The Oppressive Lightness of Being Crazy

Gitarre & Bass, October, 1995

By Lothar Trampert
Submitted by Ananula
Translated by me

Jeff Buckley is crazy-and that's good! Only rarely do you meet such an extremely coherent and contradictory person like him. Two humans? Outwardly, he appears a mix of Male Model from the Zeitgeist catalog and Cool Kid from the street. During the conversation, his defiant shyness develops into an almost offensive attitude with clear, pointed statements. Beginning on stage he is a lamenting singer / songwriter with a guitar, performs as a bandleader, convinces two songs later as a musician and composer with extremely own-atmosphere ideas, then succumbs to the ground to act hardcore punk with his instrument - and ends his performance again with purely acoustic songs as a singer / songwri...

No, because after an hour and a half no longer you hear the lamenting guitarist from the beginning, but every listener realizes that this concert was a single deception in which Buckley introduced one of his many characters after another. He does not seem to want to prove anything with this, but he almost consistently refrains from creating an obvious connection with his audience, for example through the pink-cuddly soft transitional moderations of the brand: "Nice to be here again in Wanne-Eickel! Are you goood?!" The only conclusion is that anyone who is as interesting as Jeff Buckley can not be straight, smooth and one-dimensional. This musician is an absolute harmonious incarnation of external contradictions, someone who prefers to live everything but only play a role, but who also occasionally knows how to play poker with his charisma. Where Helge Schneider is a genius in observing everyday commonalities (which are often taken up by his audience as if they have grown on his crap rather than as a distorting mirror of their own TV fast food culture circle), Buckley delivers both provocative and intellectual-artistic - atmospheric counterworld - he just does his own thing, turns his head left and shows the world behind the mirror. Pretty crazy, is it not? Unfortunately, crazy...
  At the beginning of July, the singer and guitarist was on tour in Germany. The following interview was made in the afternoon before his concert in Cologne.
  Jeff seems tired at first, opens up a can of beer, asks for two cigarettes, which he then smokes in turn, and hangs in a chair-a leg on the adjacent stool. His eyes are on the title page of a G & B issue.

Is it more often that you give interviews for music magazines?

No.

And why not?

Because I'm not a musician. I play fan music.

And what kind of music do you think are in these magazines?

(thinks) Mmh, no idea. Sure, a lot has changed, that's true. But I grew up with musician and guitarist magazines who constantly have only featured these very special types...Gary Moore is one of those fast guitarists.

But he has just released his slowest album yet, with Peter Green cover versions.

OK, I like that, but he's also known for playing fast. I am for example, much closer to Keith Richards, his way of handling the guitar is not very popular today, even though the Rolling Stones are certain. But Keith has a lot of very simple things to say, very essential stuff. Many other guitarists are more in a sports magazine. But this scene does not really interest me-with many exceptions.

By age, you fit in the G.I.T generation, but you obviously are not one of them.

These facilities are a mystery to me. There they tell you only one thing: hurry up! This leads you nowhere, afterwards your own children run away from you. Through these trainings you get to know women, you get to know men, music is inoculated into people who have no feeling for it; then they can only scare other people or insult them...But: after all, the guitar is after all a very interesting, mysterious instrument, which is equally simple and yet difficult to master. It's easy to start playing the guitar, but on the other hand, it's very difficult to really master this instrument. But if you go on this infinite journey to deal with it, then you can do anything with the guitar and your fingers. It offers quite different possibilities than a piano - because you only have one "C" per octave, while with a guitar you can play this sound in several ways - even in different sonic variations.

Is the guitar closer to the human voice than other instruments?

Yes. But I prefer to compare them with...-a drum.

With a drum...mmh. (minute of silence) Your music belongs to the department "atmosphere" for me-the term is more comprehensive, more open and fits in my opinion rather than "folk rock singer / songwriter" or similar. Can you live with that?

Yes, I like that...

Karl Berger (German vibraphonist and composer living in the USA) has received a "thank you" in the booklet of your album 'Grace'-are you also interested in modern jazz?

No, no, no, he got the credit for the string arrangements. That was a great thing to do with strings in the studio, that was fun. Karl was one day at one of our concerts, in Woodstock, where he too lives. He stood in the corner first, then danced. That is how we got to know each other-in the dance.

What kind of music interests you?

The Grifters, Stereolab...and this Egyptian singer, Oum Kulsoum, I like it very much. I have a live album of hers.

