Although Pirates was released back in 1981, it remains one of my favorite CDs. It displays Rickie's master songwriting ability and proves her a musical storyteller of high emotional intensity and clarity. Her urban stories are set in a 'groovy', bohemian and vivid blend of folk, blues and jazzy musical compositions. In addition, one selection features jazz artists David Sanborn on alto sax and Randy Brecker on the trumpet and flugelhorn.

If you have never listened to Rickie Lee Jones, I highly suggest Pirates as it will move you emotionally and may even get your head shaking, feet stomping and fingers snapping.


the movie   January 14, 2001
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Pirates, the movie, which is what this record is, has not lost much potency as years have gone by. In fact, though the sounds and ideas introduced here have long been taken up and overused, listening now reveals how weird it all was, how we are swept up in the most visual recording I have ever encountered. We learn all of the characters hopes and dreams, we know them instantly - the first sign of a great author. Her credibility as narrator is unquestionable, we know she feels everything and more, and yet we are safe watching our window, and somehow the story is told to us through osmosis as much as anything. Her voice here is like one of the horns, in fact the horn arrangements are hers. Michael Brecker, Steve Gadd, Donald Fagen, many great contributions. Very complex, and sad, yet satisfing, like any great movie, one is left with the feeling that ones own life has a part, you know, in the big picture. this record somehow reminds me of the much later, and much different Ghostyhead. I suppose those same characters, now seperated and less corporal, are still somehow calling from Ms. Jones ethereal world. This record was a five star rated in rolling stone at the time. It is a classic, overlooked by the new media. and though perhaps the production, careful and lovely, has been tendered too many times, if one views it as the film it is, and the creation of language that it was, this should not incumber the experience of getting to know *unt-finger louie and Zero and all the rest of the fluent speakers of blonde. and make no mistake - this is not your mothers car. Quietly obscene language has slipped by the censors in the hands of the sweet-voiced Rickie many times. She is wild, sly, sophisticated, and extremely tender. this is one side of the many-headed beast.


Her Masterpiece!   June 27, 2001
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Everything you've heard is true. This is Rickie's masterwork. It remains haunting twenty years later. This album is perfect for a gray, rainy Saturday afternoon. You will love the characters and their sad, but sometimes hopeful stories. Its grand, sweeping and heartbreaking. There is nothing quite like it contemporary music.


a pop masterpiece   October 20, 2000
10 out of 12 found this review helpful

I'll admit right away I am not a big Rickie Lee Jones fan, perhaps only because she turned me off long ago by bad-mouthing Joni Mitchell. But there is no denying that Pirates is a masterpiece of contemporary music. I have never heard sadder, more devastating stories set to music. The arrangements are wonderful and the studio musicians were among the best of the day. This collection is an emotional vehicle, it takes you away and leaves you changed. A stunning accomplishment from a complicated, and probably misunderstood, singer/songwriter. OK, for creating Pirates I forgive her for misunderstanding that other blond genius, Joni Mitchell.