Jeff Buckley - Tragic & Talented
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[From The Album "Live at Sin-é"]
I know you come here to listen to and read about music I like, but I have to admit I'm on the fence with this one. I discovered Jeff Buckley late, only after "Grace" was released. I thought is was so fantastic, it still is, especially the Leonard Cohen cover "Hallelujah". I couldn't get enough. Next I picked up the ''unfinished' compilation "Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk" with the sultry "Everybody Here Wants You" - lovely. And then a few live imports, "Mystery White Boy", "Live At L'Olympia" and "Live At Sin-E". Like his father Tim Buckley before him, Jeff Buckley died tragically, which only adds a layer of sobriety to his music (not unlike Nick Drake or Eva Cassidy). And if you had asked me I would have said I was a "fan". That is until I had the chance to see him live. I bought the DVD "Live In Chicago" and have seen other recordings since, and, well, I don't think he's very endearing as a performer. Rather, he's a little arrogant. He was talented and he knew it and at times was embarrassingly self indulgent, like a young guitar hero who noodles away until you find yourself annoyed. Only with Jeff Buckley it's his voice. But I still think, like most people, that Jeff Buckley was very talented and I enjoy these two performances. I find it a little difficult to criticize a performer who died so young, especially as Mary Guibert (Jeff's mother, Tim's wife) lovingly picks through the fragments of his brief career for a steady stream of posthumous CD & DVD releases. The title to the CD "Live at Sin-é" refers to the Greenwich Village cafe where he first gained public attention as well as recognition from Columbia A&R folks who released his one and only proper album, "Grace". This was a comfortable setting and it shows.
A Jeff Buckley story.
[try to picture the "High Fidelity" record store as you read this] Jeff Buckley was performing in Providence many years back. A local "guy" (a friend of someone who worked for me - he'll remain nameless) was browsing "In Your Ear Records" and asked the sales clerk (& friend) if he was going to see Tim Buckley play that night. The clerk joked, "Only if they dig up his dead corpse and prop it up on stage..." The friend corrected himself, "I mean Jeff Buckley", but the clerk said no, probably not, "...he sounds too much like Robert Plant." and wasn't interested. The friend agreed. Then a voice from behind a stack of records sneered, "Yeah, I do sound like him sometimes, don't I?". I can just picture the two of them rewinding their conversation and cringing that they just joked about Jeff Buckley's dead father. But then again, I think that fits in with the personality Jeff Buckley portrays live. Rather than be gracious and just let it go, he embarrassed them. Not that they didn't deserve it, but still... Anyway, I hope I haven't soured your listening experience. His songs are beautifully bitter sweet in a "Candle In The Wind" tragic sort of way. But for me, I'll stick to the CD's. Enjoy!
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