Talk:Rickie Lee Jones/Archive 1

Archive 1 Archive 2


Chuck E's in Love lyrics question

Can anyone tell me what "P.I.P." in the first line means?

How come he don't come and p.i.p. with me
Down at the meter no more?

-Rholton 16:48, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

The letters are "PLP", but I don't know what they mean. I asked her backup singer Amy Barlow that question in 1979, and all she would say, with a smile, was that it was a "family secret".

PLP, can be short for either Public Leaning Post or Personal Leaning Post. When I was in high school in the '70s, we used this expression. Someone might come up to me and lean their arm across my shoulders, and I might say "what do I look like, a PLP?" - pmerriam St. Patrick's Day 2006

I have removed the claim that Jones was one of the few artists, if not the only, to be featured on the cover of Rolling Stone twice in two years. The list of artists who fit that claim is long, including the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, and Tina Turner — and those are just from the first three years of the magazine. — Walloon 06:37, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

That was not the claim. The claim was she was one of few WOMEN featured twice on the cover TWICE IN TWO YEARS, In 1979 this was a phenomenon, I think you may not find any other artist

twice in two years, at that time, and I believe Janis Joplin was the only woman who had been on it twice, and I suspect not many artists in general had been on the cover of the Rolling Stone twice back in 1979. I apprecaite your attention, but maybe have the facts clear before you assume to DELETE anything from my bio. It was included to make a clearer picture of the early phenomenon of Rickie lees career.

thank you.
and, fyi, I am the source, I AM rickie lee. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.173.59.48 (talk) 02:16, 5 May 2011 (UTC)

Someone appended, "rickie Lee did not appear on reading rainbow" (etc), which should probably either be verified or deleted; if correct, then fixed in the article proper (with correct capitalization, grammar, etc). Also, [Little Fluffy Clouds] makes this same claim. Should be simple enough to verify by whomever made the original claim, or by the one who confuted it? Michael 08:54, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

  • "Chuck E's in Love" includes the line: "Christ, I think he's even combed his hair". Does anyone who remembers when this song was a hit know whether any radio stations bleeped out the word "Christ" or any other reports of people taking offense at this usage? Just wondering. --Metropolitan90 05:01, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
People may have taken offense, but it wasn't censored out & there wasn't a public outcry over it. If the song was released today then the word Christ would most likely be edited, most likely due to today's way too P.C. airwaves & radio stations censoring above & beyond what the FCC deems offensive. 15:47 18 January 2007 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.192.22.48 (talk) 20:47, 18 January 2007 (UTC).

Biography assessment rating comment

WikiProject Biography Assessment

Could use some references.

The article may be improved by following the WikiProject Biography 11 easy steps to producing at least a B article. -- Yamara 13:22, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Details of Story are Compelling and Should be Kept, but Writing Style is too Rambling and Needs to be Tightened Up

The biographic story details should be kept (are interesting and relevant) but the sentences are run-on and rambling. Generally the writing needs to be made more clear.

Sean7phil (talk) 17:19, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

I agree that the writing style is far far to rambling but disagree that the all the biographical story details be kept. We have to remember that this an encyclopedia entry not a book... Much of the information is completely irrelevant for anyone except die-hard Rickie Lee Jones fans. The casual browser looking for a brief summary of Rickie Lee Jones would find this article (as I did) overwhelming. --Padiddle (talk) 01:56, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

I agree. The first few paragraphs of the Background section are incomprehensible. The sentences make sense individually, but there is no narrative thread connecting the paragraphs. I had to re-read portions several times just to figure out how Ricky Lee was related to the various people described there. I did eventually conclude that Richard was her father, but the rest is a complete jumble. This section needs attention from someone who has a grasp of the facts and knows how to edit these disconnected but overlapping stories into a coherent, and shorter, narrative. Chris Loosley (talk) 04:47, 12 November 2009 (UTC)
well you didnt figure it out very well, considering you misspell her name on an article about her here on wikipedia. if you are going to comment on an artists bio, at least spell their name correctly.

I mean, really!

The Early Career part is not in chronological order and repeatedly mentions several names of essentially unknown people. Why is Nick Mathe, ex-school teacher and a neighbor - mentioned twice? The whole article is more like a fan page than an encyclopedia entry. Finwailin (talk) 19:57, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

I would say that the original writer, myself, rickie lee jones, has been edited so many times by wiki, and whomever, they move sentences around, and edit out information in one paragraph because

part of it shows up somewhere else, so that theparagraph becomes disjointed, I agree.... but unfortunately everyone is allowed to write their version.

It's 2013 and this still reads like fan magazine stuff. And on top of that there are fragments in the text like "(second city skits....)" that are useless. PurpleChez (talk) 19:07, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

This article is longer then Bono's...

