Jeff Buckley, Glen Hansard "Neath The Beeches"

Today, November 17th, is Jeff Buckley's birthday, and a reader sent me this interview clip with Glen Hansard (Once, The Frames, The Commitments) discussing the months when his guitar tech/roadie was this young guy named Jeff.

Listen to Hansard tell the story of Jeff first playing "an Irish club in the East Village " with him (of course, the famous Sin-é) and the reaction of the audience when this unknown kid started to sing. As he discusses their relationship in this wonderfully unguarded interview, he also recounts the story of playing the Tim Buckley song "Once I Was" in the hotel room for Jeff, and being stunned when Jeff casually mentioned, oh yeah, he was my father.

It closes with a gorgeous version of the song "Neath The Beeches," which Hansard says fell fully formed from his mind, and that "I was thinking about (Jeff) when I was doing it, so it became his song in my head."

Glen Hansard discusses Jeff Buckley / plays "Neath The Beeches"

Here is also the album version, from the 1999 Frames album Dance The Devil:
Neath The Beeches - The Frames

Monday Music Roundup

So I learned how to play the game of Cornhole this weekend.

Seriously, don't ask.
(I don't know if it was more fun playing the game or just making endless jokes about the name of it).


The End Of The World
Ash
Irish band Ash has opened for bands like U2 and Weezer, and collaborated with Coldplay's Chris Martin, but chances are really good that you've not heard of them if you aren't British. Well, listen up. This is my new favorite song today, a soaring tune that I want to sing along with and be listening to if it is, indeed, the end of the world. Tinglingly good, I love the epic feel of the key changes (I am a sucker for those); for some reason this line gets me: "Can't hardly see the stars, there's too much light pollution . . . That's the catch, it's such a beautiful confusion." Their 5th studio album Twilight Of The Innocents is out in the UK this week, and they say it shall be their last proper album (then moving to what Mason Jennings considered, and releasing only singles). Ash plays at London's KOKO for a run this entire week, and then they hit the festival circuit this summer, including Asia, then Reading and Leeds festivals.


Dream Brother (alternate take)
Jeff Buckley
Reading a recent review by a friend of mine, I realized that I never weighed in on the new So Real: Songs from Jeff Buckley collection, which was released in May to commemorate ten years of his absence. While it's a bit disorienting to hear a rearranged Grace (no Mojo Pin starter? No Lilac Wine following Last Goodbye?), I like the overall effect here, and would recommend this addition for any Buckley fan who already loves his studio debut album front to back, as I do. The compilation adds some excellent songs of Jeff's that surfaced after Grace (such as the sexy swooner Everybody Here Wants You, or The Sky Is A Landfill), as well as alternate takes on favorites. These new versions are interesting in the different vantage points they offer (Eternal Life slays like the best Zeppelin tune, there are some new lyrics here in Dream Brother), and while I wouldn't say that I prefer any of the new versions more than the originals, this collection offers an apt and different take on the talent we lost.


The Night Starts Here
Stars
The new album from Montreal, Canada's Stars isn't even out until September, three long months away, but this newly released mp3 is already burning through the blogs (thanks Arts & Crafts!). In Our Bedroom After The War will be the newest album from this melodic, dreamlike, deftly-harmonizing band that I quite enjoy, and the first single continues where 2005's Set Yourself On Fire left off - lots of turntaking in the verses between honey-voiced Amy Millan and incisive Torquil Campbell, over a backbeat of synths and layered orchestral pop.


Apeman (Kinks cover)
The Format
In honor of the one year anniversary of the release of Dog Problems, charismatic Arizona pop band The Format is offering that entire album free for download on their website, no catches, until July 16th. That's a whole lot of goodness, gratis. The Format remains one of the most exciting live shows I've seen (very high on the list) and I recommend catching them on this current tour if you can. They love covers like I do, and have put their unique stamp on everything from Harry Nilsson to Bruce Springsteen. Here they take on the Kinks' Apeman very faithfully -- but it's fun.


Come And Get It (demo)
Paul McCartney
Last week I got an email from my friend Tony wondering, hypothetically, if I might have enough frequent flyer miles to be his accomplice in the Paul McCartney private show at Amoeba Records in LA. On less than 24 hours notice, I could not swing it, but oh, how I need a private jet. This demo recording of the McCartney-penned Badfinger megahit (Paul laid this down one day at Abbey Road when he arrived early for a recording session) is something I've been listening to a lot recently. Posting it today is just an enjoyable excuse to link to Tony's review of his ultimate fanboy experience. (Oh, and I think we can call Lefsetz a fanboy too).

Ten years gone: Jeff Buckley

"So I wait for you
And I burn
Will I ever see your
sweet return?

Oh, will I ever learn?"

Ten years ago tomorrow (May 29, 1997) Jeff Buckley decided to go for a swim in the Wolf River, laid on his back and began floating while he sang "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin. Quickly, stealthily, and tragically the currents sucked him in and pulled him under.

Ten years.

Ten years ago Wednesday I was sitting at the kitchen table in my parents' house in California reading the morning newspaper and probably having coffee, getting ready for one of my last few weeks of my senior year before graduating high school. Stuck at the very bottom of a sidebar with mundane news briefs of the day was this short blurb saying that folk-rock singer Jeff Buckley had been reported missing following a swim.

Such a small news bit; such a huge crashing sound in my ears. I remember exclaiming out loud, and calling my mom over; I had been deeply in love with his music for a year or so at that point, and felt this crazy urge to get on a plane and help the search efforts, or at the very least I wanted more information, something more to go on that just "he's missing." Today I could probably clickety-click to a live streaming news feed from the muddy banks, but then all I had to go on was a half-inch of sterile newsprint.

