SASS 'N' ATTITUDE & BANDAGED PAIN

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[This review originally appeared at BigBitch.com on 2006, May 24.] 
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RICKIE LEE JONES
by Rickie Lee Jones
released: 1979
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In 1979, Rickie Lee Jones released what was probably the most fully-realized and self-assured debut album by any singer of any genre at any time. No other vocalist ever broke from the starting gate with this much aplomb, looseness and "If you don't like it, you can hit the road, Jack" attitude. In a sense, this was both a blessing and a curse: she made it obvious immediately that she was a prodigiously talented songwriter who put her songs over with a finely-tuned, stylistic sauciness and a broken-hearted sincerity. But at the same time, she set the bar so high with her self-titled 'RICKIE LEE JONES' that subsequent disappointment was almost inevitable.
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It was a different world at the tail end of the '70s: originality was still a desirable trait in new artists being developed (unlike the current situation where the new bands and performers seem like nothing more nor less than Xerox copies of last year's hottest model), and I was a 20-year-old looking squarely at a future full of pristine promise (unaware that the best I'd ever do is write semi-appreciated reviews for a then unimaginable Internet shopping site).
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When Rickie Lee Jones released her second collection, 'PIRATES', I initially thought it eclipsed her brilliant debut (I used to sniff Amyl Nitrite while tripping out over Steve Gadd's quirky drumming on the track, 'We Belong Together'), but in hindsight, I realize that the further she went with sonic exploration into highly personal expression, the further she drifted from really making that human connection with her listeners over a shared emotional understanding.
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But on 'RICKIE LEE JONES', with its Jazzy arrangements and stellar musicianship, her poetry was conveyed through exaggerated (and perhaps just a trace too-mannered), flouncy, bohemian sass 'n' attitude upbeat numbers, or ultra-sensitive, lost 'n' lonely ballads of bandaged pain that strike right at the heart.
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In the SASS 'N' ATTITUDE department there's...
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NIGHT TRAIN:
"Swing low, Saint Cadillac / Tearin' down the alley" 
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YOUNG BLOOD:
"But she ain't running / She's walking a little slow / And she ain't crying / She's just singin' a little low / They say this city will make you dirty but you look alright / You feel real pretty when he's holding you tight / City will make you mean but that's the makeup on your face / Love will wash you clean in the night's disgrace"
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DANNY'S ALL-STAR JOINT:
"You can't break the rules until you know how to play the game / But if you just want to have a little fun / You can mention my name" 
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WEASEL AND THE WHITE BOYS COOL:
"You dancin' in the welfare line, Sal / Actin' like some jerk-off fool / When we could lay out eatin' peaches on the beaches / A weasel in a White boys cool" 
(And I can personally recall a time when I did eat a peach on Venice Beach- the superfunky L.A. hotspot where Rickie first developed these songs in the beer bars and bistros along the boardwalk while dogs went airborne over the sand to snag Frisbees in flight and the carnival of human wackiness paraded under the California sun.)
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But even in many of Rickie's thumpin', bumpin', hip-grindin' upbeat numbers, a trace of her melancholy muse can be found: Consider this line from the aforementioned YOUNG BLOOD:
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"Keep a third eye watching behind you / You never know when you're making a memory / They will wish they were here together again, someday." 
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You won't feel the full impact of that sentiment until you are in your mid-forties, but you'll really understand it then.
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In the BANDAGED PAIN department there's...
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ON SATURDAY AFTERNOONS IN 1963:
"The most as you'll ever go / Is back where you used to know / If grownups could laugh this slow"
(If you can't detect two or three worlds in that lyric, then you'd better just stick with the crude pseudo-machismo of your Eminem and Insane Clown Posse.)
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THE LAST CHANCE TEXACO:
"There was this block-busted blonde / He loved her free parts and labor / But she broke down and died / And threw all the rods he gave her / But this one ain't fuel-injected / Her plug's disconnected / She gets scared and she stalls / She just needs a man, that's all"
(This song contains the greatest automotive imagery ever penned. Too bad for you, Springsteen!)
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COOLSVILLE:
"I and Bragger and Junior Lee / That's the way we always thought it would be / In the Winston lips of September / How we met / Decked out like aces / We'd beat anybody's bet / Cuz we was Coolsville"
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COMPANY:
"I'll see you in another life now, baby / I'll free you in my dreams / But when I reach across the galaxy / I will miss your company" 
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Me 'n' the boys were cruisin' the 405 freeway on our way to see Rickie Lee Jones perform at The Universal Amphitheater in 1983. We were all singin' in Tiburon (our permanently topless, 1963 Cadillac), when I realized that I had forgotten the glasses I'd recently begun wearing at night to compensate for my nearsightedness. Rickie was in fine vocal form that night, but she appeared to me like just a greyish, blurry form on the stage. While goin' home that evening, all the boys could talk about was how she had performed braless in a sheer, see-through blouse. I never did determine whether they were serious or just teasing the myopic maroon in the backseat.
