Pirates
Pirates
Rickie Lee Jones
Release date: July 15, 1981
Warner Bros. Records
Produced by Lenny Waronker & Russ Titleman
I first heard Pirates when I was 18, my youthful mind wide open and ready to receive and album unlike anything I’d ever heard before or thought was even a possible. With headphones on and eyes closed, it’s like watching a movie.
It’s a piano-based song cycle and freewheeling beauty reminiscent of narratives heard in Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run and Bernstein’s West Side Story. It’s also one of those great headphone albums where it’s like a great movie, full of imagery and detailed scenery.
It’s a loosely structure song cycle about two lovers who have a bad break up and their relationship carrying on as imagined spirits haunting their old stomping grounds. The song sequence is brilliant, as is the songwriting, production, and of course, Rickie’s incredible singing. It’s also one of those albums that are best listened to privately, with headphones on. I searched in vain for a long time for an album as good, as artistic, and imaginative.
Other recommended recordings by Rickie Lee Jones:
Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones
1979
Warner Bros. Records
Traffic From Paradise
Rickie Lee Jones
1994
Geffen Records
Ghostyhead
Rickie Lee Jones
1997
Reprise Records