This combination of their impressive voice with the great orchestra of strings and oud players creates a, for western listeners, very, exotic, typically "oriental" atmosphere. This is "Arab blues"; and a similar melancholy and darkness can also be found in some of your songs.

(laughs) "Arab Blues", OK. Yes that's true; I like that feeling.

  This can be heard, for example, in the string arrangements of 'Last Goodbye' and in some other songs from Jeff Buckley's debut album 'Grace', which was released last year, the third single was released with 'Eternal Life'. The son of the legendary Tim Buckley, a singer / songwriter star of the late 60s, brought to the conversation with his 1993 released mini-album, 'Live At Sin-e', where he was still to hear without a band. No one had expected that he would make his growing fan base happy with Andy Wallace's production after this critical success; Wallace had made a name for himself with his work for Nirvana, Alice Cooper, and Bad Religion, with 'Grace' he has finally proved his cross-style feeling for expressive music-free following the motto of the well-known music philosopher Torge Berger: "Do not always be full on the bell!" But Buckley can do that just as well, even if his handwriting comes across in the restless, hovering numbers, no matter whether he interprets it solo or band.
  Two titles of 'Grace' were written by Jeff Buckley along with Gary Lucas, the former Captain Beefheart guitarist, co-writer credits were given to guitarist Michael Tighe and the band's rhythm section, Mick Grondahl and drummer Matt Johnson.
  Buckley grew up in California, lived in Hollywood / L.A. and later moved to New York, where he played in diverse bands before settling for the soloist career. Shortly after the release of 'Live At Sin-e', in December 1993, he then went on a solo North America tour. He did not stay alone for long, met his current band musicians and, as I said, everything turned out differently than expected.
  From Buckley you should still expect some surprises, as a songwriter, as a bandleader and indirectly as a guitarist. He certainly belongs to the G.I.T definition but to the rare sound painters of this instrument. Because there are only a few musicians who can fill a sound with life and space or even (still today) a sense of meaningfulness and a sense of individual flair. Jeff Buckley is a musician who plays the guitar.

I was five or six years old when I got my hands on an old nylon string. At first I always hit the open strings with my toys- (grinning) so the first songs were all in E minor. Then came little tunes, etc. I got an electric guitar at thirteen - a black Les Paul copy that sounded pretty good. Yes, that's how it started...

Do you remember the first time you heard an electric guitar?

That was probably on the radio when I was a kid: waahwah, waahwah, waah...but it was not just Hendrix. I also liked other pop songs with wahwah: Sly & The Family Stone, Isaac Hayes, Diana Ross, things like that; and also Stevie Wonder, Deep Purple, Hendrix, of course-I was between seven and ten when I first heard him. 'Hendrix In The West' I liked it very much. But before I consciously realized that there were certain instruments and playing techniques, I just recorded sound - as a child I had never seen synthesizers, Hammonds or pianos. The instruments themselves interested me later.

And today the sound is still in the foreground when you listen to music?

Oh yes, that's the first thing I pay attention to. Of course, today I know something more about music, about what's happening there.

Can you read and write music?

Only very slowly...I was in this terrible place too, by the way-G.I.T That was a complete waste of time, apart from the theoretical lessons and the friends that I had there. Otherwise: an absolute wrong decision.

How long have you studied there?

One year, the normal program. They give you tons of material, you have to absorb everything, you practice, you are tested and you go to the next course. An intensive support with development is simply not possible. I did so many things: theory, single string technique, jazz class, rock class, all sorts of genres. My friend John was teaching bass there, and he once said that there is not a single teacher at the institute who says to the students, "OK, you're learning all this stuff here now, you're learning how to entertain people and you're learning to learn. But do you even know that there is no one in the universe other than yourself who plays the music you play? " John left the school then. For me it was all a joke that cost me $ 3,900. People interested in music should take private lessons somewhere, start a band, do something with people who like them and have what it takes. These schools are a scene in their own right, a very small, secluded world-the music, on the other hand, is gigantic and open. If you don't notice it, you miss a lot of magic, pain, development...(thinks) and rock! Apart from Paul Gilbert, there was no one there who really rocked. Session musicians are bred there; and at the end of the year you get a piece of paper that says, "Now you have the skills to become a professional musician." Well, congratulations! And then you look for jobs and play what other people want. But that's not all the music, there's something else isn't there? Where's the music coming from? From your own head or stomach, or the concepts of the people you work for?

Michael Landau has also developed from a studio guitarist to a living musician with hands, feet and voice, since he has his own bands. Today, in my opinion, he has more identity than before-which is not necessarily reflected in thick checks.

