Young Blood

Album: Rickie Lee Jones (1979)
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Songfacts®:

  • Rickie Lee Jones was an itinerant teenager, running away from home and traveling around California as she looked to make a career out of music. When she was 16 (around 1971) she found herself hitchhiking when someone picked her up and bought her a burrito at a restaurant called Burrito King, which inspired this song.

    In a Songfacts interview with Jones, she said: "When I was 22, six years later, I was wondering what the people who lived near Burrito King were up to. Mostly Hispanic, an exciting part of town. So I made up these people and had them go out and have some fun."
  • This is a track on Rickie Lee Jones' self-titled debut, which earned her widespread acclaim and a Grammy Award for Best New Artist. The song is an example of her early songwriting, where she created characters based on real people and events.
  • The Burrito King that inspired this song is likely in Madera, California. It still exists, and was founded in the 1970s.

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