Monday, October 14, 2002

A couple of years ago, a quiet evening at the then-boyfriend's apartment in Queens (god, it must've been love, I took a subway?? to Queeeens????) - anyway - not sure specifically what we were doing, but listening to music, and I wasn't paying much attention, until I heard I'll Be Seeing You. Which, of course, is a great song, and a bazillion folks have recorded it, but this was quite a beautiful version. So I asked, and he replied that it was Rickie Lee Jones. I was flaberghasted. It was an amazing version, with a clarinet or something, and gentle guitar-strumming, that made it so haunting, so bittersweet, I was quite impressed. Like many people, I probably never really listened to her music because of that awful hit, Chuck E.'s In Love. But then, several songs later, I couldn't believe what I heard. One of my all-time favorite songs, and I couldn't believe she was doing such a fine job. Of course, the original Jefferson Airplane song, sung by Marty Balin, is fantastic (and you ought to check out the wonderful live version on the Jefferson Airplane Loves You 3-disc compilation that came out in 1992). If you were to listen to the Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow version back-to-back with Jones', it might be unfair to Jones, so here's just Rickie Lee Jones' version of Comin' Back To Me. Then, a week later, looking through the 88 cent bin at the used record store on St Mark's Pl., I saw her album, Pop Pop, which I quickly nabbed, of course.