Jeff Buckley

Jeffrey Scott "Jeff" Buckley (Anaheim, California, November 17, 1966 – Memphis, Tennessee, May 29, 1997) was an American alternative rock musician and singer-songwriter, recognized by the Rolling Stone magazine as one of the best voices on its list of Anglo-Saxon popular music singers. He is recognized for his first and only studio album, titled Grace in 1994. He was considered one of the musicians most promising rock band of his generation. However, at the height of his popularity, he drowned while swimming in the Wolf River off the city of Memphis.He was the son of fellow singer-songwriter Tim Buckley (1947–1975).

Biography

Early Years

Born in Los Angeles, California, Jeff Buckley was the only child of Mary Guibert and Tim Buckley. His father was a songwriter and released a series of highly acclaimed folk and jazz records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His mother was of Panamanian descent, and his father came from a family of Irish emigrants from Cork. Buckley grew up with his mother and stepfather, Ron Moorhead, in Southern California, continually moving within Orange County. He also had a half-brother, Corey Moorhead (who named his first son Jeffrey James, after Buckley).). During his childhood he was known as Scott “Scottie” Moorhead but when he was about ten years old, he decided to take his birth name after meeting his father (whom he never saw again), although for his family he continued calling himself Scottie.

At the age of eighteen he moved to Los Angeles, where he graduated from the two-year course of the Musician's Institute. Buckley always referred to his time at this center as a "waste of time", although he made lifelong friends there. His musical background was reflected in those bands he participated in before starting his solo career. In Los Angeles he was part of Shinehead's reggae band, as well as other bands in which he normally just played guitar.

Early career

Buckley moved to New York in 1990. His public debut as a singer was a 1991 performance, a tribute to his father, Tim Buckley, at St. Ann's Church in New York. She was not paid as an interpreter. She simply chose to pay his respects to his father by saying, "This is not a stepping stone, this is something very personal." He performed "I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain" with a friend named Gary Lucas, accompanying him on guitar, and sang an a cappella version of "Once I Was", which left the audience in complete silence. When asked about this particular concert, Buckley replied that "it wasn't my job, it wasn't my life. But I felt bad for not having been present at his (his father's) funeral, that I never had a chance to tell him anything. I took advantage of that concert to pay my last respects.

Buckley soon became a regular solo performer at the Greenwich Village café Sin-é, where he attracted the attention of Columbia Records executives. In 1993 Columbia released an EP of four songs recorded at the Sin-é café.

Grace

Buckley played with experimental guitarist Gary Lucas and his band Gods and Monsters. In 1994, Buckley released his ten-song debut album Grace. The album quickly received critical acclaim and appreciation from other musicians (including Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Bob Dylan, Thom Yorke, Neil Peart, and Paul McCartney). His version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is considered by many to be the definitive recording of the song and probably Buckley's best-known.

Following the release of his critically acclaimed debut album, Buckley spent more than two years touring the world. It seemed to be a tiring but effective way of maintaining independence from his record company, with which he had a rather strained relationship. In 1995 Buckley performed at the Olympia in Paris, a venue that had made French singer Edith Piaf famous. and that he considered the best of his entire career.

He also went on a tour known as the "Phantom Solo Tour". He started it in December 1996 using various pseudonyms including Father Demo, Jaime de Cevallos, Topless America, Smackcrobiotic, The Halfspeeds, Crackrobats, and Martha and the Nicotines. As justification for such a mysterious tour, Buckley published a note on the internet arguing that he had lost the anonymity of playing in small venues and cafes:

There was a time in my life not long ago when I could get to a coffee and just do what I wanted, play music, learn by playing, explore what it means to me, that is, have fun when I bore and/or entertain an audience that doesn't know me or who doesn't know what I'm doing. In this situation I can afford the precious and irreplaceable luxury of mistaken, risking, surrendering. I've worked very hard to get all this, this environment where I work. I loved him and now that I lost him I miss him. All I'm doing is claim it.

Throughout his career, Buckley did several onstage covers of his favorite artists: Bob Dylan, The Smiths, Siouxsie Sioux, Leonard Cohen, Bad Brains, MC5, among others.

Death

Wolf River in Memphis, where Buckley died.

Buckley died on May 29, 1997, at the age of thirty, drowned in the Wolf River in Tennessee. His death was shrouded in mystery, as it is not possible to determine whether it was a reckless accident or if he committed suicide because of his bipolar disorder. The testimonies that provide further information regarding the events surrounding his death are the biography written by David Browne (“Dream Brother”) and a documentary broadcast by the BBC in 2002, which narrates the events that occurred on that fateful night of December 29. May 1997. According to these stories, Buckley had traveled to Memphis to record his second album, which would be called "My Sweetheart The Drunk", and that night his band would arrive in the city to begin the recording process.

Generally, Gene Bowen (Buckley's Road Manager) accompanied him everywhere to keep him out of trouble. However, that night Jeff decided to go for a drive, accompanied by roadie Keith Foti. Apparently they would have traveled the whole city listening to songs by John Lennon and Jane's Addiction on a double cassette recorder that Foti had bought the day before. When they decided to go to the rehearsal room to wait for the band, they realized they were lost, and after an hour of unsuccessful efforts to reach Young Avenue, they decided to call Bowen to ask him to help them find the place. path. However, they could not contact him, since he had gone to the airport to receive the rest of the musicians. It was at that moment that Buckley had the idea that they go to the banks of the Wolf River to play guitar and continue listening to music.

