.")

'''"Traces of the Western Slopes"''' (Sal Bernardi, Jones)<br />
Co-written with then-boyfriend Sal Bernardi, this is an eight-minute epic again detailing bohemian nightlife and referencing [[Edgar Allan Poe]].


Jones was featured for a second time on the cover of the August 6, 1981, issue of ''Rolling Stone''. ''[[The Age]]'' wrote in their review: "On ''Pirates'', Rickie Lee Jones executes a brilliant artistic leap which not only outshines her Grammy-winning debut album but establishes her as one of the most important singer/songwriters of the decade." ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote that ''Pirates'' "is such a remarkable piece of work that Miss Jones's first album now sounds like a somewhat tentative rehearsal for it... Traces of the flippant, neo-beat persona she adopted on ''Rickie Lee Jones'' are still in evidence, but on the whole ''Pirates'' is a more personal album."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Palmer |first1=Robert |title=Recordings |work=The New York Times |date=19 July 1981 |page=A23}}</ref>
'''"The Returns"'''<br />
A soft, simple ending delivered solo on piano with string arrangement, much like the closer to the previous album, "After Hours." It is also the album's shortest composition.


==Track listing==
==Track listing==
Credits adapted from the album's [[liner notes]].<ref name="Album booklet">{{cite AV media notes|others = Rickie Lee Jones |title = Pirates |year = 1981 |type = booklet |publisher = [[Warner Records|Warner Bros.]]}}</ref>
# "We Belong Together" 4:59
All tracks written by [[Rickie Lee Jones]], with additional writers noted.
# "Living It Up" 6:23
{{track listing
# "Skeletons" 3:37
| title1 = We Belong Together
# "Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking" (Jones, David Kalish) 5:15
| length1 = 4:59
# "Pirates (So Long Lonely Avenue)" 3:50
| title2 = Living It Up
# "A Lucky Guy" 4:14
| length2 = 6:23
# "Traces of the Western Slopes" (Sal Bernardi, Jones) 8:00
| title3 = Skeletons
# "The Returns" 2:20
| length3 = 3:37
| title4 = Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking
| writer4 = David Kalish
| length4 = 5:15
| title5 = Pirates (So Long Lonely Avenue)
| length5 = 3:50
| title6 = A Lucky Guy
| length6 = 4:14
| title7 = Traces of the Western Slopes
| writer7 = Sal Bernardi
| length7 = 8:00
| title8 = The Returns
| length8 = 2:20
| total_length = 38:38
}}


==Personnel==
==Personnel==
{{div col start|colwidth=20em}}
*Rickie Lee Jones - vocals, guitar, keyboards, synthesizer, percussion, vocals & horn arrangements
*Rickie Lee Jones – vocals, guitar, keyboards, synthesizer, percussion, vocals & horn arrangements
*[[Donald Fagen]] - synthesizer
*[[Donald Fagen]] – synthesizer
*[[Victor Feldman]] - drums, percussion, keyboards
*[[Victor Feldman]] – drums, percussion, keyboards
*[[Rob Mounsey]] - synthesizer
*[[David Sanborn]] - alto saxophone
*[[Rob Mounsey]] – synthesizer
*[[Tom Scott (musician)|Tom Scott]] - baritone & tenor saxophone
*[[David Sanborn]] – alto saxophone
*[[Tom Scott (saxophonist)|Tom Scott]] – baritone and tenor saxophone
*[[Ralph Burns]] - orchestral arrangements
*[[Ralph Burns]] – orchestral arrangements
*[[Chuck Rainey]] - bass
*[[Chuck Rainey]] – bass
*Sal Bernardi - harmonica, vocals
*Sal Bernardi – harmonica, vocals
*[[Michael Boddicker]] - synthesizer
*[[Michael Boddicker]] – synthesizer
*[[Randy Brecker]] - trumpet, flugelhorn
*[[Randy Brecker]] – trumpet, flugelhorn
*[[Lenny Castro]] - percussion
*[[Lenny Castro]] – percussion
*Nick DeCaro - orchestral arrangements
*Nick DeCaro – orchestral arrangements
*[[Buzz Feiten]] - guitar
*[[Russell Ferrante]] - keyboards
*[[Buzz Feiten]] – guitar
*[[Steve Gadd]] - drums
*[[Russell Ferrante]] – keyboards
*[[Steve Gadd]] – drums
*[[Jerry Hey]] - trumpet, flugelhorn, horn
*[[Jerry Hey]] – trumpet, flugelhorn, horn
*David Kalish - guitar
*David Kalish – guitar
*[[Randy Kerber]] - keyboards
*Neil Larsen - keyboards
*[[Randy Kerber]] – keyboards
*[[Arno Lucas]] - background vocals
*[[Neil Larsen]] – keyboards
*[[Steve Lukather]] - guitar
*[[Arno Lucas]] – backing vocals
*[[Clarence McDonald]] - keyboards
*[[Steve Lukather]] – guitar
*[[Dean Parks]] - guitar
*[[Clarence McDonald]] – keyboards
*[[Dean Parks]] – guitar
*Art Rodriguez - drums
*Art Rodriguez – drums
*Leslie Smith - background vocals
*Joe Turano - background vocals
*Leslie Smith – backing vocals
*Joe Turano – backing vocals
;Technical
*Lee Hershberg,Loyd Clifft, [[Mark Linett]] – recording engineer
*Lee Hershberg, Mark Linett- mix engineer
*Mike Salisbury – cover design
*[[Brassaï]] – front cover photography
{{div col end}}


