LAST CHANCE TEXACO
LAST CHANCE TEXACO
Chronicles of an American Troubadour
RICKIE
LEE
JONES
Grove Press
New York
Copyright © 2021 by Rickie Lee Jones
Jacket design by Becca Fox Design
Jacket photograph © Bonnie Schiffman
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. Any member of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or anthology, should send inquiries to Grove Atlantic, 154 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10011 or [email protected].
FIRST EDITION
Published simultaneously in Canada
Printed in Canada
This title was set in 11.5-pt. Abobe Caslon Pro by Alpha Design & Composition
of Pittsfield, NH.
First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition: April 2021
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available for this title.
ISBN 978-0-8021-2712-9
eISBN 978-0-8021-8880-9
Grove Press
an imprint of Grove Atlantic
154 West 14th Street
New York, NY 10011
Distributed by Publishers Group West
This book is dedicated to my family
On whatever stage they call their own
CONTENTS
Introduction: A Prelude to Gravity
Chapter 1: What Were the Skies like When You Were Little
Chapter 2: Juke Box Fury
Chapter 3: On Saturday Afternoons in 1963
Chapter 4: A Summer Song
Chapter 5: The Winston Lips of September
Chapter 6: The Moon Is Made of Gold
Chapter 7: Gravity
Chapter 8: You Never Know When You’re Making a Memory
Chapter 9: The Summer of 1969
Chapter 10: Walk on Guilded Splinters
Chapter 11: Olympia
Chapter 12: Surfer Girl on the Waterbed
Chapter 13: Turn Her Over and Go . . .
Chapter 14: Doyt-Doyt—Venice Beach
Chapter 15: Easy Money
Chapter 16: Young Blood
Chapter 17: The Man with the Star
Chapter 18: Rickie Lee Jones
Chapter 19: Saturday Night Live
Chapter 20: The Bus Stop Blues
Chapter 21: Jazz Side of Life
Chapter 22: It Must Be Love
Glossary of Songs
Frank “Peg Leg” Jones
Here are the histories of my parents and siblings whose often tragically shaped lives feed my music and personality. Here are the stories of my friends and lovers, co-writers and producers, and those demons and angels who wage a constant battle for my soul. There were cave dwellers, Southern hoodoo, urban jails, and some of the most opulent hotels in the world. I’ve traveled to these places via my thumb and VW bug and a few times, the Concorde supersonic jet. I’ve lived volumes as a young girl long before I was famous and here I share the largeness of events I experienced through my younger eyes.
I sense a natural language being whispered that is shared by all of us. After all these decades, life remains stubbornly mysterious. In dreams