I was lucky to see Rickie Lee Jones’s show a few years ago right after the “Sermon on Exposition Blvd” CD came out. I loved it. I was mesmerized through the whole show. (I wonder if she’ll be touring again soon?) Sheryl Crow was in the audience too (passed her on the way from the bathroom). First time I heard "Leaving Las Vegas"on the radio I thought it was Rickie Lee, and it made me sad.
Jesus, what’s with this hostility? Have you no concept of the idea of sexuality coming through in music? What the hell is so wrong with admitting that the sensuality of a female singer’s voice turns you on? “Caveman spoogefest?” You make it sound like some disgusting horrible thing. Sex is just a part of music. Why do you think bands have groupies? Why do you think Mick Jagger has so many female fans - because of his handsome face?
And since when does every thread about a female artist turn into a “caveman spoogefest?”
Christ almighty, dude, BACK OFF.
Argent Towers
Nothing wrong with it whatsoever.
(Heck I also like listening to Carly Simon, whose voice is steeped in sultry sexuality.)
And by the way, lissener, your assertion that this is somehow “aggressive misogyny” is utterly ridiculous. Every single time anyone says “I’ll be in my bunk,” in some thread involving some attractive person, or whatever, they’re doing the same thing. Including women. Is there anything wrong with it? NO. If you find someone sexually attractive, that implies that you would want to have sex with them. Is it the word “fuck” that you object to? Should I instead have said, “Rickie Lee Jones has such a sensuous and lovely voice, I would like to carry her off to Paris and make love to her in a luxury hotel room with the Eiffel Tower right outside the window and a bottle of champagne in a bucket of ice?” You claim to be a fan of J.G. Ballard and you let this kind of stuff set you off?
How about that Last Chance Texaco? Ain’t that a haunting song? One of my favorites for 30 years now.
I’m embarassed to have to ask, but can I ask what doyt doyt means?
It’s the “sound” of music playing from the jukebox. Onamonapea or however the heck it’s spelled. Have you heard the song before? If you listen to it you’ll know what I mean. It’s like “tweedly-dee” or some other word that’s supposed to represent a sound.
If you honestly think you can convince me that the statement “RLJ has a sexy voice” is interchangeable with the statement “I want to fuck RLJ,” you’re just insulting both of us.
I dunno, I think he has a valid point. I wouldn’t have used the term misogynist, but I once started a thread to discuss the merits of Reese Witherspoons acting and watched it quickly become a discussion about the merits of her boobs, pretty fucking annoying.
What does it mean when you say something is sexy? It means you find that to be sexually appealing. What does that mean? It means you would like to have sex with it, or something like it. What does “I want to fuck (x)” mean? It means “I would like to have sex with (x)” just in a somewhat crude fashion. It seems to me you’re totally hung up on that word “fuck,” which as I said before seems quite uncharacteristic of someone claiming to be a fan of J.G. Ballard’s work.
Sexually-charged vocals in music lead people to become sexually desirous of the singer. This is just a fact of music.
No, he does not have a valid point.
TWO PEOPLE in the thread saying that they want to fuck the singer - yes, fuck the singer - fuck, fuck, fuck the singer - does not mean that the thread has taken a wrong turn, it just means that two male fans of the female singer (who deliberately affects a “sultry”, sexually-charged jazz-style voice) are RESPONDING TO THE MUSIC THE WAY THEY WERE INTENDED TO.
And I’ll say again, how is this any different from the “I’ll be in my bunk” jokes (which pop up over and over and over and OVER and OVER on this forum) ? That’s just another way of saying, “I want to fuck him/her.” In its original context, it was Jayne from Firefly saying that he wanted to fuck two women. Fuck them, fuck them, fuck them. People fuck each other. People fuck musicians because they think their music is sexy. Again I doubt it was Mick Jagger’s good looks that earned him all the pussy he’s gotten.
What is there to even debate here? Lissener’s comments smack of prudery and high-handed elitism.
And one final thing: saying that you want to fuck a singer, based on her voice alone, is pretty much the ultimate compliment, so to make it out to be some “misogynist” thing is utterly laughable. It would be a different story if this was a talented female singer who was also attractive, and so her looks overshadowed her talent and guys were only talking about wanting to fuck her because she’s hot. But that is not the case here.
Wow. Just, wow. Thanks for confirming my squick.
Typing a little one-line jab is so much easier than actually arguing a point, isn’t it?
What I said is correct. I stand by everything I wrote, and re-state it. I have no idea why you’ve got such an axe to grind against this, but my viewpoint is validated by THREE other posters here, so it seems that the problem is with you. Seems to me you’re just being stubborn and hard headed for no reason. I always see your name in the Pit and I never read the threads but I always wondered why you always popped up there. Now I guess I know why.
I wrote three logical paragraphs; you responded with one line. Way to go, ace. Great argument.
I dunno, Agent Towers, you seem to be doing all the shouting.
