C or D: Tim Buckley's "Greetings From L.A."

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I say classic if only for Sweet Surrender, but other good stuff as well - Move With Me (lol lyrics)
"Well, I don't care if you tell me you're married,
'Cause I can be your man when your husband ain't home,
Now if he should walk in you just tell him I'm your houseboy,
And that you just can't stand to sleep here alone...no more"

Where he finally says "buh-bye" for good to his folkie troubaDOUR image

Bonus -Great cover

― timmy tannin (pompous), Thursday, 4 May 2006 05:53 (nineteen years ago)

one of the best, most fucked-up LA druggie albums of the '70s.

― jbr with a z (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 4 May 2006 06:00 (nineteen years ago)

i like this way more than anything else he released, and yes, sweet surrender

― jäxøñ (jaxon), Thursday, 4 May 2006 06:19 (nineteen years ago)

Classic album. It's one I return to a lot.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Thursday, 4 May 2006 08:03 (nineteen years ago)

The opening lyric is "Well I went down to the meatrack tavern / And I found myself a big ol' healthy girl", isn't it? Classic. I like it WAY more than anything else by him.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 4 May 2006 08:09 (nineteen years ago)

It's classic in places (esp. Get On Top Of Me Woman) but not in same league as Starsailor or Lorca, not even in the same universe.

― Omar (Omar), Thursday, 4 May 2006 10:15 (nineteen years ago)

that's part of what I love about this album, such an anomaly in the Buckley canon. like Tim said to himself "ha they want sexxy make out music I'll give em fucken make out music and then some!"

these guys I knew in college days threw lots of parties and for a long spell their top top party soundtrack albums were (inexplicably) Some Girls, More Songs About Buildings And Food and Greetings From LA....go figure.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Thursday, 4 May 2006 11:50 (nineteen years ago)

i have greetings from l.a. on at full blast this morning.

swee-hee-hee-heet surr-eh-eh-eh-EH-ndah mamah!

― brooklyn of the stone age (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 14:03 (nineteen years ago)

Six days to go!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 14:05 (nineteen years ago)

what a strange, strange album.....amazing actually....i really can't think of anything that sounds quite like greeting's from LA, and as mentioned upthread, a classic album cover of all time.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 14:12 (nineteen years ago)

classic alright, though it's some years since I played it. will have to dig it out tonight...

― dr x o'skeleton, Tuesday, 16 May 2006 14:44 (nineteen years ago)

Y'know, I have never heard this fuckin' jam. It sounds great. In fact, all those lyrics sound like Jim Morrison lines, and that's a stone cold plus for me. I'm buying this thing.

― QuantumNoise (Justin Farrar), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 15:15 (nineteen years ago)

Like I said upthread i play this album all the time. Its never off my ipod.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 15:25 (nineteen years ago)

I've always felt that Buckley's album-by-album career trajectory roughly matched that of onetime labelmate Captain Beefheart (until he died, of course), so that makes Greetings his Clear Spot. But it's not nearly as great a sell-out album, in my opinion. The music backing him up is often a bit too conventional for my tastes. "Sweet Surrender" and "Get On Top" are both excellent (kinda vaguely like left-of-centre Van Morrison), but they're the only two tracks I can really recall at present. (Haven't owned that record in like 15 years.)

― Myutiny Von Bounty, Tuesday, 16 May 2006 15:39 (nineteen years ago)

Nobody has mentioned "Hong Kong Bar" which is another highlight for me. He sounds like he's genuinely gone crazy on this album. Yes, "Sweet Surrender" is probably the greatest song ever made... but I don't think this could be my favorite Buckley album, could it? Love them all so much

these guys I knew in college days threw lots of parties and for a long spell their top top party soundtrack albums were (inexplicably) Some Girls, More Songs About Buildings And Food and Greetings From LA....go figure.

excellent! add Fun House & Nigga Please and these are my people!

― ghost dong (Sonny A.), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 16:22 (nineteen years ago)

if you like this album don't sleep on the Honeyman live set either... buncha tunes from this album plus his version of "Dolphins" plus a pretty sweet "Buzzin Fly" (but when is that tune ever not sweet)

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 16:37 (nineteen years ago)

three months pass...