This article has over 4,000 while an artist like Bono (just choose the first name off the top of my head to use as reference) has over 1,000 words less. Considering most people have never heard of Ricke Lee Jones this is a bit silly. The bio needs to toned down significantly IMO. I'm thinking of reverting it back to a previous version but don't have time (or passion) at the moment to go sifting through a history of Rickie Lee Jones articles to find a good one. Any other suggestions to scale down this article to a more reasonable length would be helpful. Also this article needs to be cleansed of all its unverifiable claims. --Padiddle (talk) 01:56, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

You must be joking. bono vs. jones? I agree this article should be edited and shortened. But what does Bonos life have to do with Jones? And 'most people' have never heard of plenty of people here on wikipedia. If that were the basis for discussion and biography, I think J LO would have that largest bio here. What a ridiculous comparison. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.173.59.48 (talk) 02:21, 5 May 2011 (UTC)

Rickie Lee Jones is well known and influential; I have the feeling you have missed that somehow. Even if that hadn't been the case, surely there are no Wikipedia rules that say a bio's length must be proportional to how many people have heard of the subject! JöG (talk) 20:33, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

Who is this Bono, or what? 65.79.173.135 (talk) 16:50, 9 July 2013 (UTC)Will in New Haven65.79.173.135 (talk) 16:50, 9 July 2013 (UTC)

Moved here from article

Miscellanea

  • Her song "Living It Up" was remixed for clubs by Junior Vasquez in 1997. The remix was a hit in New York City clubs, but was never released commercially.
  • Her hit single "Chuck E.'s in Love" is about fellow musician Chuck E. Weiss, whom she lived alongside at the Tropicana Hotel in the early 1970s. She was in a romantic relationship with Weiss's friend Tom Waits around the same time.
  • Her voice was sampled for The Orb's single Little Fluffy Clouds after she appeared with LeVar Burton on the US children's program Reading Rainbow. Because of this both Jones and Burton were involved in legal action, but Big Life (the music label which released "Little Fluffy Clouds") later settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.


hello, rickie lee jones here, again. The Orb sampled my voice without my permission and refused to pay me any money. They paid only $5000 for the legal bill made to inquire about getting paid. they have collected millions of dollars off various versions, and have never paid me any money. So let me, Rickie lee Jones, disclose that right now, so you dont need to speculate.

The original sample is featured on a promotional 2-CD edition (DIDX-005561) of Jones' album Flying Cowboys.

You mean the original INTERVIEW from which the sample was taken was on the promotional Cd. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.173.59.48 (talk) 02:24, 5 May 2011 (UTC)


  • The song "On Saturday Afternoons in 1963" was used in popular TV drama House, as the lead character Dr. Gregory House, played by Hugh Laurie, watches a lacrosse game.
  • She is the voice of the "Have You Had Enough?" song which is featured in customized political ads on the internet and local radio and television stations. The series of ads impel voters to vote for Democratic candidates in specific races of the United States congressional midterm elections in 2006. They are an example of the growing importance of netroots bloggers, who organized the effort. She performs the song alongside three former members of the Squirrel Nut Zippers.
  • She is made reference to in the dEUS song 'Hotellounge (Be the Death of Me)', which contains the lyrics, "I'm in love/ With Ricky Lee Jones' voice".

Concern about additions made on April 28, 2008 by 75.213.120.70

Over 5,000 bytes of material was added to the article on April 28, 2008 by 75.213.120.70. I am concerned because of the amount of material added and the fact that there are no citations for any of the material. My concern is that some of the material may have been plagiarized and that it really an essay on Jones not cited facts. Here is the material that has been added. Would some other people take a look at this and give their opinion. This highlights a big problem with the article on Rickie Lee Jones - there is not a single citation in the entire article.

Best Regards,

Reservoirhill (talk) 14:42, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

hello

I am rickie lee jones. can you tell me how to make it clear when I am writing about events, I mean, that it is ME, and have a 'signiture' or 'citation' or whatever? ? Sometimes my facts get omitted, and other peoples 'facts' remain. If you can tell me exactly how to do submit information and not have it omitted by anyone, since in fact I am the one who knows the truth of my life. I am not talking about opinion. I am talking about fact. like the one of few artists to make the cover of the rolling stone twice in 1979. In fact I think only one, maybe two women had ever had the distinction at that time. Of course in the years since many many people have been on the cover of the rolling stone. the spice girls, for christ sake. Someone keeps editing my carefully constucted paragraphs and they end up unreadable. I mean its a mess. Might I have some authority to clean it up a bit? Might I edit it without some kid who knows nothing of my life editing me?