My answers came a few days later when his beautiful body showed up bloated and bruised in the waters at the foot of historic Beale Street in Memphis.


The story was over. The one finished album, the masterpiece, would have to be enough.

I wonder what ground he would have travelled, and what he would have created had he lived. By all accounts, Jeff's musical creativity was unbounded, and I've heard for myself the joy in his voice when he was doing what he was manically driven to do: create, perform, create.

In retrospect, Jeff is not the kind of artist I would have thought to fall in love with. At that time in my life, I was all about brooding, rocking, loud music. I guess Grace had enough of that to entice me in (through songs like "Eternal Life") and then, like the nectar at the bottom of a venus flytrap, I was ensnared, but happily.

In searching through my old news clippings for this post, I found an old press release with a listing of tour dates from 1994. He came through San Francisco on November 20. I wonder what else I was doing that night, my sophomore year of high school. Maybe I just place him higher on a pedestal than I should because I've built up in my mind what it would have been like to see him live, breathless, glowing. But maybe not.

Jeff is quoted in that press release as saying, "I'm really into flying. I don't care about being a gospel singer or a blues singer per se, but elements of that music are keys to my subconscious. When I sing something like that--if I do it right--it's like a weird snake that will get in you and unlock something. If I wasn't able to do this, I think I would really lay down and die.

"Music comes from a very primal, twisted place. When a person sings, their body, their mouth, their eyes, their words, their voice says all these unspeakable things that you really can't explain but that mean something anyway. People are completely transformed when they sing; people look like that when they sing or when they make love. But it's a weird thing--at the end of the night I feel strange, because I feel I've told everybody all my secrets."

Those 'secrets' of his still affect me more powerfully than almost any other artist with that soaring, gorgeous, fearless, devastating voice.

I miss you, Jeff.


Lover You Should Have Come Over (alternate version)
From the Eternal Life single

I Know It's Over (Smiths cover) - Jeff Buckley
from the so-called "Garbage Can Tape," circa 1993

I Shall Be Released - Jeff Buckley
collaborative Dylan cover, live over the phone with WFMU radio. Arresting, gorgeous - NOW ON CD: please see this post to buy it for a good cause!

Satisfied Mind - Jeff Buckley

TRIBUTES: There are a wide variety of tribute events taking place for Jeff. His website lists ones upcoming in Hollywood, London, Louisiana, Iceland, Georgia, Macedonia, Boston, Dublin, Melbourne, and Paris. The Uncommon Grounds Chicago event is scheduled for November. I went to one in San Francisco at Noe Valley Ministry several years back, and it was surprisingly transcendent.

Related posts (all links reupped where needed):
The story behind Jeff covering Dylan
Tribute songs penned about Jeff
Jeff Buckley and Aimee Mann
Rarities from NYC
Jeff channels his father
Video: Jeff singing Satisfied Mind
Some live covers from Jeff

Monday Music Roundup

Spring is finally on the verge of ... springing here in Colorado. There are new layers of green outside my front door everytime I look, and I think my tulips (which I didn't plant myself, but remain an annual treat from the previous green-thumbed owner) are poised to bloom any day. There's also a gorgeous bush covered in breathtaking yellow flowers right outside my kitchen window, so I don't even mind doing the dishes lately. Hooray for Spring, I've been color-starved and sunshine-starved, even though I try to make the best of it.

Side note: there is a fantastic/rotten new entry over at ThingsMyBoyfriendSays.com that I ain't gonna post here but just made laugh for a solid minute or so...

But let's just move it along, people. Here's the music, with an appropriate first track for the revelling in the Spring sunshine.


Laissez Briller Le Soleil ("Let the sun shine"?)
Les Boots
Every once in a while on the music blogs that I regularly read, someone throws out a curveball that just catches you offgaurd in the most marvelous way. Aquarium Drunkard has a "French Freakbeat" series up now (parts one and two) of fuzzy, garage harmonies from Gallic groups of the Sixties. Info is scant, but apparently this is "a rare bootleg collection that explores mid 1960s mod-influenced psychedelia of French bands that were paying strict attention to their British brethren, most notably The Small Faces." I love the way this sounds -- it's as if your little transistor radio suddenly picks up a station across the Atlantic with sounds that are vaguely familiar but altogether fresh. Grab the whole set. Soooo good, right up my alley.

No Pussy Blues
Grinderman
Following my post referencing the great Nick Cave tune (and the Pearl Jam cover of) "The Ship Song," reader Joe recommended that I check out Cave's new band with 3 of his Bad Seeds -- Grinderman, saying it was "raw, dirty, superb!" Any song titled No Pussy Blues definitely tends towards the raw and fairly dirty; it's also humorous as he details his efforts in vain to get the unnamed female to acquiesce in his growling, pointed storytelling. This is off their forthcoming 2007 self-titled release on Anti Records (US). Blistering.

Gospel
The National
Speaking of Nick Cave, the voice of Matt Berninger always reminds me a bit of Cave in its deep and dramatic resonation. The forthcoming 4th album from Brooklyn's The National, Boxer (May 22, Beggars Banquet label) leaked its way onto the interwebby this weekend and I've been truly enjoying feeling my way through it. It's a rich, melodic, gorgeous album with lyrics aching of romantic disillusionment and raw desire -- I had a hard time picking just one track to share. This is an album that I really look forward to delving into and relishing on repeat; first impressions are very solid.

