I finished reading David Browne's Dream Brother today, a dual biography of Tim and Jeff Buckley, and discovered that today is the 12th anniversary of Jeff's death. I picked up the book earlier this week at Half Price Books in Columbus, OH. I'm a sucker for rock biographies, and this book has two bios rolled into one. It's set up with alternating chapters about Tim and Jeff, and they both end up dying in the end, so it's kind of a sad tale. They had similar personalities, so a reader like me ends up hoping that they'll both pull through, knowing that they won't. It's like cheering for the coyote in Road Runner cartoons.
Musically, I'm more of a Tim Buckley fan than a Jeff Buckley fan. I got into his music through the posthumous Dream Letter album, and his first few albums are among my all time favorites. He kind of went off the deep end after that, and made a bunch of albums that were neither critical nor commercial successes, but was in the midst of a comeback when he died in 1975 at age 28. He was kind of a prickly pear as a person -- married twice, fathered one son by each wife, and wasn't close to either son. He also alienated his bandmembers and producers and record labels by being "difficult", compounded by alcohol and drug abuse.
Tim's son Jeff never knew his father (who left his Mom right after he signed with Elektra and moved to NYC), but made his name performing at a 1991 Tim Buckley tribute show in Brooklyn. He was billed as "Jeff Buckley" (even though he usually went by his middle name and mother's name -- Scott Moorhead), and he looked and sounded a lot like his late dad, and within a year he became the next big thing. He was signed by Columbia/Sony, and made just one album (Grace) before passing away at age 30, twelve years ago today.
Jeff was kind of a troubled soul as well, more aimless than assholish, but still troubled. Why would he choose to go swimming in the Mississippi River, fully clothed, at dusk? He ended up only releasing one studio album, because he had to be in the right mental frame to write and to record, and would constantly change arrangements and tempos and keys on every song even while recording it. He was amazingly talented, and had a wonderful singing voice, but I've never considered him as accomplished as his dad. Certainly not as prolific.
My favorite Jeff Buckley song is actually his cover of Leonard's "Hallelujah", which I consider to be the definitive version of that song, even though he learned it from John Cale's cover on I'm Your Fan. My favorite Tim Buckley song is "Song To the Siren", which I've posted about before. I didn't realize that Tim's performance was on the Monkees final episode. "Song To The Siren" was the Monkees' "It's a long way to Tipperary".
1 comment:
The thing about the junior Buckley is that, had he lived, he might have learned how to use that incredible voice. There are many moments on Grace (fewer on the posthumous assemblages) where he sings certain notes and passages simply because he can: they're showy, impressive from a sheer how-the-hell-can-he-sing-that-note aspect...but not all that musical, and rather show-offy. But he never got the chance to rein in what was clearly a huge talent, to train it and hone it so it was more effective. He was like a pitcher that could throw 100mph fastballs...but with erratic control and an iffy sense of the game, I guess.
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