Alright I used to like this album

But I listened to it this weekend and it was like FUCKING OTHERWORDLY AMAZING!

It's the Funhouse of Santana w/Al Johnson from US Maple on vocals!

― M@tt He1geson: Real Name, No Gimmicks (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 17:49 (nineteen years ago)

great album...a little too cheesy in parts, but mostly class all the way. his soaring sex holler was never better than on here.

― guanoman (mister the guanoman), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 17:55 (nineteen years ago)

some songs start out kinda cheezy LA santana rock, but they all usually end up as INSANE raveups that obliterate whatever came before.

overall, this is one of the most unhinged vocal performances ever.

― M@tt He1geson: Real Name, No Gimmicks (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 17:57 (nineteen years ago)

It's the Funhouse of Santana w/Al Johnson from US Maple on vocals!

no it isn't! since when do johnson's monotone burblings (not intended as an insult, btw) bear any relation to the buckley horn-yowls?

― guanoman (mister the guanoman), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 18:00 (nineteen years ago)

i dunno! not really! i'm excited right now!

sometimes his way of cooing random syllables reminds me of al johnson in a wierd way!

but yes buckley is bonkers in his own unique way on this album!

― M@tt He1geson: Real Name, No Gimmicks (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 18:02 (nineteen years ago)

(i still think that if there is a funhouse of santana this is it though!)

― M@tt He1geson: Real Name, No Gimmicks (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 18:03 (nineteen years ago)

it's arguable, but nevertheless I'll thank you not to mention santana in my presence, lest you soil my buckleylove. *heaves*

― guanoman (mister the guanoman), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 18:04 (nineteen years ago)

the bongo-fueled santanamosphere of this album is pretty hard to ignore though.

― M@tt He1geson: Real Name, No Gimmicks (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 18:06 (nineteen years ago)

la la la can't hear you...

― guanoman (mister the guanoman), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 18:07 (nineteen years ago)

"Sweet Surrender" IS sex.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 07:38 (nineteen years ago)

five years pass...

my reaction to this album is always a mixture of utter amazement and occasional hard laughter.

― Cunga, Friday, 7 September 2012 01:50 (thirteen years ago)

its fucking brilliant though. It's one I listen to on my ipod a lot

― VOTE in the 1980's ROCK POLL PLEASE! (Algerian Goalkeeper), Friday, 7 September 2012 01:57 (thirteen years ago)

oh looks like i already posted in this thread years ago

― VOTE in the 1980's ROCK POLL PLEASE! (Algerian Goalkeeper), Friday, 7 September 2012 01:58 (thirteen years ago)

I talk in tongues mama

― Ask The Answer Man (sexyDancer), Friday, 7 September 2012 05:34 (thirteen years ago)

if someone hears this record and still prefers jeff buckley they deserve to drown or od

― buzza, Friday, 7 September 2012 06:00 (thirteen years ago)

Get On Top Of Me Woman is astonishing. Not listened to it in a long time.

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 7 September 2012 08:08 (thirteen years ago)

I was more familiar with the Return of THe Starsailor versions of the sex songs from this when I was doing street sales. I kept finding myself singing Get On Top Of Me Woman then remembering what the song was and why i shouldn't be singing it to an all-ages probably somewhat conservative Dublin public.

I think that Return Of the Starsailor may have the wildest versions of a few of those tracks. Seems to have more kick than Honeyman. It was recorded live at KNebworth in '74.

I'm still trying to find out if there actually is video footage of that set. It was advertised for years in Goldmine/other US record collector mags but I've yet to hear anybody confirm they actually own it. Would love to get a copy.

― Stevolende, Friday, 7 September 2012 08:19 (thirteen years ago)

ten years pass...

Get On Top Of Me Woman is astonishing.

― willem, Saturday, 17 December 2022 08:04 (three years ago)

I got my copy of this for a few dollars at a record fair because the postcard on the front had been punched out.
The second side of this doesn't get (or frankly deserve) as much attention as the first, but "Make It Right" is a vivid portrait of total devastation, a better portrait in four minutes of "uprooted early 70s man" than most New Hollywood movies. You know just from his tone of voice that all the beatings in the world will never make it right for him.

― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 18 December 2022 15:22 (three years ago)

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