The Mojo article about the Pirates years may help wikipedia allow the content I myself have written and then had omitted by wiki - I dont know. Mojo has more authority about my life than I do ? so if i site mojo, does that make if valid? Its kind of weird here.

thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.173.59.48 (talk) 02:36, 5 May 2011 (UTC)

changes made on 5/3/08

I made some changes to this article yesterday after coming across it casually. Much of the same material is available elsewhere on the web - either that was copied and pasted here, or vice versa (hard to know). In any case, it is a very poorly written entry. Many typos, bad sentence construction, and a lot of subjective editorializing, as well as some "facts" that are not (or are no longer) true. I fixed the most obvious grammatical errors and deleted some of the BS, but will leave it to someone else to round up all of the references needed to make it credible.Nonseq (talk)

"Christ" vs. "Jesus"

In the main article section "Artistic renaissance: 2002 and beyond," it says that Rickie Lee Jones is involved in a project based on "the words of Christ." What's the Wikipedia standard for using the term "Christ" versus using the term "Jesus"? Using "Christ" seems to use a specific term that validates Christianity, while using the name "Jesus" would seem more neutral and more like an encylopedia.

This Page is a Mess

This is quite a disjointed, rambling page, with little chronological movement -- paragraphs jump from one year to the next, and back again, and forward again, and back again. And much of the writing is poor -- lots of typos, too. I fixed a few blatantly misspelled words, but don't have enough time at the moment to tackle the heavy lifting that's needed to make this a readable and coherent page. Aren't there any RLJ experts out there who know how to write and edit, and can spend a few hours turning this page into what it should be? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.89.45.225 (talk) 14:38, 29 November 2010 (UTC)


Wow! Absolutely agree. It seems like three different articles were sourced in the section on her early career, and all three included instead of making some effort to combine and distill the information contained...and that's only one section; three consecutive paragraphs all with much same info. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.52.90.86 (talk) 00:07, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

I'd like to give it a shot. The grammar & spelling is bad; the anecdotes about marriage/breakup/friends/personal life are clearly from a person who feels they are an "insider" (but no references at all). Also, importantly, this page does not include any reference to RLJ's comeback album (1989), which was significant in terms of artistic growth & raising her profile after a hiatus. She worked with Steely Dan. See entry on [Flying Cowboys], which is not even cross-linked here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.83.140.34 (talk) 17:23, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

I agree. Please, do, ...
I am Rickie Lee. What ever I write gets edited. I tried to write some of 1979... and it came back to me as not included because it could not be verified. so i wondered who had verified the rest, or why the tom waits information I included was to not allowed.

but every other line anyone happened to write about me... was ok to include. very strange. tom waits watchers??!!

oh, sinebot, I did not work with Steely Dan on flying cowboys, I worked with Walter Becker, who, as you know, is one of Steely Dan. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.173.59.48 (talk) 02:44, 5 May 2011 (UTC)

This page needs work

Someone worked hard writing this page. As a biographical essay it works fine. The problem is that the tone and content is not consistent with an encyclopedia. There is just way too much opinion and editorializing. Take for example this passage from the early career section:

"It was clear she was unique and unaffected, unpressured to join the "New Wave" or belong to the Hotel California-Linda Ronstadt sound that permeated the radio at the time. Jones' voice was distinctively different, and she did not seem to be afraid of that; people loved her or hated her right away. She was instantly identifiable."

There is no citation or source for the foregoing; someone simply asserted a personal opinion into the article. That may work in a biography or on a tribute page, but it really has no place here. However this kind of subjective analysis permeates the whole article. That's why the page has been flagged. It needs to be cleaned up.184.74.213.226 (talk) 22:15, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

PS-I just noticed above that someone is claiming to be Rickie Lee Jones. That may explain things. If true, should an artist be writing about themselves on a wikipedia page?184.74.213.226 (talk) 22:21, 1 December 2011 (UTC)


Not without comprehending — and, ideally, employing — the wiki-standards. NPOV, proper sourcing, relevance/notability, etc. I've no doubt the person claiming to be Rickie Lee Jones on the talk page is, in fact, Jones … but she seems to have missed a step. Why am I here just now? Because, in spite of being (perhaps) the most rabid RLJ fan on the planet … this article is unworty of wiki. It reads like a hagiography, or like something written by a publicist. I would edit it but I am too annoyed to do so calmly and would just rip out whole sections. Ericksommers (talk) 07:21, 15 February 2012 (UTC)


"Pascal Nabet Meyer Duke Of Coolsville."

The only sources I can find for this are Wikipedia-derived; his name is usually given as "Pascal Nabet Meyer," without the nickname. I don't want to remove it and piss anyone off, though. PaulCHebert (talk) 07:41, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

PaulCHebert, please be aware that when you removed the "Fanboy" text, you also removed factual text about "The Magazine", for example the producer's name, the hit song, and how it charted. Stripping out opinion is good, but stripping out facts at the same time is not good. (Robinesque (talk) 06:06, 4 September 2017 (UTC))