Never Learn Not To Love
Beach Boys/Charles Manson
So you all know that I enjoy enriching my brain with backstories and random little snippets of musical history that fall through the cracks. The Spinner blog has a fascinating little story on how the Golden State's finest exports ended up recording the music of a psychotic murderer. Although the original writing credits of this song, which was first released as a b-side to cheery "Bluebirds Over The Mountain," list only Dennis Wilson as the author, the truth would include a credit for the wild-eyed Chuck Manson as well for his earlier version -- creepily entitled "Cease To Resist." Who knew that underneath all that sunshine and chiming harmonies there was a secret more sinister.

Strawberry Street
Jeff Buckley
Oooh, and finally how about a b-side from my beloved Jeff Buckley? This is one that I'd never heard before, unearthed by the superb Sweet Oblivion blog and ripped directly from the vinyl single of the great song "Forget Her." It was also a hidden track on the Australian edition of Grace. This song was written by Jeff before he moved to NYC in 1993, and it is Jeff at his most waily, electric, Led-Zeppelin-loving best.

And holy goodness (!!), I've been waiting for this news for a long time: The critically-acclaimed film festival favorite Jeff Buckley documentary Amazing Grace will finally be released by Columbia/Legacy on May 22 for purchase. I've heard nothing but revelatory raves about it but missed all screenings ever near me; add your name here to be updated on purchase information. I cannot wait to settle in to watch that one.

Jeff Buckley & Aimee Mann

One of my favorite and very first posts (anyone with me that long?) was the first time I wrote about Jeff Buckley, told the story of "our relationship" if you will, and posted up songs inspired by his life, his art, and his untimely death.

(pretty sure that chill-inducing photo above is Jeff in front of the Wolf River, taken by Merri Cyr).

Since so many of you have been asking, I've revisited that post and re-upped all the links to the Jeff tribute songs. I've added a bunch of tracks to the original post from 2005, and this one had a special story to go along with it . . .

Just Like Anyone - Aimee Mann

Aimee said:
This is a song I wrote when Jeff Buckley died...I hadn't known Jeff extremely well, but we kept bumping into each other here and there.

One night we met for a drink at a pub in NYC, and started writing messages to each other on a paper placemat that was there, instead of talking, because the music in the bar was really loud or something. An interesting effect of that was that we found ourselves writing things that we would never would dare to say to each other out loud. I remember thinking that he seemed to be sort of lost and sad although he outwardly was very funny and lively and confident, and wrote something about that, among another things.

I didn't talk to him for a long time after that -- I went to England to live for a while and we talked once or twice and then nothing for over a year.

Then one night I got a voice mail message from him that said, "I just realized what you were trying to tell me that night". I tried to call him back but the number I had for him was old, and then I got his new number but I was out of town again and it was difficult to call, and then I heard that he was missing, and presumed dead. . .

[via reader mickeyitaliano]

Sigh.

Yes, it's depressing. But I love that image of two people sitting in a loud bar, scribbling their most honest thoughts on a placemat instead of talking. I suppose the modern equivalent would be text messaging across a crowded room. I like that idea, it's like talking in secret code and no one around you knows. Something about the medium makes it easier to be honest and say what you are truly thinking.

This song is just a wisp, under 2 minutes, heartfelt and regretful.

Tim Buckley DVD on the way

From the NME, news of a forthcoming Tim Buckley DVD (and a related previous post here with Jeff Buckley audio).

Tim Buckley performances DVD revealed
A DVD featuring a collection of performances of Tim Buckley is set to be released in May. Featuring rare live performances from various television shows and interview footage spanning his career from 1967 to 1974, 'My Fleeting House' also includes 11 songs and interviews with Lee Underwood, who was Buckley's guitarist, and Larry Beckett, who co-wrote many of his songs.

Over the course of his career, Buckley (father of the late Jeff Buckley) incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, and avant-garde rock into his sound. He died in 1975, aged 28, from a mixture of heroin and alcohol. 'My Fleeting House' will be released on May 15.

TRACKLISTING
'No Man Can Find the War' (from 'Inside Pop')
'Happy Time' (from 'Late Night Line-Up')
'Morning Glory' (from 'Late Night Line-Up')
'Dolphins' (from 'The Old Grey Whistle Test')
'Song to the Siren' (from 'The Monkees Show')
'Who Do You Love' (from 'Greenwich Village')
'Happy Time' (from Dutch TV)
'Sing a Song for You' (from Dutch TV)
'Sally Go Round the Roses' (from 'Music Video Live')
'Blue Melody' (from 'Boboquivari')
'Venice Beach (Music Boats by the Bay)' (from 'Boboquivari')
'I Woke Up' (from 'The Show')
'Come Here Woman' (from 'The Show')
'Pleasant Street' (from 'the Christian Licorice Store')
____________________________________________________

Last March I uploaded this Tim Buckley video to YouTube after reading about the moment in Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff & Tim Buckley and subsequently scouting out the video clip online. It has blown me away how many people are still interested in viewing this performance -- over 50,000 so far! And some pretty passionate comments, too . . . A magnetic performance.

Jeff Buckley covers Bob Dylan for a musician's village in New Orleans

A few weeks ago I posted a fantastic recording of Jeff Buckley singing Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" over the phone for WMFU radio, with the help of some friends. One of those friends of Jeff's was Michelle Kinney, who sang and played the accordion in the studio that day. Through a series of events, we've been corresponding by email - and she's let me know of a great new project she's working to develop, using a cleaned-up version of that arresting and blissful recording.