==Charts==
==Charts==
{{col-start}}
'''Album'''
{{col-2}}
{| border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 width="500px"

!align="left"|Year
===Weekly charts===
!align="left"|Chart
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
!align="left"|Position
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (1981)
! scope="col"| Peak<br>position
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums ([[Kent Music Report]])<ref name=aus>{{cite book|last=Kent|first=David|author-link=David Kent (historian)|title=Australian Chart Book 1970–1992|edition=illustrated|publisher=Australian Chart Book|location=St Ives, N.S.W.|year=1993|isbn=0-646-11917-6}}</ref>
| 9
|-
|-
{{album chart|Canada|7|chartid=4681|rowheader=true|access-date=1 February 2022}}
|align="left"|1981
|align="left"|US
|align="left"|5
|-
|-
{{album chart|Netherlands|43|artist=Rickie Lee Jones|album=Pirates|rowheader=true|access-date=1 February 2022}}
|align="left"|1981
|-
|align="left"|UK
{{album chart|New Zealand|4|artist=Rickie Lee Jones|album=Pirates|rowheader=true|access-date=1 February 2022}}
|align="left"|37
|-
{{album chart|Norway|16|artist=Rickie Lee Jones|album=Pirates|rowheader=true|access-date=1 February 2022}}
|-
{{album chart|UK2|37|date=19810809|rowheader=true|access-date=1 February 2022}}
|-
{{album chart|Billboard200|5|artist=Rickie Lee Jones|rowheader=true|access-date=1 February 2022}}
|-
|-
|}
|}
{{col-2}}


===Year-end charts===
'''Singles''' - [[Billboard magazine|Billboard]]
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
{| border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 width="500px"
!align="left"|Year
!align="left"|Single
!align="left"|Chart
!align="left"|Position
|-
|-
|align="left"|1981
! scope="col" | Chart (1981)
! scope="col" | Position
|align="left"|"Pirates (So Long Lonely Avenue)"
|align="left"|Mainstream Rock
|align="left"|40
|-
|-
! scope="row" | New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://aotearoamusiccharts.co.nz/archive/annual-albums/1981-12-31|title=Top Selling Albums of 1981 — The Official New Zealand Music Chart|publisher=[[Recorded Music New Zealand]]|access-date=1 February 2022}}</ref>
|align="left"|1981
| 29
|align="left"|"Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking"
|align="left"|Mainstream Rock
|align="left"|31
|-
|align="left"|1981
|align="left"|"A Lucky Guy"
|align="left"|Pop Singles
|align="left"|64
|-
|-
|}
|}
{{col-end}}

