Not With You, But Of You: January 2020

Sunday, January 26, 2020

Jeff Buckley's Amazing "Grace"

Musician to play Salt Lake on heels of stunning debut

By Martin Renzhofer
Salt Lake Tribune, November 10, 1994
Submitted by Sai

Jeff Buckley sounded weary, and who could blame him?
At times, Buckley, under intense media interest, since the release of his debut recording, "Grace," would stop in midsentence to collect his thoughts, sigh heavily and continue.
He has been nursing a recent injury to his hand. It has made playing his electric guitar difficult, but not enough to stop the tour, which brings him to the Salt Lake Zephyr Club, 301 S. West Temple, Sunday night.
"We were coming out of Ann Arbor (Mich.) when the bus was about to go over some railroad tracks, Buckley said. "We were going too fast and the bus would have bottomed out, so the driver jammed the brakes."
Buckley smashed into a seat, smacking his hand. One could imagine Columbia Record executives holding their collective breath had they known.
The New York Times has called "Grace" the best debut record to come alobg since Tracy Chapman's in 1988.
"I can't listen to it anymore," said Buckley, 26. "The songs have changed. I like it, but it is sort of like looking at baby pictures."
Buckley’s voice had been described as skating "from guttural to angelic in one fell swoop." His music, lilting then sonic, fits no real pattern or structure.
As a vocalist, Buckley has also been compared to a young Robert Plant, a boyhood idol.
"That's nice, but also just lazy journalism," Buckley said, adding that he is more poetically inclined than Plant. "Robert Plant is so amazing. Despite his identity, he is like a woman who is so good looking or charismatic that the dumbest thing she says has meaning because you are so intoxicated by her. That's cool, that's rock 'n' roll, yet it bores me."
If reviewers have any complaints with "Grace," Buckley said, it was with the singer's passion, saying he was overly emotional.
"A critic's job is not to experience music but to critique it," Buckley said. "Their feeling was the emotion was over the top or strained. My feeling is emotion can never be over the top."
As a solo cabaret performer in New York City, Buckley performed songs from Judy Garland to Leonard Cohen. He escapes category, though everyone from recird executives to music writers has tried to place him in one.
"It's just an album, and if they want to put me in a box, well..."
Record executives also saw Buckley differently. However, Buckley is not a stranger to the music business, which he was raised to distrust.
Born in Southern California, Buckley is the son of singer/songwriter Tim Buckley. The marriage between his parents, high-school sweethearts, didn't last long.
Tim Buckley left his family for New York City and stardom.
For a while the older Buckley succeeded. He had a promising album debut in 1967, and a short time later, an acclaimed followup.
His record company dropped him after four years, claiming the musician was "difficult." After three more years of being rejected by the music business, Buckley was dead of an accidental drug overdose.
Jeff Buckley met his father briefly, but gives credit for his musical upbringing to his mother and stepfather. He inherited his father's gifted voice.
Music must have been in the genes. Buckley's musical travels included a series of California bands and eventually, to New York City in 1990. He still calls the Lower East Side home.
"It's essential that I live there," he said. "I like everything about it, the good and bad, the light and darkness."
While in New York, Buckley performed with several bands before becoming disenchanted with the group situation.
He decided to go solo. Soon, word of mouth brought record executives to the small clubs in which Buckley performed.
"In the record business-as in any business, even the White House-any time people get a lot of dividends for not doing any work, it can breed brutality and a devaluation of what art means."
Eventually, Buckley signed with Columbia which agreed to let him have total artistic control. Columbia then brought him together with producer Andy Wallace, who has worked with Paw and Soul Asylum.
Buckley said Wallace was essential to completing "Grace."
"I'm very obsessive," Buckley said. "It was a new muscle to work, making an album. I was spoiled by Andy. He's so quick, very probing and very musical. He's an excellent moment police. Recording an album is about capturing moments that would fly out the door and disappear forever."
Buckley is already working on new ideas, readying material for future recording.
"It's all in my head," he said. "I'm a quick worker, but it takes time to formulate things. It needs time to conceive and time to get it out on it's own."

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

"Nightmares By the Sea" Early Drafts

Food for thought: could this song be inspired by the story of Bluebeard? Seeing the first two pics taken from his journals and the lyrics seem to point to "it's very possible" for me...