Michelle writes, "Being in Jeff's company whether he was singing or not was transcendent (most of the time). You could feel him coming from blocks away." Her husband was also a friend of Jeff's, and played guitar on that recording of "I Shall Be Released" (as well as backing Jeff at the St. Ann's tribute for Tim Buckley in 1991). Michelle has developed an artist's record label called Sugarfoot Music which has received permission from Jeff's estate to officially release that incredible recording on a compilation CD benefitting a musicians' village in New Orleans.

Jeff's song will join 30 other artists on this album to help raise funds to build homes for musicians displaced by the hurricanes in 2005. The idea of a Musicians' Village was conceived by Harry Connick Jr. & Branford Marsalis, and will house musicians and families whose lives were devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. With the support of others, including a $1.5 million challenge grant by musician Dave Matthews, Habitat for Humanity has already begun rebuilding a neighborhood of music players and music lovers.

Among the contributors: Dan Wilson (of Semisonic), Natalie Merchant, Indigo Girls, Marshall Crenshaw, Gary Louris & The Jayhawks, and more. Sugarfoot Music’s benefit CD includes a 36-page booklet featuring a photo and a thought on New Orleans from each artist; I love liner notes that possess thought and depth -- it's like getting a great book along with the CD and adds so much to the experience.

In thinking back to the day that the song with Jeff was recorded, Michelle remembers; "We were all goofing around in a very low-key kind of way, and Jeff was so far from being a star. Aside from the pure joy of playing with Jeff over the phone, no one knew that this would become a special thing. On the CD, we edited out most of the other remarks -- the preference of the show's producer, Nick Hill. It's mostly just the song, with Jeff's comments at the end." When Jeff lets out an ebullient laugh and thanks everyone as the song ends, what sticks with me (and always makes me break into a huge smile) is the refreshed elation in his voice, the untarnished joy of being involved in such a beautiful singalong.

It will be great to have this version in my collection, and to support a worthy cause. You can order the CD on the Sugarfoot Music website. In the short time I've had that amazing song in my collection, it's become my absolute favorite cover that Jeff ever recorded, and is a fitting and affirming addition to the theme of this album.

And as Michelle says, "I know that Jeff would have been down there hammering nails himself."

I Shall Be Released (over the phone, WFMU) - Jeff Buckley and Friends
(the singing starts at 4:15)

Buy the cleaned-up/non radio-rip version for a good cause here.

Jeff Buckley sings over the phone: Dylan's "I Shall Be Released"

An author has contacted me to contribute to a book he is writing which indirectly is related to Jeff Buckley, and I am working on giving some initial answers to questions for him about my "relationship" with Jeff Buckley and his music, my perspectives and feelings.

I love talking about that kind of stuff, as you know, but it's also kind of a hard exercise. I stopped and just kind of sat there when I came to question #5:

Did you ever see him play live, or meet him/speak to him? If not, do you wish you had?

(The answer is no, but more than anything I'd love to answer the first part of that question in the affirmative). I've been listening to Jeff Buckley a lot today, and am especially excited about this amazing version of Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" that Buckley performed over the phone for some guys from WMFU Radio some years ago.

Jeff's bluesy take on this song from Sin-é has long been a favorite of mine, but there's something about the impromptu scratchy gorgeousness of this version. It's absolutely arresting; I don't know how something over the phone could induce chills, but it does. When I read Dream Brother, one common thread throughout Jeff's life was that he loved to share little bits of himself through his music in random ways with friends and those whom he felt could appreciate it -- so his music crops up in all kinds of unexpected forms.

The singing starts at about 4:15.

[removed] I Shall Be Released - Jeff Buckley
over the phone with WMFU Radio

[NOW ON CD: please see this post to buy it for a good cause!]
-

Kiss me out of desire, babe, and not consolation

One of my favorite songs probably in the world is Jeff Buckley's "Last Goodbye" (Grace, 1994). It's not just the beauty of the instrumentation (although that skittering melody gets me every time), but the richness and the poetry of the lyrics as well. One of the best breakup/moving away/leaving songs ever recorded because of its reality - it's not a total screw-you song like "You Oughta Know" or simply a mopey song like "Forever Blue" but instead it plumbs the depths of a real relationship that's dying.

Few artists that I know of have attempted their hand at covering this masterpiece, but Natalie Merchant undertook the effort with mostly favorable, if staid, results (I really don't think there is any way I could like any cover better than the original). I love Merchant's gorgeously unique voice; I think my favorite exhibition of it is, for some reason, a little song off Tigerlily called "Beloved Wife," which just wrecks me. This version is pretty faithful, instrumentally, to the original Buckley rendition.

Last Goodbye (Jeff Buckley cover) - Natalie Merchant

I think that one of the best moments of integration and explosion in a song is where Last Goodbye breaks - the notes immediately prior, the vocal soaring, then:

Did you say 'no, this can't happen to me,'
And did you rush to the phone to call
Was there a voice unkind in the back of your mind
Saying maybe you didn't know him at all

As much as I love the album version, my favorite version forever and ever would have to be this alternate from the Eternal Life single. The first 25 seconds are so changed as to be almost unrecognizable. It builds more slowly. Jeff also adds a small tag that I love, right before the lyrics quoted above:

Why does she call me
When she knows what it does to me . . .

