Jeff Buckley Classic or Dud?

For me, "Sketches..." is a different story. I know it's not a 'proper' album and would never have been released in this form if Buckley had lived, but it's pretty damn good, much better than Grace. Without the opportunity to slap a load of raga-strings over the top and over-arrange the hell out of this material, it sounds really strong to me. "Everybody..." "Vancouver", "Yard of Blonde Girls", "Opened Once" are fantastic. The home demos CD, packaged along with "Sketches" is complete crap, of course. The live album sounds like a load of rock-legend showboating, but no doubt there will be more live stuff to follow. Probably best to avoid. Overall, dud I suppose.

Classic

I find his canonistion problematic, even though he was a personable and approachable fellow. One above average record and an interesting live set does not a classic make.

In case you don't get it, Jeff Buckley was never very commercial, but he did some very dissonant and difficult 4-track experiments that ended up on his second product "Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk." He also did a very harsh, grating porno-punk song in the best tradition of, of, heck I dunno. My only exposure to punk is Greenday and Elastica, and I don't even know if they're really punk.

This has to be the most un-Ned sentence ever.

agreed:

Ned, i just can't abide Coldplay either and i don't know why. No actually i do. they peddle 'cheap, emotional patriotism' - see 'the scientist'. they send shivers down my spine in a lot of very bad ways, where somehow Jeff despite being One For The Ladayz manages to touch nerve-endings in an intimate folk-rock aor ballady number without resorting to such lyrical, emotional schmaltz that seems to cling like Gwyneth to a lot of Clayplod's output. 'Grace' is a fine, fine record of it's kind.

crappy cash-in live/unreleased albums, greedy moms, walking into rivers and rampant self-mythologisation: Dud.

Agreed Matt Purdy. For me it's all about Tim Buckley. Wading through the smack-outs and jazz odyssies may dissuade some, but pan-handling Tim's back catalogue gives a clear 50% yield of PURE FUCKING NUGGETS.

Sometimes nothing, no-one, is ever going to hit the mark like a Tim Buckley classic. No-one. And for the casual listener the joy is discovering these treasures without having them rammed down your throat by anyone.

I will allow that there did get to be a point where I felt like it had gone a little too far with the posthumous releases, though. I still find the double SinE CD to be painful to listen to, I guess because it's such an intimate setting and he just seems so alive and in your face, and the video interview that came with that was devastatingly short - like 15 minutes. At some point I just wanted to stop reopening the wounds and finally quit grieving him and it was like I wasn't being allowed that. Some part of me feels that where he was planning on going musically when he left us was just so much more important than this stuff. And I didn't buy the reissue of Grace, either.

I hope no one takes offense at any of this, it's just my perspective. I don't play him often now but when I do, I prefer to listen to the last things he did, even where they are rough. I'd like to think he's still continuing on somewhere, I guess, that he's on his 4th album now and we just aren't privy to it.

And Jeff, who I was acquainted with, didn't like her either.

I was at that Sin-e show and it sounded a lot better in person than it does on the double live reissue. He was really amazing live. Fearless even.

Exactly.

Jeff, who I was acquainted with, didn't like her either.

What gave you that impression?

They were barely speaking when he died.

She's a nightmare. Check out the wedding picture of her and Tim and the look on Tim's face. He knew.

Jed: OTM re: "Morning Theft."

I'm also quite fond of "Jewel Box."

Grace is obviously a fantastic, really musically accomplished and just plain beautiful album, though it took me a while to warm to it myself. Now I consider it one of the best of the 90s. Who has heard the recent 2cd + DVD edition? Is there anything on there that hasn't already been released on the various other odds 'n sods packages that is worth hearing?

Who says I don't like Neil Diamond?

Classic.

Well, personally speaking, the notion that his mother was trolling around the `net, chastising JEFF'S FANS for discussing his music (when, the point could be made in the particular instance i was caught in, it was the BAD BRAINS who were actually getting short-changed) left quite a bad taste in my mouth, so much so that it almost completely put me off the man's music, which is a shame. I'd paste some of the comments that were made during the exchange (it was rumored that she also used a variety of pseudonymns), but .....hmmmm....I was going to say "why dig up old bones?" or "that's just water under the bridge", but I can't think of a colloquialism that isn't somehow in exceptionally poor taste.

In any case, it never struck me as a good idea that someone so close to the deceased should be in charge of his vaults. I'm sure her maternal instincts and deep feelings of loss amplified any legitimate legal grievances, so she's not really to be blamed, I suppose. Still, I can't listen to the stuff anymore without thinking of her sitting at a computer, foaming at the mouth, ripping her hair out and painting herself red with lipstick like Diane Ladd in "Wild at Heart".

I really enjoyed seeing him live.

no YOU'RE WRONG.

I'M RIGHT OF COURSE. MY TASTE IS GOOD AND YOURS IS BAD. I KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT EVERYTHING AND YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ANYTHING SO I WIN.

Loser.

Very kick-ass guitarist, very kick-ass vocalist, great taste in music/covers; had a great, sympathetic band. You'd have to be musically illiterate not to recognize his talents, even if you didn't like the particular idiom within which he worked... But then, ILM is a festering cesspool of anglophile/musical-illiterates...

I love "Mojo Pin" (especially the opening 45 seconds) and "Last Goodbye" and "So Real", really like "Grace" and "Lover..." and "Opened Once" and "Morning Theft", quite like most of the rest og Grace and CD1 (plus "Haven't You Heard" off CD2) of Sketches... and "Forget Her". The slavish worship by some people (such as the Aussie guy who's temping in my office) of him weirds me out a bit. But I generally don't like rock mythologising.

There were too many cover versions and "fill-ins" to be truly classic, and that they let off the only true "single" (for valid reasons granted) didn't help.

"Live at Sin'e" (deluxe) is the one.

The rest I don't have.

I don't know of many artists that were so immersed in music, not just their own, so on the whole I think "Classic" if only because he worked so hard for it.

And if "Taking sides" issuing live albums/demo collections/reformatting, well you don't have to buy them. They will run out of stuff, and that will be it.

I prefer Jeff to Tim, frankly, because Jeff seemed more exciting and dark to me when I was 18 and (trying) to get into Tim after having loved Grace (I bought it the week after he died, out of curiosity).

Curious.

"Woke Up In A Strange Place" anyone? He's just killing me now on all fronts. "What Will You Say". I haven't played him in a long, long time. And it feels so good.

I figured this board would be the type to try to knock him down a peg, so I'll step in and say huge classic.

Grace is amazing, and to a lesser degree, Sketches....

who knew he was so cute!!

jeff's always had a curiously massive following here in sydney so in my high school days i was subject to that whole adoring female crowd obviously just in it for his looks

i saw him on a cover at the record store the other day and kinda flipped

It's "Mr. Buckley" to you.

Yeah he was pretty good looking. I liked him more for his music than his looks, but yeah.

