Reading this memoir was like taking a long drive down Highway 101 in California with a lover - not the long-term kind though, the May-to-December type. The words on paper are much like her songs, wistful and dreamy and very tangential.

Much of her upbringing was unknown to me until I read this. Rickie Lee came from a long line of hardscrabble folks with their fare share of poverty, heartbreak and triumphs too.

Her life with Tom Waits and others was as you could imagine and fascinating for music-lovers to absorb and live through her vicariously.

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC - it was a delight for dreary days (and all others too).

While I'm not really a Rickie Lee Jones fan, I found her memoir quite interesting. Really more a chronicle of life beginning in the late 60s, this is more about growing up and pursuing your dream than a typical rock star memoir. Rickie's endless pursuit of her own personal lifestyle and musical style takes her through homelessness and drug abuse to success to near oblivion. Her storytelling both in her music and her prose is an example of her poetry. Every sentence is well though out and her word choice is very reminiscent of her lyrics. This is a must read for fans, but I would recommend it for anyone who is a student of the 60s/70s or anyone who wants to get a clear picture of how the music industry works. Is this a "great book"? Not really. There are moments, certainly, but the memoir is (again) like her music -- gritty, truthful, and just a little "out there". My husband asked why I was reading this, since "Rickie Lee is weird". I would agree, she is definitely outside the "norm", but that's certainly the appeal. Plus this is a clear picture of just why she is such a unique personality.

NOTE: Not surprisingly, there are LOTS of references to sex, drugs, and jazz (not rock-n-roll), but nothing is overly graphic, just an honest look back at her life.

Quite simply, Rickie Lee Jones’ new autobiography,#Last Chance Texaco, is a triumph ! Appropriately subtitled “ Chronicles Of An American Troubadour “, this turbulent tale is riveting from start to finish., proving that not only is Ms. Jones a terrific songwriter, she is a terrific writer, period. From early childhood, through her “ hippie” teen years to her break into show business and stardom, we are treated to an intimate portrait of this iconic legend’s life from highest highs to lowest lows. Being of Ms. Jones generation and spending most of my adult life in the music business, the book was of special significance to me, but these attributes are not necessary to savor the story. No matter your age or musical preferences, #Last Chance Texaco is a book that will linger with you long after you complete it.

This is an engrossing family story that is a kind of American classic of troubled family life. One needs not to even know who the author is to enjoy this story of people struggling on the edge to make a life for themselves. From Chicago to Phoenix and points beyond the author traces her attempts at creative expression and some semblance of acceptance by an uncaring world. Despite a rather weak ending I found the book engrossing and beautifully written.

(3 1/2). Quite the wild child Rickie Lee Jones was, and quite the wild childhood she endured as well. I only knew her as a unique and different talent in the 70’s, but this is certainly the rest of the story. Her passion, recklessness and nonconforming nature is all on display in this book, and you really feel for her humanity as it unfolds. A true artiste, Rickie Lee tells her story in the most open and candid way, only leaving out a few details we would really like to have. Best of all, it gave me the opportunity to listen to some of her music I was not familiar with as she was describing writing the songs. What a treat. Good stuff.

I loved reading this. I didn't expect to, even though I'm a fan. Celebrity memoirs often disappoint, especially when half the book focuses on their childhood. But Rickie Lee Jones' writing captivated me immediately, which shouldn't have surprised me – Pirates got me through college, after all. It remains in my Top Five albums. (Just so you know, I was a freshman when it came out!)

I especially enjoyed reading about her musical influences and writing processes. I related to this sentence about her relationship with Laura Nyro's music: "Somehow, the moment I fell in love with Laura I loved myself just a little more." That's how I felt about the women musicians I listened to on repeat as young woman, like Joni Mitchell (Blue) and Rickie Lee herself, but never had put into words so succinctly and eloquently.

The book is a mostly chronological autobiography, somewhat less linear as she moves through her life, drawing connections between past and present and memories, with more detail about RLJ's early years. I'm biased enough of a fan so I can't predict whether those unfamiliar with her work would enjoy as much as I did, but the writing and story are engaging enough that I hope they'll give it a shot. It'll surely make you want to listen to her music!

Thanks to NetGalley for ARC.

Rickie Lee Jones life like her song is haunting multi layered entertaining I love her songs and now knowing her life story makes them even richer,Great read highly recommend.#netgalley #groveatlantic

I've never listened to Rickie Lee Jones's music, so, what drew me in with this book? Her celebrity friends and lovers? Finding out about her life and music more?