Last Goodbye (alternate version) - Jeff Buckley
From the Eternal Life single

-

More Jeff Buckley rarities

I have this amazing secret reference person, known only to me by email, a San Franciscan named Lisa who is a veritable treasure trove of Jeff Buckley information. She found me after my first Jeff Buckley post, and she has been a superstar ever since.

My friend Matthew, who runs the Don't Need Anything blog, recently posted some intriguing-sounding Jeff Buckley songs without any information about what they were or where they came from. Since you know that I just finished reading that Jeff Buckley bio, I wanted to plug the songs into the timetable in my head and get more information.

So, this becomes a story of when Lisa met Matthew (sort of).

I forwarded Lisa the link to see what she knew. Of course, she replied in full glory. She writes:

To the absolute joy and amazement of many, some of these songs surfaced late this past winter. No one really knows their origin. The file that contained the tracks was entitled "Rarities From NYC."

With the exception of "Forget Her" (which was most likely recorded during the Grace sessions), it's believed that most of the tracks were recorded in New York City in early to mid ‘96. I remember reading that Jeff had a bunch of cassettes that contained some of the music from his time with the boys in Sag Harbor, in late 95. But these were pretty much just shit they were purging from themselves after Grace.

Then there are the rehearsals and preliminary versions of songs for My Sweetheart the Drunk, recorded at Sorcerer in NYC in the summer of 96 with Tom Verlaine, pre-Parker Kindred (last drummer). Then there are some studio recordings with Verlaine after Parker joined on as well. It's hard to pin them down because they aren't mentioned in anything that's been written about. One can only speculate.

We don't know who is jamming with Jeff on “When The Levee Breaks” (which is a total joy to hear, considering Jeff's love of Zeppelin), or on “We Could Be So Happy Baby” (which is fantastic to be able to hear an arrangement with a full band). I'm guessing this was recorded before his 4-track version from his solo sessions in Memphis that actually ends up on My Sweetheart the Drunk. It's just lovely to hear him pulling the guys through some of these songs like when he sings out the chords: "Gimmie A,A,A,A,A...” in “When My Love Comes Down.”

I'm sure there's a lot of music that Sony and the Estate are unaware of. Anyone who worked with Jeff during his recording lifetime is bound to have unreleased material. And you know how it is . . . music has a way of drifting around through fellow musicians, lovers, friends and acquaintances. It's well known that Jeff made tapes for his bandmates and lovers. I met a guy here in SF that was friends with drummer Eric Eidel, who played and recorded with Jeff (between Matt's exit and Parker's entrance). He claimed to have those sessions on tape, which I believe are some of the Verlaine sessions.

There are a bunch of songs that are known of but haven't surfaced yet. Some of them have twisted titles, such as “Dendrils of Death,” “Men on Drugs,” “Open Up and Bleed,” and “I Love Liquor.” Then there's the infamous “Sky Blue Skin,” which (guitarist) Michael Tighe refers to as an important piece of music. And the hits keep coming -- ha!

Anyway, hope that sheds a shred of light . . . Keep those Buckley posts coming. It's wonderful that people are still excited to hear his work. You have to love the way the music inevitably finds its way into the hands of those who really desire to hear it. The best part is, no one can capitalize on it. It's just all about the love of his music.

And yes, she writes that eloquently all the time. Flippin' sweet.


When The Levee Breaks - Jeff Buckley
(Kansas Joe McCoy & Memphis Minnie cover, made popular by Led Zeppelin)

I Know We Could Be So Happy Baby - Jeff Buckley

Forget Her (alternate version) - Jeff Buckley
(I think this could have completely been a single, but Jeff disagreed with me and Sony on that one)

Opened Once (Instrumental) - Jeff Buckley

River of Dope - Jeff Buckley (hypnotic)

When My Love Comes Down - Jeff Buckley

Untitled - Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley channels his father, St. Ann's Church, April 26, 1991

Well, that was intense. I just finished reading Dream Brother: The Lives & Music of Jeff & Tim Buckley this afternoon and I feel a bit more in love with the music, somewhat eviscerated by the sad details of untimely deaths, and pensive over all the history that I didn't know. I highly recommend the book to fans of Jeff or Tim Buckley, or even to just your average music lover (which, clearly, you are, because you are here on my site).

The book seems about 20% thicker now that I am finished with it because of all the corners I folded down to mark a version of a song I wanted to look up, a location I wanted to Google (!), a piece of this familial musical history that I want to learn more about. I have several ideas for posts that spring from David Browne's eloquently written prose along with some unreleased songs that I have which are worth sharing.

I came into the book as a Jeff Buckley fan. While I understand more now about the legacy his father left, I've not been able to personally get into Tim's late-'60s/early-'70s experimental musical vision, in all of its many formats and versions. So the first personal connection that I have with the book comes when Jeff begins to unfold as a musician in his early stages.

Jeff's true "introduction" to the music world, if you will, and the single appearance that created the buzz in New York which helped fuel his meteoric rise and signing by Sony Records, happened the night of April 26, 1991 (and is pictured at the top of this post). Janine Nichols had organized an annual musical benefit evening in the halls of the gothic-revival St. Ann's Cathedral for the past several years as part of their "Arts at St. Ann's" series. In 1991, one of the concerts to be offered was "Greetings From Tim Buckley," in which mostly unknown local NYC musicians would perform versions of Tim's work.

During Nichols' concert research, she came across the name of his son, whom Tim had more or less abandoned when Jeff was just a baby. Jeff only met his father a few times and still had ambivalent feelings about being linked with him, so when Nichols called the 24-year-old Jeff to see if he would be interested in attending, he was unsure. But after some thought and discussion, he decided to come. "I always missed not going to [his] funeral," Jeff said as part of his reasoning.