His music turned him into Medusa.

the popularity of buckley, although he has some good songs, seems out of proportion. cheers to him covering one of my favorite genesis songs - back in n.y.c.

but buckley reminds me of elliot smith and weezer in the blown out of proportion department. which I mention these two bands rather than artic monkeys and that kind of music because I totally disregard anything similar as crap, so kudos to weezer and elliot smith for being in the same sentence with buckley. all of which is below par (in the enjoyment factor) in my book.

by the way, quasi is the weezer that weezer should have been. and mates of state sucks.

Elliot Smith? PUHLEEZ. Elliot Smith had less musical talent in his little finger!

At least Alfred's hatred of Buckley was expressed in easy, forthright terms.

I don't give a shit. I will defend Jeff Buckley to the death. I don't care about his mother or his father or the screaming girls. He wasn't perfect, but certainly capable of a brilliance rarely seen on this earth.

Elliot Smith? PUHLEEZ. Elliot Smith had less musical talent in his little finger!

Not sure what this means?

I don't give a shit. I will defend Jeff Buckley to the death. I don't care about his mother or his father or the screaming girls. He wasn't perfect, but certainly capable of a brilliance rarely seen on this earth.

seconded.

except I'd recommend that you take the time to care about his dad, who on the whole was a more interesting artist. there's some real dross in his catalogue, it's true, but his highs are far higher than his son's.

ILM continues to severely underrate elliott smith. you are going to be hard pressed finding a contemporary musician who writes better, more immediate hooks than this guy. plus he has an extremely high number of great songs.

jeff buckley on the other hand is fair game for criticism as far as i'm concerned. the man had talent, but it was only sparingly reflected in his musical output. tim buckley is another matter altogether since he has an astonishingly good catalogue of music and was highly varied and creative in his approach.

What it means is, Mouthy, Elliot Smith was a fucking flea on the arse of Jeff Buckley in terms of talent goes.

And frankly I don't want to hear from bitter straight men about how Jeff Buckley was ripe for criticism because your girlfriend or ex-girlfriend liked him or whatever. Be objective for chrissakes. Throw his looks out the window and THEN judge the music.

What it means is, Mouthy, Elliot Smith was a fucking flea on the arse of Jeff Buckley in terms of talent goes.

In which case do you mean "Buckley had more talent in his little finger than Smith had in his whole body" then? Not picking; it just literally made no sense to me.

I used to like Buckley a lot. Not listened in a while. They did VERY different things though, I feel. Buckley couldn't have done a song like Baby Britain anymore than Smith could have done... Mojo Pin, maybe. Comparing the two, particularly in such... snide and severe terms, just seems very inappropriate given that they're both dead.

As a straight man I'll be the first to point out that I appreciated him for his looks as much as his music. I chose to see him at the Hot House in summer '94 based purely on the fact that I'm a Tim Buckley fan. I took a date and while I wasn't sure about his originals, his singing was transcendent, as were his covers of Van Morrison, Big Star and Nusrat. My date was practically drooling, and I probably had the best sex of my life at that point after the show. Thanks Jeff!

I think he suffered from writer's block, partly because of being under the suffocating shadow of his father, trying to do his own thing but having a similar voice and looks. He was definitely more of an interpreter than songwriter. I saw him two more times, and probably would not have tired of him had he lived. He definitely didn't complete his artistic arc like his father seemed to have before his death.

Coincidentally I'm reading the Dream Brother book right now.

He definitely didn't complete his artistic arc like his father seemed to have before his death.

exactly

If everyone who says how much they love Grace had actually bought Grace at the time it would have gone quadruple platinum instead of one week at #50 due to titans like Tony di Bart, Doop and Wet Wet Wet.

I bought it about a week after he drowned.

I chose to see him at the Hot House in summer '94

the Hot House in Chicago?

I bought it shortly after it came out as i heard it at my mates and loved it.
Already had some Tim Buckley cds.

there comes a point in music that no matter how well written, well executed, or amazing talent with an instrument; the musician's songs are still for the most part boring. Thats why talent only means so much.

Another factor that must be heavily considered is the singer's voice. Does it make you sleepy (jeff buckley), does it sound whiney or bright eyesy (elliot smith), is it nasaly (neutral milk hotel). No matter how much talent is present, the singer's voice can destroy any hope of ever liking their music.

Yeah, Hot House in Chicago when it was still on Milwaukee Ave. I also saw him at Green Mill, Uncommon Ground, and Metro (documented on DVD). So it was three more, not two more times, oops. He was extremely drunk at the Green Mill, but still performed well.

xp: how does well written and well executed = boring?

surely boring songs are by definition badly written and performed? in other words, not all poor songs are boring, but all boring songs are poor.

amend: badly written and/or performed

You're right, Mouthy. It didn't make much sense. It just seemed to in my drunken brain at the time.

no. take king crimson for example. extremely talented, well executed, and lots of well written songs. but that doesn't stop me from thinking that lots of these songs are crappy anyways. hence, there is something more than just talent, execution and writing. There is the overall song and whether or not it is appeasing or not.

yngwie malmsteen songs, as a whole, suck balls.

Jeff Buckley was the Zach Braff of his era.

Ouch. Now THAT'S an insult.

I remember quite liking his music at the time, but I can't remember any instance in the last several years wherein I felt like hearing any of it.

no. take king crimson for example. extremely talented, well executed, and lots of well written songs. but that doesn't stop me from thinking that lots of these songs are crappy anyways. hence, there is something more than just talent, execution and writing. There is the overall song and whether or not it is appeasing or not.

yngwie malmsteen songs, as a whole, suck balls.

suit yourself. my contention would be that if the overall song is 'crappy' or 'sucks balls', that there is something lacking in its writing and/or execution, or at least something about its writing and/or execution that doesn't appeal to you.

there's no objective standard for judging a song's writing or execution - it's only measurable in your response to it.

With Liz Fraser anyone?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ0QSpdnHJE

Let's face it.... his dad was both more talented AND made much greater use of that talent.

JB's music is pretty lazy really I think- sure, he's got a nice voice, but there's not much there beyond that.

VHAHAHAAHAH

so typical!

hahahahhha

Jeff Buckley was the Zach Braff of his era.

Lol. Perhaps instead he's the Mark Paul Gosselaar of his era. Though I suppose they kind of shared an era.

I agree with those upthread who praised "Jewel Box". I think that might be his best self-penned toon, wishy-washy lyrics notwithstanding. At least that's what I thought when I drunkenly extolled its virtues to a friend on a summer night in 2003 while eating raspberries.

some jock did "Last Goodbye" at karaoke night this week, it was LOL worthy

I never got this guy. He's fine when he covers a good ballad, but when he does a rock song, to me it doesn't sound that far from David Cook. Maybe it's b/c I never listened to him back in the day, when the 90s alt-rockness of it all wouldn't have bothered me.

