R&B singer songwriter Rickie Lee Jones is amazed her song ‘The Horses’ is so big in Australia.
Her original version recorded for her 1989 album ‘Flying Cowboys’ was a number one hit in Australia a year later when Daryl Braithwaite covered it for his album ‘Edge’.
Watch the Noise11 interview with Rickie Lee Jones:
Rickie Lee says of the Australian success, “It’s a phenonium. When I wrote it, I wrote it for my daughter. It started when I was still pregnant trying to imagine how would a child survive all this Rock and Roll show business and if I wasn’t there how could I create an afterlife where the whole world would take care of her. That’s the phenonium of this song because it is almost like in Australia the whole world does take care of her. They sing that song so loud. It is what I had in mind when I wrote it. They said, ‘we hear you’. It’s very moving for me”.
When Harry Styles toured Australia this year, Daryl Braithwaite joined him in Sydney to sing it live. Rickie Lee loved Harry’s version, “When I saw him I thought two things I thought ‘he is singing and pretty good’ and also ‘they are singing it really loud’. This is like the National Anthem. Why do they love singing this song, I don’t know. Between you and me I thought Harry did a great job”.
Rickie Lee co-wrote ‘The Horses’ with Walter Becker of Steely Dan. “He was my producer on ‘Flying Cowboys’”, she said. “I had this song and said ‘I feel like it’s just not going anywhere’. He listened and said ‘what if you changed the key and the chorus. So he changes key and I didn’t like it very much but I wasn’t going to say no to him because I knew he was a great writer so I said ‘okay, lets do it’. And that’s what we did”.
Daryl Braithwaite met Rickie Lee Jones for the very first time during her 2017 Australian tour and joined her on stage in Melbourne to sing ‘The Horses’ with her. “We weren’t great at it. Its high in his register. He does it really good but I do it differently. We were kind of on the spot. We did okay but it wasn’t a great exchange. I am sure he feels the same way but I’m glad we showed up for each other”.
On April 28, Rickie Lee Jones will release her new album ‘Pieces of Treasure’.
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