Although Jeff had attended the Musician's Institute in Southern California and played in several punk/rock/experimental/goth/reggae bands throughout the L.A. area, he usually felt most comfortable behind a guitar and not in front of a microphone. Many of his friends from this period didn't even know he could sing. When Jeff arrived in New York, the concert producers were still unsure if he would actually be performing in the tribute; they had listened to the demo tape he sent ahead and found it "noisy."

But when Jeff took the stage that April night, the crowd (which was full of those who had known and worked with his father) was, by all accounts, completely blown away by the power and beauty of this vocal talent. As Browne (the other Browne) writes:

"After an instrumental interlude, a new group of musicians took the stage. One of them was a long-haired kid wearing a black t-shirt. Danny Fields, Tim's onetime publicist, was in the audience, keeping an eye out for the supposed son. Though Jeff had his back to the audience as he tuned his guitar, the spotlight caught his profile and one cheekbone. 'And I said, 'Whoa--there he is,' Field recalls. 'I didn't have to wonder too hard. It could take your breath away.'

Jeff, who had billed himself as Jeff Scott Buckley, began strumming rigorously as [Gary] Lucas surrounded him with waves of soaring-seagull guitar swoops. It was 'I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain,' Tim's song to [ex-wife] Mary and her son [Jeff]. The audience suddenly stopped glancing at their watches. After an hour of esoteric music, here was one of Tim's most recognizable songs, emanating from a very recognizable face and sung in a familiar (if slightly deeper) voice.

Halfway through the performance, a light behind the stage suddenly flashed on, throwing Jeff's silhouette against the back wall; it was, as [concert promotor Hal] Willner says, 'like Christ had arrived.' ('My God,' Jeff said to a friend on the phone after the show, 'I stepped onstage and they backlit it and it was like the fucking Second Coming.')

Just before he went onstage, Jeff had finished writing his own verse for the song: 'My love is the flower that lies among the graves,' it began, ending with a plea to 'spread my ash along the way.' Anyone familiar with the subject matter of the song knew this performance was more than a faithful rendition of a '60s oldie. It was a tribute, retort, and catharsis all in one, and as soon as Jeff left the stage, the audience was literally abuzz with chatter: So that was the son."

Jeff came back to perform two other songs in the middle portion of the set, "Sefronia - The King's Chain" and "Phantasmagoria in Two" with Gary Lucas accompanying him. For the finale however, Jeff took the stage once more, this time alone. After a nervous intro in which he talks about hearing his father sing this very song on a record player when he was only six (and comically, how he was bored), Jeff exhales and starts in with "Once I Was," a wistful song his father may have written about his mother, Mary, and their fated love affair. Browne writes (and you can hear this in the recording):

"Suddenly, before the last chorus, a string broke on his acoustic guitar, and Jeff sang the lines, 'Sometimes, I wonder for a while/Do you ever remember me?' unaccompanied. If that weren't dramatic enough, his voice spiralled up on the last word --'me'-- like a thin plume of smoke, holding on for a moment before drifting up to the ceiling. He took a quick bow, said 'thanks,' and trotted offstage, and the concert ended. It would not have been a more perfect finale if he had planned it.

Backstage, he cried and accepted sundry congratulations and compliments, as well as a few business cards passed to him. He couldn't believe he'd been allowed to sing so many songs, and was overwhelmed. Danny Fields brought him a note from Linda McCartney, and Jeff told him that her photo of Tim in Central Park was his favorite of his father.

Across the country, in the living room of her Orange County apartment, [Jeff's mother] Mary Guibert watched the clock, knowing when the concert would start and finish. She says she knew Tim was in the church listening, and in her mind was a mental picture of 'this huge vortex of light forming over the cathderal. I knew this moment in time was going to change our lives forever -- his life forever.'"

Here is the set that Jeff performed that night. I find it significant for the unveiling, the coming of age, the taking the stage that occured that night, and how it would transform Jeff's life in the years to come. It is the first blip on the public radar of a voice that would change so many lives -- maybe even including mine.

JEFF PERFORMS AT THE TIM BUCKLEY TRIBUTE
I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain
Tim's original

Sefronia - The King's Chain
Tim's original

Phantasmagoria in Two
Tim's original

Once I Was
Tim's original

BUY: Dream Brother: The Lives & Music of Jeff & Tim Buckley by David Browne

Tim Buckley video: Song To The Siren, Monkees TV Show 1968

I had never actually heard Tim Buckley sing before I found this video, only read about him and seen his pictures. After seeing David Gray perform this amazing song a few weeks ago, I became driven to learn more about it and I found this video to be phenomenal. Probably what I found most interesting is how much Tim and Jeff obviously resemble each other physically, but that they sound so completely different in terms of voice. Where Jeff is dramatic and gorgeous and soaring, Tim is very straightforward Irish-folksy sounding to me. Here is the story behind it, from David Browne's marvelous book I am reading, Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff & Tim Buckley:

"One fall morning over breakfast, [poet friend Larry] Beckett came over [to Tim Buckley's apartment] with his latest well-honed, slaved-over lyric . . . Guitar in-hand at the dining table, Tim looked at Beckett's lyrics and pushed them away 'like unwanted mail,' Beckett remembers. After eating, Tim took his guitar, pulled Beckett's poem back over, and out of nowhere began playing a melody that complemented the words.

