Still, with hindsight, one can see to what extent these early days idle comparisons, as a result, did certainly contribute to make Rickie Lee Jones systematically refuse the roles which the Recording Industry and the Press attempted to assign to her. She paid this policy a high price with a checkered career, (see Ted Goia's brillant assessment) marked by highs and lows. But she stubbornly kept refusing to weigh up her artistic integrity, preferring to clear new paths and new horizons at the risk of confusing or even disappointing her audience, rather than fit into predictable molds and repeat herself.

Thus, if Rickie Lee Jones’ catalogue holds relatively few studio recordings over forty years of career, it still offers a few true masterpieces. If Rickie Lee Jones is the first of these, the second one reports her breakup with Tom Waits, an event that gave birth in 1981 to Jones’ second release, born out of pain and sorrow : the extraordinary Pirates.
She is supported in this testing aching time by Sal Bernardi, a talented boho American musician and songwriter, originally from New Jersey, with a passion for Jazz and Blues. Sal Bernardi was the inspiration for Weasel and the White Boys Cool on Jones' self-titled debut album Rickie Lee Jones in 1979, along with the late singer Chuck. E. Weiss (disappeared in 2021), who was the "Check. E" from the worldwide hit Chuck. E's in love that launched Rickie Lee Jones' career. On the other hand, Pirates refers mainly to Tom Waits and Jones' haunting separation, a break that tolled the death knell for restless nights, impromptu jam sessions and wild gang binges with iconic Chuck E. Weiss in L.A.'s shady bars.

With Pirates, Jones certainly signed her greatest recording, under Sal Bernardi's friendly benevolence who supported her in the emotional ordeal she went through because of Waits’ defection (with the solace that the "Weasel" boy did bring then by becoming momentarily Jones' partner of heart). The musician, who later moved to Paris and has lived there over the decades till that day, remained faithful to Rickie Lee Jones all the way through and never ceased to accompany her during her upcoming discographic adventures.