Great response, there, too. Another ace. How about someone actually address what I said? I’ll restate my points, in case you forgot:
[ul]
[li]What does it mean when you say something is sexy? It means you find that to be sexually appealing. What does that mean? It means you would like to have sex with it, or something like it. What does “I want to fuck (x)” mean? It means “I would like to have sex with (x)” just in a somewhat crude fashion. In other words, it doesn’t mean the thread is now “in the gutter,” unless you’re a prude or a 79-year Southern Baptist who is offended by the big bad F-word.[/li][li] Sexually-charged vocals in music lead people to become sexually desirous of the singer. This is just a fact of music. [/li][li]Saying that you want to fuck a singer, based on her voice alone, is pretty much the ultimate compliment, so to make it out to be some “misogynist” thing is utterly laughable. It would be a different story if this was a talented female singer who was also attractive, and so her looks overshadowed her talent and guys were only talking about wanting to fuck her because she’s hot. But that is not the case here.[/li][/ul]
There’s my case for NOT being a misogynist and for this thread NOT being in the gutter because two people said they wanted to fuck Ricki Lee Jones.
Oh and…I want to fuck Ricki Lee Jones.
100% agreed. Ricki Lee Jones has a very sexy, beautiful voice. She WANTS to have an emotional effect on people. That’s the point. If I were gay, I’d voice fuck her. I don’t think I’d want a deeper relationship with her because I hear she’s kind of a pain in the ass. But if I were a lesbian, I’d do her voice six ways from Sunday.
::: moderator twangs microphone for attention :::
Arright, gang, let’s break it up and calm down and get back to topic.
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If you want to start a thread on whether “I want to fuck that singer based on her voice” is misogynist, I think that could be an interesting discussion, but in another thread. Depending on where you want to go with it, Great Debates, IMHO or here in Cafe Society work fine. (Please note, I’m not criticizing lissener for his comment, I’m just saying that the following discussion is off-track for this thread.
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If you want to start a thread complaining that every thread about a female singer winds up with someone wanting to fuck her, again, that’s an interesting discussion for another thread, either here, or in the Pit.
I don’t think any one person has been thread-shitting here. I personally find the comment that “her voice is so beautiful that I want to fuck her” to be offensive and puerile and pretty much inane, and certainly VERY different from “her voice is sensually arousing.” However, it’s not threadshitting in and of itself.
In short, I don’t think anyone is thread-shitting, I’m not scolding or warning anyone. Each person being off-track by a fraction of an inch, and pretty soon the whole shindig is way the hell off-track. I do think that this side discussion has become extremely tangential, and so far off-track as to merit separate threads. So, back to Rickie Lee Jones in this thread. All clear?
All clear - although it seems pretty obvious that you’re taking a side here. Nevertheless, I’m done trying to bang my head against this brick wall. If other people want to sit and pout about big bad puerile misogynist utterers of the word “fuck”, they can go do it somewhere else besides here.
Now moving along - this thread is about Ricki Lee Jones.
In any thread about a talented artist, there will be discussion about what it is about that particular artist that makes him or her so talented. In a thread about Bobby Fischer, people would discuss his mastery of opening theory, or his ability to shake the other player’s confidence. If we were talking about Tom Wolfe’s writing, there would be discussions of how he lampoons popular culture and social elites. If we were talking about Mark Rothko we would discuss the way in which his bold, vivid colors evoke particular emotions. Et cetera, et cetera.
In the case of Ricki Lee Jones, the thing that makes her so talented is her sensual voice. Sensual voice. She has a breathy quality to her vocal tones that is unmatched by any contemporary, and this breathiness combined with her mastery of the upper octaves, results in a certain sound which is, for lack of a better word, sexy. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that she makes breathy sounds in her singing that women typically make during sex, or while they’re having an orgasm. (I’m absolutely serious about that.) A “breathy” tone of voice has long been something that gives a voice an erotic connotation, because people sigh, whisper, and moan when they are having sexual experiences.
All of this, however, goes without saying when I listen to Ricki Lee Jones’s voice. The only thing I think when I hear her is, “that’s sexy.” This is the kind of visceral emotion that you want to have when enjoying good music, or any kind of art. But in some cases, in the interest of clarity, I need to spell it all out and write a whole dissertation about what it is exactly that makes her voice sexy.
I guess whoever was in charge of signing her to the record label probably thought about it in the same way. They probably sat down in an oak-paneled boardroom with pitchers of water, discussing the sensual qualities of Ricki Lee Jones’s voice for two hours (not counting the lunch break) and maybe even hired scientists and vocal experts and military codebreakers to deconstruct the precise tones and frequencies that made Ricki Lee Jones sound so sexy. Maybe they played her music in the panda cage at the zoo and tried to see if it had any impact on their mating habits. I don’t know.
But what I do know is, “Chuck E’s In Love” makes me feel the way I feel when I had my first crush in middle school - every time. It gives me that floaty, dreamy feeling, like Ricki is singing that love song for me and me only. That, my friends, is a good singer, and you can call it by any name you want.