==Certifications==
{{certification Table Top}}
{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|artist=Rickie Lee Jones|title=Pirates|award=Silver|type=album|relyear=1981|certyear=1990|id=5114-1722-2|date=July 6, 1990|access-date=September 2, 2021}}
{{Certification Table Entry|region=United States|artist=Rickie Lee Jones|title=Pirates|award=Gold|type=album|relyear=1981|certyear=1981|date=September 30, 1981|access-date=February 20, 2013}}
{{Certification Table Bottom|nosales=true}}


== References ==
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}


== Sources ==
==External links==
*[https://rickieleejones.com/ Rickie Lee Jones's Official Website]
* August 6, 1981: [[Rolling Stone magazine]]

== External links ==
* http://rickieleejones.com
* http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/rickie_lee_jones/pirates/


{{Rickie Lee Jones}}
{{Rickie Lee Jones}}

{{Authority control}}


[[Category:Rickie Lee Jones albums]]
[[Category:Rickie Lee Jones albums]]
[[Category:1981 albums]]
[[Category:1981 albums]]
[[Category:albums arranged by Ralph Burns]]
[[Category:Albums arranged by Ralph Burns]]
[[Category:Albums produced by Lenny Waronker]]
[[Category:Albums produced by Lenny Waronker]]
[[Category:Albums produced by Russ Titelman]]
[[Category:Albums produced by Russ Titelman]]
[[Category:Warner Bros. Records albums]]
[[Category:Warner Records albums]]

Latest revision as of 06:22, 20 November 2024

Pirates
Studio album by
Rickie Lee Jones
ReleasedJuly 15, 1981
RecordedJanuary 1980 – April 1981
StudioWarner Bros. Recording Studios, North Hollywood, California
GenreRock
Length38:38
LabelWarner Bros.
Producer
Rickie Lee Jones chronology
Rickie Lee Jones
(1979) 		Pirates
(1981) 		Girl at Her Volcano
(1983)

Pirates is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, released on July 15, 1981, by Warner Bros. Records. The follow-up to her 1979 self-titled debut album, Pirates is partially an account of her break-up with fellow musician Tom Waits after the success of her debut album. The cover is a 1976-copyrighted photo by Brassaï.[1]

The album peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200[2] and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on September 30, 1981, for sales of 500,000 copies.[3] The album remained on the UK album charts for three months, and was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry.

Recording

[edit]

Initial recording for Pirates began in January 1980, with the live recordings for "Skeletons" and "The Returns" from January 30 from these sessions kept on the final album. In the same month, Jones picked up a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.

Jones came to album sessions at Warner Bros. Recording Studios in North Hollywood with five songs, which were recorded and arranged in a two-month spurt in early 1980 before Jones was given an extended break for further writing. Album sessions reconvened in November 1980 and concluded in April 1981, three months before the album release.

All songs were copyrighted on June 9, 1980, as well as "Hey Bub", which was omitted from the album release, except for "Living It Up" and "Traces of the Western Slopes", copyrighted in July 1981, at the time of the album release.

Overview

[edit]

Jones relocated to New York City after her split from Tom Waits and soon set up home with a fellow musician, Sal Bernardi from New Jersey, whom she had met in Venice, California, in the mid-1970s, writing in their apartment in Greenwich Village. Bernardi, who had been referenced in the lyrics to "Weasel and the White Boys Cool" from her debut, was to become a frequent collaborator with Jones, and they composed the epic eight-minute suite "Traces of the Western Slopes" together.

Jones started writing the first songs from the album - "Hey Bub" (unreleased until 1983), "We Belong Together" and "Pirates" - in the autumn of 1979.

Elsewhere, the music on Pirates is often cinematic, with influences ranging from Leonard Bernstein to Bruce Springsteen and Laura Nyro. The album is more musically ambitious than its predecessor and explores elements of jazz, R&B, bebop, pop and Broadway, with multiple changes in tempo and mood within most songs.