There are a lot of prejudices against "session musos" and "street players", some blame others for wasting their time, etc. I do not know Michael Landau, but I think he took the right step. Such a development is great-when you get to the point of doing things that you can only do yourself.

Did you feel a kind of arrogance towards the "street players", the normal, untrained band musicians?

I can not say anything about what other people think, but there was a lot, hmm ... (thinking) I would bring someone like Keith Richards to such a school, but when I talked to other students, it always came : "Phew, Keith Richards, he can not play." (laughs) "Jimmy Page? He's so sloppy." I was just out of place! These people eventually wrote songs, they created things that never go away. And I have not heard any real songs from a session musician, maybe a few little tunes for commercials.

And what about your own songs: are you writing alone...

Partly, but the guys in the band are also very important, they have such great ideas. Especially the collaboration with Michael (Tighe) means a lot to me, that is a cooperation that brings a lot. For example, the music of 'Dream Brother' came about when we first played together.

In addition to Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah', the repertoire of your album features 'Corpus Christi Carol' by the English composer Benjamin Britten.

I chose the title, (grins) clearly! The recording is a gift to a good friend who once played the song to me. I have always played the piece on my solo shows.

As a soloist, you had plenty of freedom in the interpretation; how does that look live together with the band?

Sure, something is happening. All this intensity or calm that comes over the audience at a gig has a strong impact on the musicians. Sometimes that works very well, sometimes it works less...If there is no interaction-with the audience and also between the musicians-then it's not music.

Have you ever listened to techno?

Sure.

And where does the interaction take place?

With Techno, the machines do the work, they represent the environment that works when you get into ecstasy and drink Cool Aid (paperback US refreshment (?) Drink). But the music that's popular as "techno" does not necessarily appeal to me. Some raves-in old churches, candles everywhere, and the sound is right-but that's not a bad thing. It's about the presentation of music, and space; the DJ is the musician, he turns people on when he's good. Much of it is stupid, of course; but that's in every genre.

I still like best when "handmade" music is combined with "tangible" electronic sounds.

I would like to play with my music as a house band at a rave, conducted by Moby. We would then play for ten hours, and when we stop, then the party is over. Like some African rituals, when after fourteen hours the drums are silent, people go home. (laughs) Good idea! I'll try that. (Jeff sings Techno-180 BPM) Grrrzczzssshhp&%H$§)P?'#-Bupp, bupp, bebubup, bupp, bupp, bupp...

Do you see differences between your concerts in the US and in Europe?

Mmmmh, not really. I think the art in America is more commercialized-people should recognize everything immediately when it's on TV. But there is also a big underground scene that the masses do not know; but you can find that here in Europe too. On the other hand, there are big differences between Germany and France, between Amsterdam and London. But I think Europeans have a closer relationship with art.

What interests do you have next to the music?

(thinks) Food, dreams, movies, books, New York, friends, speeches, daydreams, sex, missing sex...Actually, I'm interested in many of these things through the music: poetry, dramas, performing arts-that has everything to do with music.

You've been on tour for a year and a half now: are not some of these interests coming too short simply because there's no peace?

Mmh, with a good sense of humor you can handle this life quite well. You should see it like a child...

We have not talked about single songs, playing techniques, etc. Is it more important to you, something ... (As the door opens, and a load of drinks is pushed into the dressing room)

What is more important to me? Coffee or beer? (Laughs)

Would you rather give facts about your career, your instruments in interviews, or do you prefer talking about things like...

Coffee or beer! Sure, it's more important to talk about myself, about what I like. Because that's the music! The rest is just facts and tools. What we talked about here is the music.

Could you imagine doing something completely different in a few years?

No. The music, that's my way. Making hamburgers was good to me too, that was a few months ago. Maybe I would do that again: The singing hamburger chef! I'm very attached to music, but that has never stopped me from gaining experience in other areas as well. If you're not constantly involved with people, not in life, then you have nothing to do with art. But the only notable quality or ability that I have is being able to express myself with music. Since I will not find anything comparable-I'm not looking for it.

