Juice Magazine, August, 95
By Annette Basile
Submitted by Niella
Even Bob Dylan is impressed by Jeff Buckley. At least he was until Buckley parodied Dylan's whine on stage, and Bob found out. Like many other ageing hippies, Dylan's initial interest was sparked by the Buckley name. Jeff's father Tim-an ex-chauffer of Sly Stone's-was one of folk's most astounding and acrobatic vocalists. But The late Tim Buckley had almost zero to do with his son's upbringing-and for Jeff, the subject is off limits. Famous father or not, the real interest in Buckley stems from his first, full-length melodic blitzkrieg, Grace, and the earlier EP Live at the Sin-e. The voice which glides over Grace now echoes across the line from New York. "Hi, this is Buckley, " he says, jaws smacking on a piece of gum.
Basile: What were you doing prior to Grace?
Buckley: Scuffling around in different bands in different situations, just keeping to myself really. And even then I was getting offers for deals. When I moved to New York and started playing out by myself after (his previous band) Gods and Monsters folded, I played for two-and-a-half years total, and the last part of that was made up of record company execs descending on the gigs.
Basile: Do you read your interviews?
Buckley: I ask my management not to give me clippings but they do anyway. Hold on...("I'm determined to get all this stuff done tonight," he tells someone. "If I do it all tonight then I have two full days of rest, and that'll make me very happy"). Hi. I'm back, I'm sorry. But yes, I've read them and some reviews have been annoyed at me, and some have liked it, and some have been in the middle. A lot of them have been pretty good. I'm pretty overwhelmed.
Basile: There's a review of a show in London...
Buckley: At the Garage?
Basile: Not sure...
Buckley: Was I naked from the waist up and screaming?
Basile: I don't think so, but someone in the audience was crying, and someone else was violently shaking. Did you ever think your music would have this effect on people?
Buckley: Hell no. No, no, no. Mmm-mm. No, I didn't.
Basile: you're an artist whose music is genuinely unclassifiable. It's outside of any lables.
Buckley: I don't know, I feel like it's rock. Don't you?
Basile: Maybe, but drawn from many sources.
Buckley: Yeah, it's true, but that's just America though. That's really American music in a nutshell. There are so many different exponents who you can't ignore which make up the whole thing. I know I can't ignore it. I love so many things about music from other countries that finds its way to my country.
Basile: You've said that you started making music when you "got the physical imperative to find out exactly where to come from in my spirit..."
Buckley: I don't know if I can explain it. I guess I felt blocked. I felt like I was dying. I was. I was rotting away. I was still. I was stagnant. I was rotting away in Los Angeles. Staring at the wall. Just blankly putting tapes into the player, taking them out, putting them in again. Just doing nothing really. Just depressed-depressed beyond belief. So I decided not to die anymore. So it was a combination of wanting to really destroy everything I was and recreate it again. Or find it, find the true thing. People have certain gifts and I think that people have to work beyond their conditioning, work beyond stuff that they've been told that they are by others. Everybody, I'm sure, has some sort of genius. Either-where music is concerned-to transmit it, or just to appreciate well. And one can't exist without the other.
Basile: Was there a strong sense of history for you when you recorded Grace at Woodstock?
Buckley: Yeah, immediately. Like ghosts coming down on you, like bees on honey. It was great. It was perfect.
Basile: Have you met any of your idols yet?
Buckley: (Long pause) Yes. (Longer pause) Dylan. But that was a drag.
Basile: Why?
Buckley: It was great to meet him and it was great to touch him, and it was good to put my arm around him and get my picture taken with him and feel how sweaty he was. He sorta pulled my pigtails, which is what he does when he likes people. But there was a night, afterwards, where I sort of a send up of him live at a gig, and his management was there. It was all in fun, but they took it really personally and went back and told him that I dissed him. So it all went sour. Horrible.
Basile: You'll probably laugh about it later.
Buckley: Errr, I don't know. I hope so because he was a really huge...a really huge hero to me.