I'm with you Mark, i can tolerate the ballads but the "rock" songs are just grating. Best thing he did was the Leonard Cohen cover, which is sublime. The rest i can pretty much take or leave.

a lot of unexpected people seem to like Jeff Buckley... but I listened to Grace for the first time a couple months ago, and thought it was pretty middle-of-the-road.

Yeah, that's what I thought the first time I heard it, too. ;)

see, i thought it was average on first listen. then it got worse.

Tried and tried. And tried again.

Didn't get it.

Prefer pops

I opened up Mojo Pin on the big hi-fi yesterday afternoon and pretty much loved every second.

To be fair to that song, the lyric "I'm blind and tortured" is a good summation of my feelings upon hearing Jeff Buckley at any time. Mark Richardson had it correct upthread: Jeff Buckley is like David Cook in disguise.

chix diggit

Sick Mouthy was right

"BLACK BEAUTY/I LOVE YOU SO..." I haven't heard Mojo Pin in over ten years, this is wild.

http://photos-b.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v336/157/40/710515316/n710515316_4235041_452.jpg

http://hartree.raunvis.hi.is/~jensba/thoughts/images/grace.jpg

There once was a man called Jeff Buckley
He could sing but had very bad luckley
One day at the vicar's
He took off his tickers
And said "Do you fancy a fuckley?"

Yes I know but HE WOULD HAVE APPRECIATED IT

"Tonight, Matthew, Henry K Miller IS Jeff Buckley."

*tumbling tumbleweeds from audience*

*interspersed with who he when's Jim Reeves coming on murmurs*

http://www.popjustice.com/images/stories/j/jeffbuckleyalbumsleeve.jpg

http://www.popjustice.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3334&Itemid=9

Yes, but does it have "Hallelujah" on it?

so i just downloaded this lil live ep thing of jeff covering his dad's songs

fuck

wait, what songs are they? i've heard his versions of "i never asked to be your mountain" and "once i was" from a tim tribute concert in the early 90's, but did he do others? there's so much drama in those songs, it's great. the chorus of "once i was" -- "sometimes i wonder just for a while, do you ever think of me?" -- is suddenly about an abandoned son addressing his dead father, instead of a man addressing an ex-lover. and when he breaks a string at the end and has to sing a capella he's got nowhere to hide, and you can hear it in his voice.

is this that tribute? just went up today -- http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=220

yup!

yeah that's the one, there's also Sefronia/The King's Chain and Phantasmagoria in Two

So Lonely [arr. Mazzacane/Langille]

Am I missing something? The Jeff songs are the ones I can't download

i never asked to be your mountain fucking SLAYS

just fucking kills me

i've literally listened to it like 12 times in a row and i'm watching the sun come up right now what a fuckin life this is

Sadly I don't think I've even heard that one, but hey, I'm feelin' ya.

weird, I was just listening to mystery white boy yesterday

I can get people not digging buckley but there are some great moments on that

i never asked to be your mountain fucking SLAYS

it's funny how he imitates some of tim's vocal tics on that song, going into that throaty low register and then getting really keening and nasally. like i said upthread about "once i was," there's some great drama in that performance, too: "she says, your scoundrel father flies /with a dancer called a queen...oh the child dreams to be his hands /in the counting of the rain /but only barren breasts he feels /for her milk will never drain." remember this was at a tim tribute concert, so i feel like jeff's caught in this really sticky position of wanting to honor the music and the audience's love of that music, but he's also got some rightful bitterness toward tim. in a song like this, it seems like he's tapping into tim's own self-recrimination in order to express his own anger.

the drowning references are pretty eerie, too, in hindsight.

yeah the drowning references gave me chills the other night

the Tim/Jeff bio Dream Brother is not great but really gets into Jeff's whole uncomfortable relationship with his dad's music/legacy in an interesting way -- like he would really squirm and get uncomfortable about Tim's fans coming to his shows, hated the comparisons in reviews, but then there'd be friends who said he really studied TB's records a ton and learned things about his voice from singing his dad's songs, etc.

plus he was raised scotty moorhead and adopted jeff buckley as a stage name so yeah, quite a bit of ambivalence towards his legacy

from el wiki

Buckley flew back to New York early the following year to make his public singing debut at a tribute concert for his father called "Greetings from Tim Buckley".[38] The event, produced by show business veteran Hal Willner, was held at St. Ann's Church in Brooklyn on April 26, 1991.[38] Buckley rejected the idea of the concert as a springboard to his career, instead citing personal reasons regarding his decision to sing at the tribute.[39] With accompaniment by experimental rock guitarist Gary Lucas, Jeff performed "I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain", a song Tim Buckley wrote about an infant Jeff Buckley and his mother.[40] Buckley returned to the stage to play "Sefronia – The King's Chain", "Phantasmagoria in Two", and concluded the concert with "Once I Was" performed acoustically with an impromptu a cappella ending, due to a snapped guitar string.[40] Willner, the show's organiser, later recalled that Buckley's set closer made a strong impression.[41] Buckley's performance at the concert was counter-intuitive to his desire to distance himself musically from his father. Buckley later explained his reasoning to Rolling Stone: "It wasn't my work, it wasn't my life. But it bothered me that I hadn't been to his funeral, that I'd never been able to tell him anything. I used that show to pay my last respects."[19] The concert proved to be his first step into the music industry that had eluded him for years.[42]

speaking of creepy drowning imagery, the end of "dream brother" is kind of freaky

asleep in the sand with the ocean washing over, over, over

I found an old tape of Jeff and band doing a session on the Mark Radcliffe show on 22 August 1994, which I put onto mp3 last night. The quality's pretty good I think, though it wobbles a little in places and does get a bit hissy towards the end. Also, 'Lover, You Should've Come Over' has to be in two parts as my poor player can't make it through the whole thing in one go. The session doesn't appear to exist anywhere else that I can find, so enjoy:

Mojo Pin
So Real
Grace
Lover, You Should've Come Over
Lover, You Should've Come Over part II

thx a ton for this!

No problem. I haven't owned a tape player since I sold my car, so I didn't think I was ever going to hear it again myself - it was nice to get a chance to put in on mp3, might as well share it with the world.

You should sell these recordings to the Buckley estate. Seems like they'll put anything out on CD for a buck these days, his fans will totally eat this shit up.

i never asked to be your mountain fucking SLAYS

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, June 24, 2009 11:05 AM (4 months ago) Bookmark

the droning modal thing goes on for fuckin 9 minutes and the weird backwards guitar lines and the ghostly little feedback howl when he says 'feel the water touch my skin'

fuck

i'm always kinda embarrassed by it, but dude is basically classic. of course my best friend/girl i was in love with at age 16 is the one who get me into him, so you know

but really mystery white boy is kind of amazing in parts, like E3 said

So I was browsing The Wire's 50 best albums of 1994 list and came across Buckley's Grace on the list(?!???!!) and thought, hey, why not pull this out for what's probably my first spin in 5-6 years. And it's not half bad. I don't have any of the post-death releases which I've always imagined consist of Columbia raping Buckley's corpse over and over for a profit, but Grace is, well... it's pretty good.

but really mystery white boy is kind of amazing in parts, like E3 said

― mage pit laceration (gbx), Monday, January 25, 2010 11:04 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark

so if you're curious go there

I like some of the stuff on Sketches, too -- "Vancouver", "Morning Theft", and "The Sky Is a Landfill" stand up to any of his other work imo

Hunt down the Glastonbury bootleg if you can - it was recorded for radio by the BBC so the sound's perfect, and everything on it is spot on - way better than Mystery White Boy or Live á l'Olympia. Includes the best version of Dream Brother. Plus no Hallelujah in sight.