The song, which owed a debt to Homer's The Odyssey as well, was 'Song To The Siren,' a forlorn ode to unattainable love that used the call of a mythic siren as a chilling metaphor. Both its music and lyric captured the fatalistic Irish part of Tim's soul.

Long afloat on shipless oceans,
I did all my best to smile
'Til your singing eyes and fingers
Drew me loving to your isle
And you sang, 'Sail to me, sail to me
Let me enfold you
Here I am, here I am
Waiting to hold you.

In late November, not long after it was written, Tim premiered the song at a taping of the final episode of the Monkee's television series . . . Tim had befriended wool-hatted Monkee Michael Nesmith at the Troubadour's hoot nights. 'This is Tim Buckley,' announced Monkee Micky Dolenz. With Beckett standing offstage, holding the lyrics in case his friend forgot them, Tim walked onto the set - an old car with a smashed windshield - and slumped atop the hood. Accompanied only by his crystalline twelve-string, he caressed the melody, his large brown afro slowly bobbing back and forth as he sang."

Jeff Buckley channels Lady Day: Strange Fruit

Lovely reader Lisa, who is like my little Jeff Buckley drug-dealer appearing randomly with small packages of goodness to slip to me, sent me along the version he did of Strange Fruit that many of you were asking about after my recent post.

Lisa says, "I believe it was Billie that inspired Jeff's mournful, cutting, anguished version. This, in 1994, from a young 'white boy' from Southern California. He certainly could inhabit a song, couldn't he?"

[expired] Strange Fruit - Jeff Buckley
KCRW Man on the Moon, Jan 1994


Also, please anticipate that I will be entering into an even larger Jeff Buckley jag than usual, as I just bought the superb Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff & Tim Buckley (by David Browne, no relation) today. I just finished the introduction and already got a bit emotional in the bookstore. So this could be messy, but beautiful. Such is life.

Jeff Buckley: Satisfied Mind (Live at the Knitting Factory)

Oh, it almost hurts:


That is one of my favorite songs that Jeff ever recorded (a raw and unfinished version appears on Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk), and is my favorite rendition of this song out of all the other artists who have also put their unique stamp on it. I love the way the bluesy guitar practically weeps, and how his voice soars and reverberates. The beauty in this song just kills me.

In the liner notes for My Sweetheart The Drunk, Bill Flanagan writes:
"Jeff's mother decided the end the album as Jeff's memorial service ended, with a tape of him singing 'Satisfied Mind.' It's a good reminder that music for Jeff was, more than anything else, a source of joy. These recordings capture him in all his talent and contradictions, full of life. Though the sadness of his death will never fade, his joy will still come through."

Jeff Buckley: Please Send Me Someone To Love

Happy Valentine's Day. Although I really don't subscribe to the theory that you need to be sent someone to love today more than any other day, this does kind of fit the occasion. Here is a little bit of Jeff Buckley love, sent to me by wonderful reader Lisa, along with the absolutely amazing picture above.

Jeff Buckley, WFMU Music Faucet, 10/92
[expired] Please Send Me Someone to Love, original by Percy Mayfield

Jeff Buckley live

I love Jeff Buckley so much that sometimes if I listen to him at night, in the dark, his music almost makes me physically ache. That's how I felt when I heard this live track. Am I melodramatic? Of course.

But for real, LISTEN to him singing Nina Simone (Nina Simone!) and see. If it does not touch you, then perhaps you have a cold block of ice in your chest in place of a beating and sentient heart.

If You Knew - from Live at Sin-é

Also, here is Buckley covering Velvet Underground and Bob Dylan. Interesting live radio studio banter as well. Sometimes I forget that he was a real person, if that makes sense.

All Tomorrow's Parties (live) - Jeff Buckley
Mama, You've Been On My Mind (live) - Jeff Buckley
(there is a great studio version of this as well on the Grace Legacy Edition CD)

And in the news, there is a Jeff Buckley documentary (Amazing Grace) which I am somehow just now hearing of. It apparently screened at the Cinequest Film Festival back in San Jose in March when I was totally still living there. How did I miss that?

Jeff Buckley

In belated honor of what would have been Jeff Buckley's 39th (!!!) birthday on November 17th, I want to do a little featurette for the man who has brought more beauty to my ears and to my life than any other artist in my collection.

Buckley was a beautiful and talented singer-songwriter with a haunting voice, who was hailed by many as the most promising artist of his generation. I remember first hearing Eternal Life on a cassette tape sampler that came with my SPIN Magazine my freshman year of high school (1994). It grew on me and I found the full Grace album in the bargain bin at the Wherehouse (is that how they spelled it? and why was it in the bargain bin?!).

Soon I was in audio love. I remember many nights in high school falling asleep listening to Grace, especially Mojo Pin, which begins with the lyrics, "I'm lyin' in my bed, blanket is warm, this body will never be safe from harm..." which seemed terribly deep and tragic and meaningful to a 14 year old. There is such immense and almost untouchable beauty in every track on Grace. It is one of The masterpiece albums.

Jeff Buckley drowned in the Mississippi River in May of 1997, right before I graduated high school. I still clearly remember reading the tiny blurb in the newspaper that he was missing after a night swim. He and a friend were listening to a radio on the beach of the river and waded in to cool off, during those nascent days of studio recording for his follow-up to Grace (to be called My Sweetheart The Drunk). Jeff was floating on his back, singing. A boat went by and the wake caused small waves to wash up on shore. His friend was worried about the radio getting wet and he went to move it further up the beach. When he turned back around, Jeff was gone. No sound, no splash. Just pulled under. Part of me has always wondered what he was singing [edit: Whole Lotta Love, Led Zep]. It gives me chills.

