Flying Cowboys

Flying Cowboys
Studio album by Rickie Lee Jones
Released September 26, 1989
Genre Alternative
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, 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 a French musician, Pascal Nabet-Meyer, and gave birth to a daughter, Charlotte, 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).

Reviews

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
Robert Christgau (B)[2]
Rolling Stone [3]

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."

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, Leo Maguire, Gerry Marsden, Freddie 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

Technical

Musicians

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic review
  2. ↑ Robert Christgau review
  3. ↑ Rolling Stone review

External links