I've always been a big fan of the song "Jewel Box" off Sketches. Perhaps the sweetest melody he ever composed.

So I was browsing The Wire's 50 best albums of 1994 list and came across Buckley's Grace on the list(?!???!!) and thought, hey, why not pull this out for what's probably my first spin in 5-6 years. And it's not half bad. I don't have any of the post-death releases which I've always imagined consist of Columbia raping Buckley's corpse over and over for a profit, but Grace is, well... it's pretty good.

― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Tuesday, September 14, 2010 6:37 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

"Grace" also has a great sense of melancholy in the style of Poe, Swinburne, and Baudelaire. The album is so eerie to me. It's cool that The Wire put it on their list!

It's actually as much jazz-influenced as by pop and traditional singer/songwriters. Which is something that all of Buckley's legion of imitators have never gotten right, and is why they all bore the shit out of me.

i know every word, every pause of "grace". i don't listen to it much now but is still stuns me when i do.

The Bataclan live medley of "Je N'en Connais Pas la Fin" and "Hymne à l'amour" (from the GRACE EPs set but originally part of Live From The Bataclan) still has without question the single most surprising and exciting live audience reaction i've ever heard in my life. Since the late 90s i've been baffled and amazed by the extremes of emotion the crowd seem to go through; at times appearing to be almost *different* crowds edited together from different gigs, such is the rollercoastering of their reaction. Saying more spoils it for anyone who hasn't heard it but... it's completely jaw dropping. I'm not the world's biggest Buckley fan or anything but live.. man he clearly had something.

amazing version of dream brother on the bataclan ep, too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM_jBD716Vo

this made me go "huh..."

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/3112/screenshotgre.png

revive

Had he looked like, I dunno, say, Weird Al, would chicks have still dug him?

Listening to Grace for the first time in maybe a decade figured my tastes had changed drastically since I gave up on it, I thought I'd like it more. But no. Still overwrought, still can't make it through the whole thing.

Would have liked to hear his third/fourth album, though. I mean, I can't stand the first Tim Buckley album either.

Imagine him on American Idol, though!

many opinions make me not get ILX sometimes. the post above, is such an example

his version of "Hallelujah" is one of my least favorite pieces of music ever

ok now I fully think ILX = opposite day board

nah, I know full well I'm in the minority due to how many times his keening intrudes on my time in any given café (c'mon hipsters, find some other signifier for "cool").

you may be in the minority in public but not on this board!

John and corey, I have your back forever on this.

HOOOOOOOOOOS to thread plz

Dud

classic

Weird Al's not an unattractive dude 'cept for the wacky hair.

http://amysrobot.com/files/weirdal.JPG

relistened to all his stuff for the first time in a while. grace now sounds pretty bad, sketches sounded fantastic.

If you squint he has a bit part as a stoner on Treme.

some dude wrote this on thread "The Wire" on HBO on board I Love Everything on Jan 15, 2011

if they ever do a Jeff Buckley biopic they should really cast Ransone, both because he looks close enough and because afaict JB was about as obnoxious as Ziggy irl

apparently they ARE doing a biopic now and i plan on griping when James Franco or whoever gets the part

we've never done a Grace poll, have we? that would be fun

Or that Twilight guy will get it the part, or Keira Knightly maybe.

lol

Saddest thing is that I felt he was actually, massively improving. 'Sketches' is way, way better than Grace. I loved the direction he was taking there.

"Josh Groban, as you've never seen him before...."

yeah i was listening to Sketches recently and there is some great stuff on there

Have fond memories of seeing him in 95 at a RRR FM rooftop gig in the rain...no-one thought he would play but they threw a tarp over the stage and he played and joked it was one of the best nights of my life. (Added bonus: we met Mick Grondahl afterwards going down the stairs, very sweet & friendly)

I can't defend him to anyone who hates him without morphing into stupid-fangirl mode, but I've always held his music pretty close...funny, but I can't fight to the death over his music the way I will happily do with other music I love. I think I just found the music v intense, and he was around for such a short time that it really left a mark. I don't ever put him up for discussion because I guess I can't handle talking about him still. Sounds dumb, I know.

his music's by no means infallible or beyond criticism but the reasons people dismiss or hate on him are generally total superficial bullshit

Rockist creedo #813 -- If a bunch of people are jamming out to Nirvana before i've even heard of them, they must suck to infinity. If even the most mediocre of bands is on my radar before anybody else, then I shall be their champion.

I had a bunch of Tim years before Jeff was around. And while I still believe that Tim has 100x the chops, I cannot deny my affinity for his son. For the last decade I've mostly appreciated the more striped-down acoustic pieces (the extended Sin-e is delightful, saving of course for the caustic "Kick Out The Jams"). I was glad he got his props, however, I really dislike all the fanboy neuroticisms extolled A.D. It was like when Cobain blew his brains out, I mean, no big surprise there and no great loss - as something new is always coming down the highway (or, better yet, something old that you've never heard before). Holding anything up as being so untouchably precious is the enemy of truly new ideas in music.

i am here now fyi

also drunk, which is appropriate

lol...i have a mid-evening hangover myself :/

what some dude said

And while I still believe that Tim has 100x the chops, I cannot deny my affinity for his son.

^ yup

just put on "forget her," straight fire imo

It was like when Cobain blew his brains out, I mean, no big surprise there and no great loss - as something new is always coming down the highway (or, better yet, something old that you've never heard before). Holding anything up as being so untouchably precious is the enemy of truly new ideas in music.

i don't think 'no big surprise' applies to buckley, i mean the guy drowned in a freak accident after spontaneously deciding to go for a swim.

my attitude towards him is pretty much, hey, if his popularity gets more ppl to listen to his dad, cool.

his music's by no means infallible or beyond criticism but the reasons people dismiss or hate on him are generally total superficial bullshit

― lilsoulbrotherlovesdubplatestyle (some dude), Sunday, 8 May 2011 03:32 (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

otm.

before his death (when he'd sold virtually zero records btw) people criticised him for being self-indulgent and ott. now he's dead and he's sold lots of records to uncool people, people criticise him for being anodyne and dull. figure that one out.

i think he's rad tbh, and punch myself in the balls every day for not going to see him play london in 93. i couldn't get anyone to go with me and i should have just gone on my own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHLgKxB14Lo

His earnestness and goofiness didn't mix at-all with the perceived cool of having an inherited 'prestige artist' status, flip-flopping between beautiful poetic wunderkind and goofy Rush-loving guitar nerd makes him such an easy target.