By Annette Basile
Submitted by Niella
Even Bob Dylan is impressed by Jeff Buckley. At least he was until Buckley parodied Dylan's whine on stage, and Bob found out. Like many other ageing hippies, Dylan's initial interest was sparked by the Buckley name. Jeff's father Tim-an ex-chauffer of Sly Stone's-was one of folk's most astounding and acrobatic vocalists. But The late Tim Buckley had almost zero to do with his son's upbringing-and for Jeff, the subject is off limits. Famous father or not, the real interest in Buckley stems from his first, full-length melodic blitzkrieg, Grace, and the earlier EP Live at the Sin-e. The voice which glides over Grace now echoes across the line from New York. "Hi, this is Buckley, " he says, jaws smacking on a piece of gum.
Basile: What were you doing prior to Grace?
Buckley: Scuffling around in different bands in different situations, just keeping to myself really. And even then I was getting offers for deals. When I moved to New York and started playing out by myself after (his previous band) Gods and Monsters folded, I played for two-and-a-half years total, and the last part of that was made up of record company execs descending on the gigs.
Basile: Do you read your interviews?
Buckley: I ask my management not to give me clippings but they do anyway. Hold on...("I'm determined to get all this stuff done tonight," he tells someone. "If I do it all tonight then I have two full days of rest, and that'll make me very happy"). Hi. I'm back, I'm sorry. But yes, I've read them and some reviews have been annoyed at me, and some have liked it, and some have been in the middle. A lot of them have been pretty good. I'm pretty overwhelmed.
Basile: There's a review of a show in London...
Buckley: At the Garage?
Basile: Not sure...
Buckley: Was I naked from the waist up and screaming?
Basile: I don't think so, but someone in the audience was crying, and someone else was violently shaking. Did you ever think your music would have this effect on people?
Buckley: Hell no. No, no, no. Mmm-mm. No, I didn't.
Basile: you're an artist whose music is genuinely unclassifiable. It's outside of any lables.
Buckley: I don't know, I feel like it's rock. Don't you?
Basile: Maybe, but drawn from many sources.
Buckley: Yeah, it's true, but that's just America though. That's really American music in a nutshell. There are so many different exponents who you can't ignore which make up the whole thing. I know I can't ignore it. I love so many things about music from other countries that finds its way to my country.
Basile: You've said that you started making music when you "got the physical imperative to find out exactly where to come from in my spirit..."
Buckley: I don't know if I can explain it. I guess I felt blocked. I felt like I was dying. I was. I was rotting away. I was still. I was stagnant. I was rotting away in Los Angeles. Staring at the wall. Just blankly putting tapes into the player, taking them out, putting them in again. Just doing nothing really. Just depressed-depressed beyond belief. So I decided not to die anymore. So it was a combination of wanting to really destroy everything I was and recreate it again. Or find it, find the true thing. People have certain gifts and I think that people have to work beyond their conditioning, work beyond stuff that they've been told that they are by others. Everybody, I'm sure, has some sort of genius. Either-where music is concerned-to transmit it, or just to appreciate well. And one can't exist without the other.
Basile: Was there a strong sense of history for you when you recorded Grace at Woodstock?
Buckley: Yeah, immediately. Like ghosts coming down on you, like bees on honey. It was great. It was perfect.
Basile: Have you met any of your idols yet?
Buckley: (Long pause) Yes. (Longer pause) Dylan. But that was a drag.
Basile: Why?
Buckley: It was great to meet him and it was great to touch him, and it was good to put my arm around him and get my picture taken with him and feel how sweaty he was. He sorta pulled my pigtails, which is what he does when he likes people. But there was a night, afterwards, where I sort of a send up of him live at a gig, and his management was there. It was all in fun, but they took it really personally and went back and told him that I dissed him. So it all went sour. Horrible.
Basile: You'll probably laugh about it later.
Buckley: Errr, I don't know. I hope so because he was a really huge...a really huge hero to me.
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