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Millie Jackson has always been, shall we say, "theatrical." A rapper before rap became its own genre, a stand-up comedian who makes Eddie Murphy sound tame and a female R&B singer whose stage show makes Madonna's seem timid, Jackson has long laced her Southern soul songs with long monologues full of frank talk about sex and even franker demands for female equality in the bedroom. On recent tours, Jackson has taken the next logical step and turned her monologues and characters into a storyline built around "Young Man, Older Women," a song from her last album. Now that stage show has been documented in a semi-live album, Young Man, Older Woman--The Cast Album. Written by Doug and Helen Smith and narrated by the beefy transvestite Kenneth "Chocolate Thunder" Montague, the story finds Jackson married to comedian Reynaldo Rey. She sings straightforwardly about "Living with a Stranger," but the mood shifts as he turns aside her bawdy suggestions with cracks about her weight problem. She responds with the bluesy taunt, "You're Gonna Miss Me (When I'm Gone)." She walks out and finds herself unhappy being single, so she goes to see a quack psychiatrist, who tries to seduce her in an effort to free her inner self. Jackson finally decides she has to make it as an independent woman, and she belts out the showstopper, "Taking My Life Back." The album is an uneven combination of high-fidelity studio recordings and low-fidelity live recordings. The material, too, is an erratic mix of raunchy humor and generic, sentimental soul songs. The other performers tend to disappear behind the wattage of Jackson's personality, and her jokes too often go for the obvious rather than the surprise twist. She is an underrated soul singer, but none of her new songs taxes her talents too strenuously. --Jeffrey Himes
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