But all said and done I stil dig a lot of his music and especially like his effervescent atitude towards giving props to other artists, like the scatty way he arrives at the Nusrat cover on the expanded Sin-E CD for instance.

"Mojo Pin" is one of my favorite songs ever.

and how can anybody resist "Everybody Here Wants You"

flip-flopping between beautiful poetic wunderkind and goofy Rush-loving guitar nerd

I think you hit on what I like best about him! Like I think half my favorite songs of his are covers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubYDPqi6ht4

Por ejemplo I would have been totes happy if he just did 'sad man in him room' style cover album of 'Lamb...' *skronk*

I've still never listened to "Grace," actually.

oh you totes should, it's a favorite of mine.

O_________________________________________________________________O @ i against i

ps yes listen to grace

XP - he would have done a great Cuckoo Cocoon

yes!!!!! that is exactly what I was thinking.

oh i love his "back in nyc," basement guitar tone and all

he really accessed the evil in it

this is also where i say second disc of sketches or gtfo

xxpost I could hear him doing a very brooding and emotive "The Musical Box"

I wonder if liked XTC?

Anyhoo, my favourite of his cover versions.
http://youtu.be/__uu9kNBDS0

Sometimes I put on the Sin-e set, and it really strikes me how almost confrontational it is. Like, that voice, those songs, those covers, in a tiny, tiny room? I can imagine stumbling on something that intimate might have been pretty uncomfortable.

I think he's a great singer and guitarist, of course, and probably a great songwriter, too. It's almost shame he's judged almost entirely by "Grace," since by all accounts that album was slapped together pretty quickly. Considering it's bookended by live coffee shop meandering and an unfinished album, I can hardly think of another major, so influential artists represented by such an incomplete portrait.

Re: the covers, I appreciate that he seems equally and honestly into the Smiths, Zeppelin, Nusrat Fatah Ali Khan, Genesis or Bad Brains or whatever. I suppose his lack of irony, and that goofy persona, may be what puts some folks off, especially someone expecting an artist more analogous to, say, Nick Drake.

well and i've seen interviews where he's really self serious and """profound""" so the bad brains cover in particular with him laughing and shit was kind of a shock

in my mind he's a dork, first and foremost.

I think of him like I think of Eddie Vedder: in his natural, relaxed state he is a goob. But in yr early 20's they try to behave as serious artists and be earnest & push the goofiness down until no-one knows thats who you are. I cant stand much of the early Vedder bc of that struggle that is obvious now that he has relaxed into his fame...I think Jeff had the same discomfort with all the attention...but if he'd hung around we'd have seen more of his goofishness and it would have tempered that weird, uncomfortably fierce earnestness

yeesh I hope someone can make sense of that, edit much jeez?

Hoos, have you heard the extended Sin-E recording? There's quite a bit of silly mucking around on there.

i have not

It's good!

A lot of guys hated Jeff Buckley because their girlfriends wanted to fuck him.

haha

ladies and gentlemen,

There's only one song on Grace that I actively dislike. (And it's not "Hallelujah." My exhaustion with that song all happened after Buckley's death -- Shrek and Watchmen and everyone else who pounded it into paste.)

"So Real" is the only one I'm ambivalent to

Jewel Box on Sketches has a really beautiful melody and over-written lyrics that still work. Morning Theft is great too, the way the melody is constantly unfolding throughout the song.

Yeah, Morning Theft, Vancouver, Everybody Here Wants You are among his very best I think

nightmares by the sea

Yesss, forgot about that one

morning theft is incredible.

I really love Yard Of Blonde Girls

Something about Sweetheart struck me as tentative, especially after the awkward over-the-topness of Grace. Then I heard the second (mostly demos) disc and thought, yes, this is the Buckley I know and love. I would have been overjoyed if his actual non-posthumous second album had been those 4-track recordings.

I don't think he gets enough credit as a really skilled, inventive guitarist. Mad chords, open tunings (better still, a 12 string electric in open G - harmonic heaven), making complicated things sound easy and easy things sound complicated. Using an electric for solo accompaniment (and really making use of the extra stuff that can be done with it) when most singers would just plink out a few open chords on an acoustic.

yeah that's all v.otm — never heard the stuff he did pre-solo career, but wasn't he playing lead guitar in some kinda prog band?

poll for Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk by Jeff Buckley

i don't think 'no big surprise' applies to buckley, i mean the guy drowned in a freak accident after spontaneously deciding to go for a swim.

my attitude towards him is pretty much, hey, if his popularity gets more ppl to listen to his dad, cool.

Agreed. Upon hearing the news, my first thoughts were about the Buckley family (not that I know the first thing about them) and how tragic it might be for them. My second thought, oddly enough, was how the rumors of Simon LeBon's drowning persisted for weeks (in the pre-internet days of the mid-80s) when the actual event was measured in minutes.

Curious, how many Jeff fans do you think actually found Tim? On the ILM boards I doubt more than 20% matriculated to the elder, and in the general population it's probably less than 5%. But, yeah, the more the better.

I definitely sought Tim out after I got into Jeff.

yeah i migrated to tim from jeff. starsailor and lorca and happy/sad are completely crucial records for me now but i might only barely know them without the tremendous jeff fandom i experienced from ages 12 to okay now.

Me too. Heard Starsailor first and was blown away.

So, let's ask the question: Tim Buckley and Jeff Buckley -- in what order did you hear them?

i got happy/sad on a whim and aint quite been the same since

Whoops, made a mistake there: I heard Jeff first, dug him, then moved onto Tim, whereupon I was blown away by Starsailor.

How many of of you sought out "Starsailor" after being blown away by the breakout band Starsailor?

They pissed me off so much, not only did they nick the name but the bleeding font as well, twats.

^^ those are the exact reasons I made a point of never hearing the band Starsailor.

Him from Gossip Girl will play Jeff Buckley in a film

Hand me my shotgun

did anybody else notice the url

http://www.deadline.com/2011/06/penn-badgley-to-play-singer-tim-buckley-in-biopic/

he doesn't really look the part but whatever, dude was lobster todd, i'll give him the benefit of the doubt

Apparently not! Big boots to fill, Spider-Man.

LOS ANGELES, CA(AUGUST 15TH, 2011) – Actor/singer-songwriter Reeve Carney (Broadway’s Spiderman: Turn off the Dark) has been cast as Jeff Buckley in the forthcoming “Untitled Jeff Buckley" film, it was announced today by the filmmakers. To be directed by Jake Scott (Welcome to the Rileys), and written by Ryan Jaffe (story by, The Rocker), the filmmakers hold a robust rights package that includes the exclusive rights to Jeff's music and personal archives, and is fully supported by Buckley’s mother, Mary Guibert, who serves as executive producer. Michelle Sy (Finding Neverland) and Orian Williams (Control) are producing, with Alison Raykovich (Jeff Buckley Music) serving as associate producer. Producers are currently out to additional cast for the project.