His body was recovered a week later at the foot of historic Beale Street, birthplace of the Blues. I remember being so sad that they had to identify his beautiful body by his piercings.

(edit: David Browne tells the story so much better than I do)

I was heartened to find out about the wonderful variety of songs penned by the musical community as tributes to Jeff after his death. I would think that the highest form of compliment that a musician could receive would be to see how he impacted so many others, and how he lives on via their music.

TRIBUTE SONGS FOR JEFF BUCKLEY

A Body Goes Down - Duncan Sheik
This is just beautiful poetry: Once in a while / A man comes along / Even his failures were favorite songs / Oh to have made something so unsurpassed / As certain things fall away / So certain things may last . . . Of course there is grace / And those halos of pain / Maybe he sang what he came here to sing . . . A body goes down /In the Mississippi waters /Weighted by a beauty /Afraid of its light / Notify your holy men / Console your sons and daughters / And tell me one more time / What is just / What is right . . .

And I think that one of the most amazing things about this song is the fact that the music *IS* the Mississippi River. Listen to the dark way it swirls, with an undercurrent. If you close your eyes, you can see water sliding by in the moonlight. It is amazing.

Trying Not to Think About It - Juliana Hatfield
Juliana's sweet singsong voice pays tribute to her reactions immediately after she heard the news. The two artists were friends, and she once opened for him on tour. The song says, "I want to close my eyes / and sleep for a year / Tell me that it's only a dream / That it's a nightmare." Melodramatic though it is, I felt the same way.

Memphis Skyline - Rufus Wainwright
A lush, piano-based tune with lyrics to give me chills (recurrent theme): "Always hated him for the way he looked / In the gaslight of the morning / Then came hallelujah sounding like Ophelia / for me in my room living..." Such honesty, and I love how for Wainwright the pivotal point was that hearing of Buckley's ethereal rendition of Hallelujah. From the exhalation that starts the song, the whole recording is spellbinding magic.

Grey Ghost - Mike Doughty
This turn of style for the former frontman of Soul Coughing ("Super Bon Bon" anyone?) is a bit uptempo for the subject matter, I think, but I like the way he hauntingly constructs the night Buckley died. "On the docks in Memphis / with the boombox, nodding out, singing . . . In the trail of the barge and the light upon the brine / He has staked these thoughts and the force is undivided . . . Sleepy-eyed, the man is wading out into the night, singing . . ."

Bandstand in the Sky - Pete Yorn
I've updated this from the original version I posted, the Live From New Jersey "good times" rendition. Yorn finally did a nice studio treatment of this song for his newest album Nightcrawler, and it's more serious and dense than the last. "Come with me to a river I have seen . . .on the way, we can wash off in the stream. Time is waiting for the lightning to arrive, you can take my life but I'll never die." I have to say, though, every time he sings the line, "We just made a bad decision, that's alright," I wanna yell "No it's not!"

Valley of Sound - Heather Nova
Nova wrote this after going to a Jeff Buckley show that she says, "moved [her] to tears." I never did get to see Jeff Buckley live. I did attend a fan gathering at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco (a spartan church-type building) after his death, and they showed a live performance DVD. Buckley had played that venue when he was alive, and seeing him projected onto a big screen at the front of the room, it was almost like seeing him live if you pretended a bit. I remember the heaviness in the air and the way you could almost feel him, especially during the line in Hallelujah, "Baby I've been here before, I've seen this room and I've walked this floor..."

Wave Goodbye - Chris Cornell
Showing how far-reaching Buckley's influence was, here we have THE set of pipes from Soundgarden, a quite hard-rockin' mofo in their day, penning a tune about Jeff. Apparently they were good friends and Cornell wrote this in '97 after Jeff's death. This track was on Cornell's 1999 solo album Euphoria Morning. Cornell says, "Yeah, the lyrics are about Jeff, but obviously it's also about a death and loss and I was a little scared of that. It's so straight forward; it's one of the most straight forward songs I've ever written. But there was no other way to do it."

Memphis - PJ Harvey
Ms. Polly Jean Harvey was friends with Jeff Buckley, and penned this abstract, simple song for him with the refrain, "Oh, what a way to go - you're peaceful, you're smiling." And apparently singing "A Whole Lotta Love," as I learned from a comment posted to this blog. Thank you to 'Splean' for emailing me this track, which appeared as the b-side to the November 2000 single "Good Fortune."

You Were Right - Badly Drawn Boy
This song isn't really about Buckley, more of a mention ("And I remember doing nothing on the night Jeff Buckley died"), so it is on the list by generous extension of the rules. It is a great song, though, containing one of my favorite other lyrics, "And songs are never quite the answer, just a soundtrack to a life, that is over all too soon . . ." That is actually an excellent note to end this post on.

Update March 2007 - Since I posted this back in '05, several of you have written me with additional suggestions for tunes to add to this post. I have not been able to verify directly that all of these songs were intended to relate to Jeff, but they all certainly seem to:

Live In Blue Sparks - Rebecca Moore (Jeff's love and muse)

Blind River Boy - Amy Correia

Gracing Wolf River - Flecton

To The Sea - Mark Eitzel

Neath the Beeches - The Frames
(I just learned that a young Jeff did a stint as guitar tech for Glen Hansard of The Frames)

In A Flash - Ron Sexsmith

Except For The Ghosts - Lisa Germano

...and I have the feeling we're not done.