The river was not suitable for bathing, but there were no warning signs informing of a potential risk. Besides, Buckley had swum there before. While Foti played the guitar, Jeff took the recorder and walked to the riverbank, leaving the device quite close to the water. Around nine o'clock at night and in an inexplicable act, Buckley went into the water fully dressed, even with his boots on, and as he went deeper into the river, he began to play "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin. At one point, Foti moved the recorder to prevent it from getting wet from the waves produced by a boat passing through the sector, and when he looked up Jeff had already disappeared. Buckley's body was found naked five days later, at the end of Beale Street, and could only be identified by his distinctive navel piercing.A subsequent autopsy revealed no alcohol or drugs in his body.

After Buckley's death, some of the demos recorded for his second album were released under the name Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk. Three other discs with live recordings have been released, as well as a DVD of a concert in Chicago.

Jeff Buckley and the virtuosity of his covers

Graffitti with the image of Jeff Buckley in Russia (2015).

Jeff Buckley used to perform very frequently his own versions of other musicians' songs, especially in his live performances, in fact that's how he managed to be valued as a musician in his early days. These were generally very old, simple songs (played only on piano or guitar) and by relatively unknown singer-songwriters, with a bluesy or jazzy sound. Buckley's great interpretative and vocal quality earned him high praise for these covers, for his sensitive and melancholic way of singing.

The most famous is "Hallelujah", which although it is by a very important singer-songwriter like Leonard Cohen, was never really one of his most outstanding songs. However, Buckley transformed it into a classic. on Grace, "Je n'en connais pas la fin" (classic French song), I Know It's Over by The Smiths, I Shall Be Released (Bob Dylan), " The Other Woman" (inspired by Nina Simone), "Calling You" (Bob Telson) and several by Bob Dylan and Van Morrison; all of them performed only with his electric guitar, without any distortion.

One of the outstanding presentations in which his special way of making covers can be appreciated was the one known as «Live at Sin-é», based almost exclusively on covers and held at the «Sin-é» café. é” in New York, in which Buckley only plays accompanied by his electric guitar without any other additional musician. Until then, the musician had not yet released any official album and it was originally published in 1993, but only a few songs. In 2003 the "Legacy Edition" was released with the complete show.

Legacy

Musicians such as Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Muse's Matthew Bellamy cite Jeff Buckley among their influences, and Grace has been lauded by artists such as Bob Dylan (one of Buckley's idols), Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page, Steven Wilson, Morrissey, Robert Plant, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audioslave, Myles Kennedy, Neil Peart, Lana Del Rey

Buckley's work, seemingly anomalous with its time, has been enormously influential. Numerous songs have been written in his tribute, most notably Massive Attack's "Teardrop" featuring Elizabeth Fraser, PJ Harvey's "Memphis", Amy Correia's "Blind River Boy", Rufus Wainwright's "Memphis Skyline", "Wave Goodbye" by Chris Cornell, "Song For A Dead Singer" by the Belgian group Zita Swoon, various songs by the New Jersey group Ours, etc. He is also named in the song "Shakespeare" by singer and actress Miranda Cosgrove. Vocalists like Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Muse's Matt Bellamy and Coldplay's Chris Martin acknowledge that his voice influences them.

Discography

Studio Albums

• 1994 - Grace.
• 1998 - Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk (pastum album)
• 2016 - You and I (pastum album)

Live Albums

• 2000 - Mystery White Boy
• 2001 - Live to L'Olympia
• 2003 - Live at Sin-é (Legacy Edition)

EP

• 1993 - Live at Sin-é
• 1995 - Live from the Bataclan
• 2002 - The Grace EP

Compilations

• 2002 - Songs To No One 1991-1992 (with Gary Lucas)
• 2007 - So Real: Songs from Jeff Buckley
• 2011 - The Jeff Buckley Collection

Live videos

• 2000 - Live in Chicago

Documentaries

• Amazing Grace: Jeff Buckley (2004) - [1]
• Everybody Here Wants You (2002) - BBC
• Goodbye and Hello (2000) of the Dutch TV.
• Fall in Light (1999) of the French TV.

Tribute Songs

Numerous artists have created songs that pay tribute to the life and work of Jeff Buckley. Among them are:

• «A Body Goes Down» - Duncan Sheik
• «As I Wander» - Ours
• «Away» - Hannah Fury
• «Bandstand in the Sky» - Pete Yorn
• «Bleed» - Ours
• "Blind River Boy" - Amy Correia
• «Boys on the Radio» - Hole
• "By Yourself" - Sister 7
• «Drowning» - Julian Soto
• «Gorgeous» - Kashmir
• "Grey Ghost" - Mike Doughty
• «I Heard You Singing» - Ours
• «In a Flash» - Ron Sexsmith
• «JB» - Welcome To Roswell
• «Just Like Anyone» - Aimee Mann
• «Living In A Video» - Ours
• «Memphis» - PJ Harvey
• «Memphis Skyline» - Rufus Wainwright
• «Nightmares By The Sea» - Katatonia
• «New Blood» - Beth Wood
• «On the Road to Calvary» - Willie Nile
• «One Last Good Bye» - David Linx
• «Rilkean Heart» - Cocteau Twins
• «Rio Wolf» - Rufus T. Firefly
• «Saint Down The Hall» - Ours
• «Shakespeare» - Miranda Cosgrove
• «Shiver» - Coldplay
• «Song for a Dead Singer» - Zita Swoon
• "Swimming" - Chris Taylor
• «Calling You» - Pedro Aznar
• «Teardrop» - Massive Attack with Elizabeth Fraser
• «Trying Not to Think About It» - Juliana Hatfield
• «Valley of Sound» - Heather Nova
• «Wave Goodbye» - Chris Cornell
• «We Don't Know» - Health & Happiness Show
• «You Were Right» - Badly Drawn Boy
• «Except For The Ghost» - Lisa Germano