The film will chronicle the life of Buckley, one of the most critically acclaimed musical artists of his time, who died tragically at age 30 in a drowning accident in Memphis, Tennessee’s Wolf River. Production will commence in New York and Memphis in November.

Carney currently stars on Broadway as Peter Parker in the high profile production of Spiderman: Turn off the Dark. Reeve also co-starred in Julie Taymor’s THE TEMPEST for Miramax. His current single, "Rise Above 1 featuring Bono and The Edge" (Music From SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark), was performed by the trio on the season finale of American Idol this year. In addition, Reeve and his band Carney opened for U2 on the last stop of the U2 360° tour. Their debut album Mr. Green Vol. 1 is available on DAS Label/Interscope.

"We are over the moon that Reeve has agreed to take on this challenging role. I've seen him perform several times...he's been getting ready for this all his life. It certainly doesn't hurt that he looks so much like Jeff," said Guibert regarding the choice.

Scott commented, “We are excited to have found in Reeve the perfect combination of musical prodigy, impish charm, innate intelligence & sensitivity to play Jeff.”

The as-yet untitled script is based on screenwriter Jaffe’s in-depth examination and research into Buckley’s life, which includes scores of interviews, unlimited access to the Jeff Buckley Estate archives, and Jeff’s personal journals, drawings, and letters. Producers also optioned the book “Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley” by David Browne, for research purposes.

Producers also optioned the book “Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley” by David Browne, for research purposes.

that's gotta be some nice scratch. anyone know how i can get hollywood to option my black flag book?

Rollins becomes gov of Calif.

i saw this guy do a TV interview once and didn't remember what he looked like but wow the resemblance is pretty strong

http://www.accesshollywood.com/content/images/106/230x306/106579_reeve-carney-in-february-2009.jpg

the tapes of this have been in this thread iirc but here it is in flash version

god i love this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqK9BadX8-Y&feature=related

just so many little touches, the tape wobble making the voice shudder and the guitar doing the ghostly feedback on the line about "feel the water touch my skin" gives me goosebumps

two biopics?

http://www.soulracer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/4-Without-Limits.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hsIxFm6VK0

I like him as sung by Genevieve Schatz.

Music starts 1:45ish.

No Dan Rossen in starring role of biopic, no credibility.

Nah, James Ransone!

Dan Rossen? Neither looks nor sounds like Buckley?

Jeff Suckley.

http://www.soulracer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/4-Without-Limits.jpg

― omar little, Wednesday, September 19, 2012 11:01 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

lol... ive thought about doing a poll on these

Ha James Ransone would be amazing.

Here's Penn Badgley (he off Gossip Girl) doing "Lilac Wine". As far as imitations go... surprisingly not terrible?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSLcsQANebA

i actually thought the trailer for the buckley flick he's in looked okay. Except for Kate Nash.

really? cause I thought it looked pretty awful - why is it shot like a 500 Days of Summer-type rom-com?

That said, I wasn't expecting Badgley to be the best thing about this. He sounded really good in the tiny bits of music shown.

his version of "Hallelujah" is one of my least favorite pieces of music ever

― corey, Saturday, May 7, 2011 2:34 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

i used to think this was badass when i was a teenager, just tried listening to it now and i couldnt prevent myself from laughing my damn buns off at it, hes so freaking overdramatic

I have no prob with Buckley's version; I just never thought "Hallelujah" was that good a song to begin with, at least not something that warrants over a thousand known cover versions. (The rest of Grace is great though - "Lover, You Should've Come Over" and "Last Goodbye" both feel like the soundtrack to my life).

John Cale's "Hallelujah" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> every other version (including cohen's)

his melodrama is very 90s. very Reality Bites romantic montage. still, i think that Sketches shows that his songwriting was still developing and he could have done a lot better than Grace had he lived.

tyler OTM

jeff's covers are never about giving himself over to the song, they're about JEFF BUCKLEY CAN SING REALLY WELL

Jeff Buckley at the Garage in 1994 was one of the most boring shows I've ever seen.

jeff's covers are never about giving himself over to the song, they're about JEFF BUCKLEY CAN SING REALLY WELL

disagree at least re: his van morrison covers and his weird homespun version of "back in nyc"

I heard a really nice version of Elton John's 'Curtains' once, understated.

yeah the Cale version is still legit. also props to him (or perhaps... boos to him???) for setting the template for every cover to follow

maybe i'm wrong, but it feels more like j buckley taking cale as the template set the template for every cover to follow from there? or at least the vast majority.

not rly sure why but jeff buckley is one of the few idols of my teenage years who i haven't returned to in some way. others have faded away but then i've felt compelled to revisit them over the period of ten years or so, but jeff, despite being a major teen obsession, i have no desire to listen to again.

not rly sure why but jeff buckley is one of the few idols of my teenage years who i haven't returned to in some way. others have faded away but then i've felt compelled to revisit them over the period of ten years or so, but jeff, despite being a major teen obsession, i have no desire to listen to again.

― Perfect Chicken Forever (Merdeyeux)

I had the same thing happen to me. In the late 90's I listend to Grace probably once every day and then suddenly I just stopped listening to him at all. A few weeks ago I put it on for the first time in probably eight years. I just didn't get a lot from it, not sure if I just associate it too much with with an angsty teenager. I still enjoyed the title track, Last Goodbye, So Real and Lover but I didn't care for much else.

I played Sketches right after it and enjoyed that so much more. Everybody Here Wants You is a stunning song, easily the best he did.

Agree with the whole hating Hallelujah thing, I just think it's a boring song whoever does it.

'morning theft' and 'eternal life' will stay among my favorites forever. could take or leave the rest.

sketches is just fantastic, so many great things on there

yeah, he was headed in a really interesting direction w/ some of that stuff

"Grace" popped into my head the other day, not really sure why—haven't thought about the album in a dog's age, and when I do I usually repress it immediately. great vocal on that track tho, idc if it's "melodramatic" or whatever

... also I've been listening to a lot of Shearwater so my tolerance for operatic male rocks vocals is at historic highs

*rock vocals, duh

yeah "Grace" is a pretty neat song

Re: "Grace", the section from 3:14-3:29 is one of the most gorgeous things to come out of the 90s.

i was obsessed with buckley in middle and high school and i mostly can't listen to those records anymore but i still think the dude had incredible taste in the songwriters/vocalists he took things from (his inexorable love of van morrison and nina simone makes me almost believe he was trying to combine their vocal approaches). i also thought he was a great interpreter but that's probably easier to disagree with bc "hallelujah" and "lilac wine" are straight rips of cale and simone respectively and his other covers are pretty shrill (even given that i seriously love his cover of "back in nyc")

oh lol upthread i express appreciation for that "back in nyc" cover oh well

that's ok, it's worth saying again

Safe to say that his true talent was as a song stylist and interpreter more than as an original composer, very much in the grand tradition of the greats that came before him. Along those lines, I would argue that his "Lilac Wine" towers over Simone's. His version dreamily conjures an evocative drunklust, whereas hers always struck me as a tentative, bloodless monochrome sketch. And I adore Simone.