Critical reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Christgau's Record GuideC+[5]
Record Mirror[6]
Rolling Stone[7]

Pirates received a perfect five-star rating in Rolling Stone, with Stephen Holden writing; "Rickie Lee Jones' Pirates arrives like a cloudburst in the desert of Eighties formula pop music and recycled heavy-metal rock. Explosively passionate and exhilaratingly eccentric, this freeform, piano-based song cycle compares with Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, Bruce Springsteen's The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, and Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark in the bravura way it weaves autobiography and personal myth into a flexible musical setting that conjures a lifetime's worth of character and incident." He concluded his review by stating; "[i]t's Rickie Lee Jones' voice that carries Pirates to the stars and makes her whole crazy vision not only comprehensible but compulsive, compelling and as welcome as Christmas in July."[7]

Jones was featured for a second time on the cover of the August 6, 1981, issue of Rolling Stone. The Age wrote in their review: "On Pirates, Rickie Lee Jones executes a brilliant artistic leap which not only outshines her Grammy-winning debut album but establishes her as one of the most important singer/songwriters of the decade." The New York Times wrote that Pirates "is such a remarkable piece of work that Miss Jones's first album now sounds like a somewhat tentative rehearsal for it... Traces of the flippant, neo-beat persona she adopted on Rickie Lee Jones are still in evidence, but on the whole Pirates is a more personal album."[8]

Track listing

[edit]

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.[9] All tracks written by Rickie Lee Jones, with additional writers noted.

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."We Belong Together" 4:59
2."Living It Up" 6:23
3."Skeletons" 3:37
4."Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking"David Kalish5:15
5."Pirates (So Long Lonely Avenue)" 3:50
6."A Lucky Guy" 4:14
7."Traces of the Western Slopes"Sal Bernardi8:00
8."The Returns" 2:20
Total length:38:38

Personnel

[edit]
Technical
  • Lee Hershberg,Loyd Clifft, Mark Linett – recording engineer
  • Lee Hershberg, Mark Linett- mix engineer
  • Mike Salisbury – cover design
  • Brassaï – front cover photography

Charts

[edit]

Certifications

[edit]
Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[18] Silver 60,000^
United States (RIAA)[19] Gold 500,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Brassaï and his night scenes of Paris". Sein Sigma. 2019-10-23. Retrieved 2022-02-01. I learned Brassaï thanks to the 1981 album "Pirates" by American singer-songwriter Ricky [sic] Lee Jones. The photo on the cover showed two lovers locking eyes in the dark of the night; the image and the white of the couple's breath were a brilliant match for the album's intimate and languid vocal. Fascinated, I searched the album credit's for the name of the photographer capable of taking such a photo, and that became my first encounter with the name "Brassaï."
  2. ^ "US Albums and Singles Charts > Rickie Lee Jones". Billboard. Archived from the original on August 27, 2017. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
  3. ^ "American certifications – Rickie Lee Jones". Recording Industry Association of America. Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved July 2, 2022.
  4. ^ Iyengar, Vik. "Pirates – Rickie Lee Jones". AllMusic. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
  5. ^ Christgau, Robert (1990). "Rickie Lee Jones: Pirates". Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-679-73015-X. Retrieved March 5, 2008.
  6. ^ Cooper, Mark (August 15, 1981). "No one trick pony". Record Mirror. p. 18.
  7. ^ a b Holden, Stephen (September 3, 1981). "Rickie Lee Jones: Pirates". Rolling Stone. No. 351. Archived from the original on November 12, 2007. Retrieved May 25, 2006.
  8. ^ Palmer, Robert (19 July 1981). "Recordings". The New York Times. p. A23.
  9. ^ Pirates (booklet). Rickie Lee Jones. Warner Bros. 1981.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  10. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  11. ^ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 4681". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  12. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Rickie Lee Jones – Pirates" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  13. ^ "Charts.nz – Rickie Lee Jones – Pirates". Hung Medien. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  14. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Rickie Lee Jones – Pirates". Hung Medien. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  15. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  16. ^ "Rickie Lee Jones Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  17. ^ "Top Selling Albums of 1981 — The Official New Zealand Music Chart". Recorded Music New Zealand. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  18. ^ "British album certifications – Rickie Lee Jones – Pirates". British Phonographic Industry. July 6, 1990. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  19. ^ "American album certifications – Rickie Lee Jones – Pirates". Recording Industry Association of America. September 30, 1981. Retrieved February 20, 2013.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Pirates_(Rickie_Lee_Jones_album)&oldid=1258530392"