Fri 15 Oct 2021
Music I’m Listening To: RICKIE LEE JONES “Chuck E’s in Love.”
Posted by Steve under Music I'm Listening To[7] Comments
There are some songs you know will be hits as soon as you hear them for the very first time. This one’s from 1979:
From Wikipedia:
“Jones and her lover/fellow songwriter Tom Waits spent a lot of time hanging out with their friend Chuck E. Weiss at the seedy Tropicana Motel in Los Angeles. Eventually Weiss, affectionately referred to as “Chuck E.”, disappeared. Later Weiss called the apartment where Jones and Waits lived. When Waits took the call, Weiss explained that he was in Denver, and that he had moved there because he had fallen in love with a cousin there. When Waits hung up he announced to Jones, “Chuck E.’s in love”. Jones liked the sound of the sentence and wrote a song around it. Although toward the end of “Chuck E.’s in Love” the lyrics state, “Chuck E.’s in love with the little girl singing this song,” the twist ending is fictional; Jones was never the girl with whom Chuck E. was in love.”
October 16th, 2021 at 1:44 pm
Jones was part of that wonderful Left Coast songwriting scene which included Tom Waits, Warren Zevon, JD Souther, Randy Newman, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Glenn Frey, Bob Welch, Stevie Nicks, et al. You can often hear them on backing-vocals in all each other’s recordings.
October 16th, 2021 at 1:57 pm
Most if not all living in the Laurel Canyon area, am I right?
October 16th, 2021 at 2:14 pm
Believe so, yes
October 16th, 2021 at 2:23 pm
That group of singer-songwriters has become near legendary in recent years.
October 16th, 2021 at 4:28 pm
Indeed. I saw a news item as well that reported, ‘Hotel California’ regained the lead in the category of “all-time album sales record”. Finally displacing Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’.
I never believed the sales figures for Jackson anyway –the biz started energetically ‘juggling numbers’ right around the time he ascended. Then, when Amazon music downloads arrived things got even worse. Nowadays there’s hardly any way to tell who has sold more, it’s all marketing jabberwocky.
But I kind do trust in the enduring popularity of Eagles, Elvis, Sinatra, Beatles…
October 19th, 2021 at 10:11 am
Loggins & Messina came around a little earlier (I think?) than the other talents mentioned above but they are a surprising source of good songwriting too
October 19th, 2021 at 10:45 am
L&M hit it big in the early 70s, eight or nine years before. I wasn’t a fan at the time, but my wife was. Maybe I ought to give them a second chance.