I love his drunk impersonation of Edith Piaf in one of his live shows (I can't remember which off the top of my head)

That's a neat fifteen second to've picked. Those backing vocals really leaped out at me just now, I'd never really noticed them before. There's something very Old South about them, what is it (musically speaking)?

He tends to do that sort of thing in other places as well, although in subtler ways. Check out "Ulalume" and listen to what's happening in the back of the track vocally.

I love his drunk impersonation of Edith Piaf in one of his live shows (I can't remember which off the top of my head)

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, August 15, 2013 6:51 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

L'Olympia in Paris, 1995, where Edith frequently performed. Jeff thought the French audience would appreciate a Piaf cover; he was right.

Sometimes it quietly blows my mind that he was doing these fully committed covers of Genesis, the Smiths, Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn, bad Brains, Nina Simone and the like in a tiny coffee shop. Imagine having the dude singing a few feet from you while you were eating a muffin.

He was a great interpreter, yes. But he also wrote some particularly fantastic songs of his own. A terrible loss.

That deluxe Sin E 2CD set is probably my favourite Buckley release.

How did they go about recording it, and what even gave them the idea? I guess it's one man and a guitar, you don't need the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, but I can't think of any other pristine live albums recorded in such a poky venue.

I think Columbia didn't really have much of an idea where to start with Buckley's recording career, he didn't have many songs or a band so for the sake of releasing something they put out a short vérité document of where he was at. It didn't even come out on Columbia in the UK.

<q>Sometimes it quietly blows my mind that he was doing these fully committed covers of Genesis, the Smiths, Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn, bad Brains, Nina Simone and the like in a tiny coffee shop. Imagine having the dude singing a few feet from you while you were eating a muffin.</q>

More mindblowing was seeing him turn up at my local rockers boozer in Stevenage one Sunday afternoon in 1994 and play Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Van Morrison etc etc to an indifferent gang of hungover reprobates (I took a buncha pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephentrousse/sets/72157613314694188/) (After he had a nap he played another set in town that evening at the local youth club, playing third on the bill to a couple of schoolboy punk bands)

That's extraordinary. Great photos!

That's very cool.

Buckley gets a bad rep for what he's come to represent, and the people who've name-checked him and nicked bits of his style, since he died, but his recorded and released output is pretty damn good.

agreed

I regret passing up a ticket for him

I have a mate who did the pied piper thing with him that night at the 12 Bar Club in London

An old editor of mine told me stories about that night. Envious.

wow, fantastic story, Stevie.

When this thread was bumped I gave a few tracks from Grace a listen and ach nothing, I wonder if my ears will ever again be open to what was my favourite album for a couple of teenage years.

<i>He was a great interpreter, yes. But he also wrote some particularly fantastic songs of his own. A terrible loss.</i>

Agreed one hundred fold.

<i>How did they go about recording it, and what even gave them the idea?</i>

I think it was a "let's capture the wild animal in his natural habitat"-type thing.

Buckley gets a bad rep for what he's come to represent
yeah, i'm not a superfan, but i think he's good. that sin-e expanded live album is a totally good time.

wow, those photos

^^^^^^^^^

what a treat that must have been, being there

Grace is 20 years old this month; does Ned still hate it / him?

why does ned hate jeff buckley? i'm interested

ned dislikes some things that bewilder the imagination (like elliot smith)

still an amazing album, and perhaps easier to hear that now than ten years ago, when it was so hideously overplayed and so poorly xeroxed by those it had "influenced".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0_pFAh6cbw

Both Buckley and Smith are still firmly in my 'no thank you' list, along with about eight million other things.

The thing is, Ned, I'm not too crazy about either of them, as well. So, I was just wondering what your take on them was.

I mean, I like a few songs and I think he's a good singer, and he's a good songwriter, respectively, but I was never able to really get into them.

If only Smith had written songs for Buckley...

If only Bmith had written songs for Suckley...

https://devonrecordclub.com/2016/10/24/jeff-buckley-grace-round-96-nicks-choice/

i love u scik, this is so good & very otm

i'm always leery of buckley writeups because ppl seem to either dismiss most of his music or gush about him so much it's embarrassing

yours hits the bullseye dead-on & captures what is great (& difficult) about his music

Nice write-up, except for all the guilt stuff. I don't think I've ever felt guilty listening to music. Grace definitely feels like music of a certain mood and time for me, neither of which I particularly want to revisit often -- too vulnerable? Too emotional/dramatic? Sort of, though I certainly still listen to music that I could call "emotional" or "dramatic" or "vulnerable". Will play this again soon for a reminder of what I'm apparently avoiding, so thanks for that!

I liked the music, wish there was more fo it . Especially with the first main band. But he seems to have been not a very nice person, at least if you believe Gary Lucas etc.

Would have loved to hear more from that band even without him, but was he the main thing sticking them together.

& I think my favourite song by him was actually written by a member of Fishbone though it sounded like it was directly biographical to Jeff.

Think I have a lot of live stuff with that band with Grondahl etc though not seen it in a while

Just listened, and yeah, still good. Great, even. If anything, I'm more impressed by his voice and singing than ever. Still remembered almost all the twists and turned by heart, so my non-play may very well be down to over-exposure when it came out, and several years after. Onto Sketches...

Middle third of disc one of sketches is a drag but the rest is really good.

I liked that, thank you. I think I'm OK with the sentimentalist in me that can still swoon at 'Lover You Should Have Come Over' (I even love the 'tear' line), though I'm wary of his dodgy poetry and dodgier flares. I've listened to Grace more in the last six months than I have in the last ten years and it's patchy, but damn the high points are high.

& I think my favourite song by him was actually written by a member of Fishbone though it sounded like it was directly biographical to Jeff.

Ooh, which one is that?

What Will You Say which is officially released on Mystery White Boy and possibly elsewhere. Seems to have been mainly written by Chris Dowd possibly with some help from Jeff.

It's been such a long time
And I was just a child then
What will you say
When you see my face?
Time feels like it's flown away
The days just pass and fade away
What will you say
When they take my place?

It's funny now
I just don't feel like a man
What will you say
When you see my face?
My face...

Mother dear, the world's gone cold
No one cares about love anymore
What will you say
When you see my face?

Father do you hear me?
Do you know me?
Do you even care?
What will you say
When they take my place?

My heart can't take this anymore
What will you say
When you see my face?
When you see my,
See my face...