Neither. It's her writing that drew me in. Check this out:

> When I was twenty-three years old I drove around L.A. with Tom Waits. We’d cruise along Highway 1 in his new 1963 Thunderbird. With my blonde hair flying out the window and both of us sweating in the summer sun, the alcohol seeped from our pores and the sex smell still soaked our clothes and our hair. We liked our smell. We did not bathe as often as we might have. We were in love and I for one was not interested in washing any of that off. By the end of summer we were exchanging song ideas. We were also exchanging something deeper. Each other.

There's something beautiful about somebody writing in a near-dream state. It's open and fun and you connect with somebody writing about what it's like to be a young adult on the cusp of losing your childhood more than you feel comfortable with, while wanting your independence.

Still, there's a lot of storie from Jones's adolescense, and this book travels chronologically.

> Coming home from visiting Good Shepherd, my mother sometimes whipped out a warning out of nowhere. “Don’t you ever be like your sister. Do you hear me? Don’t you grow up to be like Janet.” Every time she said this to me I was devastated. I was nothing like my sister. I was me. Didn’t she even know me? It was a seed of doubt inadvertently planted by my mother. I began to wonder if I was adopted, and so began the year known as, “Was I adopted?” Each week I’d ask a family member, “Seriously, was I adopted?” Finally Danny said, “Yes, you were adopted. Go away.” Nothing they could say could make me stop doubting my place in our family.

Another paragraph:

> To say my mother was unpredictable is to say that the ocean is salty. It was a given, but you went in there anyway, hoping to float on top of the waves.

Some of the best stories are from Jones's girlhood, when she writes about everything mundane to deeply traumatical.

> Sugarfoot was my pet cat but also my surrogate mama and best friend. For the last five years I came to pet her quietly when life was too hard to bear. When she was thirsty she drank out of the next-door neighbor’s pool. He did not like our cat drinking from his pool. My mother found Sugarfoot dead while I was at school one day. I came home and she said, “I think your cat is sick. She may be dead Rickie. She’s lying there in the garden.” I did not believe her. Not Sugarfoot! Not dead! I had to see for myself.
>
> There was Sugarfoot lying in the garden where she always liked to sleep, but when I bent over to pick her up she was stiff and her fur was covered with green vomit. I picked her up gently, wiped off the vomit, and rocking her body in my arms, I cried. God, not again, don’t take her from me too. It wasn’t God who had done this, it was the next-door neighbor, a man who saw us every day with our wheelchaired teenager, struggling to have some kind of normal life. A man who passed our broken-hearted house every day, he poisoned Sugarfoot. A monster lived next door. I still don’t know how he managed it, but Danny dug the hole. He had always buried our pets and the continuity of this burial task was important to all of us. We buried Sugarfoot in the garden, right where she died. I sat there with her as long as I could, singing and crying.

Her later years, finding music via The Beatles, getting involved with Dr. John, starting to write her own music, getting into the music business, making an album, meeting and getting romantically entangled with Tom Waits, are interesting, but to me not as interesting as her initial years.

Sadly, my interest in the book waned after the initial strides that Jones took. The rhythm of the book took a far less strong path after a third and I wish she'd have maintained it.

For me, again, somebody who's not heard Jones's music, it's not a strong story, but the start is interesting, almost touching on Faulkner. If you're looking for a much stronger writer where it comes to music, I suggest you try Patti Smith or Lester Bangs.

I was not a fan of Rickie Lee Jones before reading this book, but I am now. What an incredible life story, with great details about some of the most-loved musical figures of the 1970s.. I'm so glad I picked it up.

Just shy of 5 stars. This recollection by Rickie Lee Jones had be recollecting my own life because Rickie Lee was a part of my new-to-adultness. I just didn't know how long she had been adulting when I met her music. More than any other book about a musician, I needed to listen to her music while I read. And, the emotion and the desperate-ness of trying to get it right was felt. It was there. I learned more about this Troubadour of a jazz singer stuck in a disco time. And, I heard her again. Maybe there should be 5 stars. She is a lyricist, after all. (changing to 5 stars)
Thank you, NetGalley for the advance-read copy.

Love this book....so much like her songs....wonderful dark with mysteries uncovered
One you can read quickly but savor short passages