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If you want to hear some authentic art from the 1970s, some street-smart, toe-tappin' jive-rock and moving poetry that you can hum along with, then let 'RICKIE LEE JONES' keep you COMPANY. In the song AFTER HOURS (Twelve Bars Past Goodnight), Rickie sings, "Say goodnight, America / The world still loves a dreamer." And here in 2006, I'm still dreaming that someday I'll find my misplaced glasses and then SEE if I can write something more worthwhile than a bunch of semi-appreciated product reviews for an Internet shopping site. Wish me luck, America.
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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GIVE ME THAT OLD TIME RELIG-- er... BLASPHEMY

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LIVES OF THE MASTER: The Rest Of The Jesus Story
by Glenn Sanderfur
published: 1988
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Let's be clear about two things right from the start:
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1) By REINCARNATION we mean the concept that a soul might activate more than one human body at different times. This is commonly confused with SOUL TRANSMIGRATION which theorizes that souls can inhabit the bodies of dogs, cats, and other animals, and even ostensibly inanimate objects such as rocks and raindrops. There is much evidence to support the former belief and not a shred of evidence to support the latter.
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2) Despite the vehement denouncing of it by contemporary Christian theologians, REINCARNATION is a Biblically-sound belief that is prevalent throughout both Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible. There are a great many Bible verses that allude to reincarnation, and some Bible passages even remain unintelligible until the moment reincarnation is applied to them.
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The idea that Jesus Himself may have incarnated multiple times will seem a greater blasphemy to most Christians than reincarnation in general. And although I don't personally take a hard and fast position on this, I do lean heavily toward it. The idea seems to be implied in several Biblical passages. For instance: "Though He (Jesus) was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered." (Hebrews 5:8) This seems to hint at earlier lifetimes in which The Son suffered as a result of disobedience and from those sufferings He learned obedience. Based on what we learn of Jesus from The Bible, one could accurately say that Jesus suffered as a result of His obedience to God, but it would NOT be correct to say that He learned obedience by suffering, because from His earliest Childhood we see Him being obedient to God's Will. ("Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" --Luke 2:49) At no point was He disobedient. And so Hebrews 5:8 seems to imply AT LEAST one earlier lifetime for Jesus.
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It's hard not to appreciate the humility and simplicity of Glenn Sanderfur's writing in 'LIVES OF THE MASTER' and the research that he shares. The book makes compelling arguments and the sheer amount of evidence that Sanderfur presents will surprise a great many readers. There is more than ample food for thought in these pages. But there is also a downside:
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For many people the reincarnation concept becomes a stumbling block. Reincarnation is the patience of God in action (as I like to refer to it) and like all Divine Laws, the system works whether one is aware of its existence or not. Reincarnation is sometimes turned into a false idol by students who make too much of it and lose sight of the fact that what one does with their present circumstances is far more important than learning how they arrived at their present circumstances. Reincarnation can be very helpful, but it can also be misunderstood and misapplied, becoming detrimental to spiritually immature individuals.
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Much of the information in 'LIVES OF THE MASTER' is derived from pseudepigraphic writings. My limited study of the pseudepigrapha leads me to believe that those texts were justifiably not canonized. Another source of information is the Edgar Cayce readings which have proven to be both accurate and (often) inaccurate.
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I was once so dedicated to the Cayce readings that I even visited Edgar Cayce's hometown and gravesite in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. But decades of study led me to the conclusion that the readings sometimes originated from highly "questionable" sources. One reading actually admits this! (*See my review for 'The Edgar Cayce Companion' by Ernest Frejer, titled, 'Danger! You Are Skating On Thin Ice', posted at Amazon.com on 2004, July 25th.)
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In a few chapters, Sanderfur quotes Manly Hall as an authority. Manly Hall was a prolific Masonic writer and, like other "adepts" in the Masonic Order, was a luciferian.
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"When the Mason learns that the key to the warrior on the block is the proper application of the dynamo of living power, he has learned the mystery of his craft. The seething energies of Lucifer are in his hands", Manly wrote in 'Lost Keys Of Freemasonry'.
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In his book 'Twelve World Teachers', which is quoted from several times in 'Lives Of The Master', Hall doubts the crucifixion of Jesus and states that, "in a sense the Last Supper concluded the ministry". This exhibits such a woefully inadequate understanding of (if not a deliberate deception about) the Messianic mission of Jesus, that quoting ANY passages from Hall's book casts Sanderfur's book in a very bad light! And whereas contemporary Christianity suffers from nearsightedness and a rigid, confining theology, the New Age movement is dangerously occultic at best, and downright luciferian at worst. For this reason, I recommend Glenn Sanderfur's 'LIVES OF THE MASTER', but I do so very, very cautiously.
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This book may be helpful to you "if you are willing to receive it" and have "ears to hear". But it could also be a hindrance to your Spiritual development and lead you down a very dark path. Honestly, I strongly suggest that you pray about it. Too often I have used my "reasoning" ability to make decisions and later regretted them. But whenever I have gone to The Father or His Son, Yeshua, with a question, and then waited patiently for the answer, I have NEVER been led astray. Should you read 'LIVES OF THE MASTER'? Don't ask me. Ask the ONE who knows!
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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