I can feel your time crawling
To a slow end
I can feel my time crawling
To a slow end...

Mother dear, the world's gone cold
No one cares about love anymore
What will you say
When you see my face?

Father do you hear me?
Do you know me?
Did you even care?
What will you say
When you take my place?

Well it's so funny now
I just don't feel like I'm a man
What will you say?

Oh, right. Loved his album as the Seedy Arkestra.

he is incredibly incredibly overtalked about and overrated - and grace is definitely awfully produced and relies on the covers... but there's also a huge amount of brilliance and potential. first disk of Sketches is full of really inspired stuff.

How / why is Grace awfully produced?

oh, because definitely

Grace is wonderfully produced, it reflects Buckley's style nearly perfectly.

wtf

awfully produced how

It's got space, nuance, atmosphere, quiet bits that suck you in, enormous crescendos. Yes, it's OTT and baroque and dramatic at times, gut this isn't minimal techno; it's lavish, emotional rock music. I've also always preferred his originals to the covers, so "awfully produced and relies on the covers" is a nonsensical criticism to me. I skip the covers half the time.

for me the issue with buckley is not simply that it's ott, ott is fine in music, but that his vocal style seems like some white boy equivalent to whitney houston, even though he's actually going for nina simone.

I'm listening to "Mystery White Boy" lately and I have to admit this guy was pretty incredible.

"Dream Brother" scorches

did people watch that movie about the 'greetings from tim buckley' concert slash was it any good

I only learned recently that Joan Wasser aka Joan as Police Woman was a good friend of him. Somehow that makes me love her music even more.

This previously unreleased Buckley/Lucas song, No One Can Find You Here, is spectacular. On Spotify now, from a forthcoming album by Gary Lucas and an Italian JB soundalike. Maybe I need to dig into Gary Lucas' catalogue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHqfMvrmPE8

was watching this today, fucking incredible

i was a total jeff buckley stan in high school and... for good reason

all i do in this thread is talk about how much jeff buckley meant to me in high school lol

i love that frankfurt show!!

I used a jeff Buckley song as an audition piece for a musical theater troupe in hs (I did not get in lol)

what happened to the audio at 20:05?

i was a total jeff buckley stan in high school and... for good reason

This must have been at least a decade after his death, unless you're significantly older than I thought you were. Thanks for the link, btw.

nah it was only about four years after he died. i bought grace when i was 13, in 2000-2001 thereabouts

explosive fandom started when i bought sketches the next year. i think i love the first disc of sketches even more than grace, and it helped me get through a pretty traumatic year of my life. the expanded live at sin-é which iirc came out in a little bit later (2003?) opened up so many musical worlds to me at once i consider it sort of like this life-altering rosetta stone for the future of my taste. i was so in the tank that i even acquired a few of the cash-in posthumous releases—my parents definitely bought me the box set of grace singles for christmas one year, which is how i first became acquainted with big star, that was major. jeff buckley kicked ass

Love Jeff. I used to hit on this French girl by pretending not to know the translation to the words to “Je nen connais pas le fin” off the sin e EP

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxJI7hlPdnY

just... what a song. greg dulli covered this at an afghan whigs show i saw a few years ago and i died in my seat

my favorite off sketches is “yard of blonde girls”

that song is so crunchy and weirdly hot(????)

Morning Theft is my favourite Jeff Buckley song!

gifts for boot-heels to crush, promises deceived.

meet me tomorrow night... or any day you want...

xxpost yes weirdly hot is otm - has kind of a vague sleazy 70’s classic rock vibe that i like, that he hadnt really fooled around with before. i wish he could have hung around & done more stuff in that crunchy vein

unrelated: my favorite thing, period, is when he did his spoken Edith Piaf impersonation in Paris, i think it’s on the Mystery White Boy live album. he was a huge dork

idg the word crunchy in relation to this.

guitar goes crunch

^ gets it

yer both mad.

>:(

Oh look an excuse to post this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lPdj4mE6wQ

what a song

one of the very few songs totally ruined beyond salvage thanks to high school cringe as mentioned upthread

Jeff & Michael Tighe awkwardly hosting 120 minutes in 1995 - i get distracted purely by the fact that he’s smoking on camera


https://youtu.be/5Y03BeeYH3k

i saw him twice live in Melbourne - once at a community radio station rooftop gig in 1995, and once at the Palais in 1996.
I was supposed to go to his first Australian show at The Lounge too but I was sick & my friends went & ugh regrets i have had them

i was a fan, am still a fan, but after his death how he was remembered ~culturally~ didnt seem seem to have a lot to do with what it was like enjoying his music as a fan at the time & my enjoyment of him became more and more private

like now, what, 23 years later? so much of the narrative about him now is limiting & binary, either ppl complaining about Hallelujah or claiming his sainthood.
like with Cobain it was different bc he was so massive but it feels with Jeff Buckley that somehow his memory was overwritten with lots of crap that just doesnt even honor him

anyway

he was fun, magnetic, weirdly humble, & also a dorky normie who liked records.

oh my god that 120 minutes video is extremely goofy

i saw him twice live in Melbourne

God, I envy that.

I know people tend to kind of automatically, maybe lazily assume he was headed for superstardom of some kind, imo the most realistic scenario for him was more like a few more hype years and maybe one or two more big to semi-big album cycles, then settling into a solid if idiosyncratic singer-songwriter career after that, ultimately cropping up as a hip influence on the youngsters....around now, really.

(I'm not trying to downplay the tragedy of course. I wish he'd gotten to do all that!)

I know people tend to kind of automatically, maybe lazily assume he was headed for superstardom

yeah this never tracked for me, he was headed toward making weirder and more fascinating records imo

the superstar assumption is just bc of his voice but it completely discounts his personality, background & literally everything irl about him

This guy was really something… much respect (I’ve been spinning Mystery White Boy & Live at Sin-é)

He was a f’in good guitar player, man (and I’ve heard one or two).

Imagine having the dude singing a few feet from you while you were eating a muffin.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, August 15, 2013 5:48 PM (ten years ago)

Sin e is so great, I wore out that CD

Almost exactly 30 years ago he sang a few feet from me while I was having a Sunday lunchtime pint in the biker pub in Stevenage Old Town.

https://live.staticflickr.com/3023/3250195553_a56704d029_b.jpg

I went to his Olympia gig and indeed the Piaf moment was charming. One of the few things I remember about it !
I don’t know if his duet with Liz Fraser was mentioned here. I wasn’t aware of that story then.

More pics here https://flic.kr/s/aHsj9mtUAQ He was persuaded to do a second set in Stevenage that evening, third on the bill to some local punk bands at the new town youth club.

Very cool !

Amazing!

getting a 404 on that flickr link?

Not having looked at my flickr account in about 15 years I realised all the pictures of my kids were publically viewable so I quickly made them private! Think I've just made the JB pics public again.
Think