Flying Cowboys

Flying Cowboys
Studio album by Rickie Lee Jones
Released September 26, 1989
Length 55:17
Label Geffen
Producer Walter Becker
Rickie Lee Jones chronology
The Magazine
(1984)		 Flying Cowboys
(1989)		 Pop Pop
(1991)

Flying Cowboys is an album by Rickie Lee Jones that was released in September 1989 and produced by Walter Becker of Steely Dan.

Genesis

After the release of The Magazine in 1984, Jones retreated from the limelight. She married Pascal Nabet Meyer and gave birth to daughter Charlotte Rose in 1988 while working on her fourth full-length studio album.

Jones and Nabet Meyer had been writing and working together on new material for several years before the recording work commenced in 1988, with Becker as producer. Jones had expressed admiration for the work of Steely Dan, particularly their album The Royal Scam (1976).

Promotional copies of Flying Cowboys were packaged with an interview with Jones conducted by an unknown individual (previously misidentified as LeVar Burton). This interview is the source for a passage that is extensively sampled on British electronic group The Orb's 1990 hit "Little Fluffy Clouds".[1]

Reviews

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[2]
Robert Christgau(B)[3]
Rolling Stone[4]

St. Petersburg Times, Oct. 13, 1989 (4/5) – "[She] embraces adulthood and real life without sacrificing her cool, bohemian edge."

Time, Oct. 23, 1989 – "In Flying Cowboys...she sets down a kind of mystical confessional, full of allusive autobiography and reflective nonchalance. It has the breadth of an important book and the emotional impact of great rock 'n' roll."

Rolling Stone, Nov. 2, 1989 (4/5) – "While it explores a wealth of themes and musical styles, the album unfolds with the ongoing grace of one long song. What provides unity to the album's varied elements is its seductive rhythmic flow, the down-home surrealism of Jones's lyrics, the clarity and intelligence of Walter Becker's production and, of course, the sensual elasticity of Jones's extraordinary singing."

The New York Times, Dec. 24, 1989 – Best of 1989 – "Ms. Jones's newest suite of enigmatic dream songs drenched in personal mythology is an eccentric tour de force, as rich in imagery as it is self-dramatizing."

Track listing

All tracks composed by Rickie Lee Jones; except where indicated

  1. "The Horses" (Walter Becker, Jones) – 4:47
  2. "Just My Baby" (Jones, Pascal Nabet-Meyer) – 4:44
  3. "Ghetto of My Mind" (Jones, Nabet-Meyer) – 6:12
  4. "Rodeo Girl" – 4:50
  5. "Satellites" – 4:54
  6. "Ghost Train" – 4:16
  7. "Flying Cowboys" (Sal Bernardi, Jones, Nabet-Meyer) – 5:02
  8. "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" (Les Chadwick, Leslie Maguire, Gerry Marsden, Fred Marsden) – 4:13
  9. "Love Is Gonna Bring Us Back Alive" (Jones, Nabet-Meyer) – 4:51
  10. "Away from the Sky" – 5:30
  11. "Atlas' Marker" – 5:58

Charts

Album - Billboard

Year Chart Position
1989 The Billboard 200 39

Singles - Billboard

Year Single Chart Position
1989 "Satellites" Modern Rock Tracks 23

Personnel

Musicians

  • Rickie Lee Jones - synthesizer, guitar, vocals; all instruments on ""Rodeo Girl"
  • John Robinson - drums on tracks: 1, 3, 5, 9
  • Peter Erskine - drums on tracks: 7, 11
  • Buzz Feiten - guitar on tracks: 1, 3, 5, 9
  • Dean Parks - guitar on tracks: 1 to 3, 5, 7, 10, 11
  • Greg Phillinganes - keyboards on tracks 1, 3, 5
  • Neil Stubenhaus - bass on tracks: 1, 3, 5, 9, 11
  • Sal Bernardi - guitar, backing vocals on track 7
  • Jim Keltner - drum machine effects on track 6
  • Bob Sheppard - saxophone on tracks 5, 8
  • Rob Wasserman - bass on track 8
  • Paulinho da Costa - percussion on track 8
  • William "Smitty" Smith - organ on track 1
  • Michael Omartian - piano on track 1
  • Ed Alton - bass on track 2
  • Michael Fisher - percussion on track 2
  • Gary Coleman - vibraphone on track 2
  • Bob Zimmitti - percussion on tracks 3, 5
  • Chris Dickie - drum programming on track 4
  • Walter Becker - bass on track 7
  • Marty Krystall - English horn, clarinet on track 7; tenor saxophone on track 9
  • Vince Mendoza - trumpet on track 7
  • Greg Mathieson - Hammond B3 organ on track 9
  • Michael Boddicker - synthesizer on track 10
  • Pascal Nabet-Meyer - synthesizer, piano on track 7, percussion programming on track 11
  • Randy Brecker - trumpet on track 11
  • Vonda Shepard - backing vocals
  • Chris Smith - harmonica

Technical

  • Walter Becker - producer
  • Gary Gersh, Pascal Nabet Meyer - executive producers
  • Greg Penny, Roger Nicols, Mark Linett, Lavant Coppock, Roger Hart - engineer
  • Jose Esteban Martinez - front cover painting

References

  1. ↑ McCusker, Eamonn (2003-10-15). "The Orb - Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld". CD Times. Archived from the original on 2006-03-15.
  2. ↑ Allmusic review
  3. ↑ Robert Christgau review
  4. ↑ Rolling Stone review Archived November 12, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
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