L'uomo Vogue

February, 1996
By Manuela Cerri Goren
Submitted by Ana and Ananula
Translated by me and Sol

  Being a child of art can be a double-edged sword, if your father is a legendary figure, an artist who has become almost a cult, his professional life can become decidedly complicated. Jeff Buckley knows this better than anyone else. At the age of 29 this singer-songwriter must compete with the memory of Tim Buckley, a folk-jazz-blues musician who in the '60s and' 70s inspired millions of fans with his music. At best, Jeff is ambivalent towards his father's music, which he has practically never known, but, ironically, he made his debut in a concert held four years ago in Brooklyn, a tribute to the memory of Tim Buckley. "I sacrificed," explains Jeff, "something of my personality in memory of my father, it saddened me that I had not gone to his funeral and could never really talk to him, so, in this way, I managed myself to pay tribute to his memory. I sang one of his songs and I even broke a guitar string towards the end...I did not sing it very well, but I did my best." During almost a decade and with nine albums, Tim Buckley, who died in 1975 of an overdose, has left his mark on the world of music with his folk sound influenced by psychedelic and soul arrays.
  At best, Buckley resembles Joni Mitchell and Van Morrison, with decidedly eccentric and versatile results. Jeff Buckley began to attract the attention of the New York audience and the recorders about three years ago with solo shows, with his guitar, in the bars of Manhattan, in particular at "Sin-e", a local famous for alternative music. His performances were rather theatrical, a mixture of original songs written by him, of known motifs by other authors, interspersed with some chat with the audience and, of course, the fact that Jeff is definitely pleasant in appearance did not hurt. The most important thing, however, was undoubtedly his voice, a virtuous voice, with the ability to draw attention to even the most distracted of the bar's patrons, a warm and sensual voice, different from the strident sound of many of the singers of the groups of today. "In my first shows," explains Jeff, "I wanted to relive my childhood, disintegrate my identity to re-emerge with a new, more real personality. I was a human jukebox, I played all the songs I knew trying to discover the basic elements of my profession. The essential act of singing was like a catharsis for me, and I discovered that music is like an elixir, it's like flirting, courting, having sex."
  With the release, about a year ago, of his CD "Grace", Jeff Buckley has promised himself not to play anymore compositions of others. "Grace" marks the closing of a period of memories, the end of an education, and Jeff from now on has decided to record only original material. There are many memories that Jeff Buckley would prefer to leave in the past, especially those related to his sad, nomadic childhood.
  Born in 1966 from his mother's, Mary, short marriage with Tim Buckley, Jeff had a painful, rootless childhood, with a brief one-week interlude, at eight, spent with his father before he died a couple of months later. Of his early years, Jeff remembers the continuous movements above all, how he even stopped packing his bags, simply carrying his belongings in supermarket paper bags, the alternative lifestyle that he and his mother led, and the first record of his life, "Physical Graffiti" by Led Zeppelin, given to him by his stepfather.
  At the age of 12 Jeff decided that he was going to be a musician like his father and when he finished high school he started working at a hotel and enrolled in the Institute of musicians in Los Angeles, an institution famous for having started a guitarist like Eddie Van Halen. and many others. "I wanted to learn to be a good musician," Buckley says, "but that school turned out to be a big waste of time, so I decided to try the streets of New York." In 1990 Jeff Buckley moved to New York, but his musical career was not yet destined to take off, so he returned to earn a living working as a salesman in "Banana Republic", and as a telephone operator for a message company. An offer from his father's former manager to finance a few hours in a recording room brought Jeff Buckley back to the West Coast where, feeling alone and isolated, he decided to meet in some way with his father's family. After a rather severe meeting with his paternal grandmother, Jeff concluded that he was going to live again on his own, and now he is alone, although his name has recently been related to that of Courtney Love, returning to the old nomadic life. "At the moment I do not belong to any family," says Jeff, "I started moving again from city to city, unattached, playing with my band. I live as a vagabond, I work and I interact with people and then I leave immediately, so I end up keeping in touch only with those friends I do not want to lose." Jeff does not make friends easily, he has had difficulties in bringing together a group of musicians with whom he would really like to work, and his parameters of choice did not include virtuosity and almost everyone who has played in "Grace" and in his tour are novices. For him the most important thing is the freshness of the sound, the innovation, and for that reason he prefers not to work with mature musicians who have already seen and heard everything but lack the enthusiasm that for Jeff is fundamental. "I usually go to Tower Records," says Buckley, "and I see all these famous names, for me it's a very exciting experience. I spend a lot of time in record stores, I would have liked to work there, but I could never do it and now I'm with my name on a shelf next to my father. It is truly ironic: we have been separated all our lives and now our destiny is to divide the same space in a record store. I only hope, in the not too distant future, to be able to feel that I really won that space with honor."

Peyote Radio Autograph

Courtesy of Frauke Feilbach...you can read her interview with Jeff here.

Jody's Autograph

Courtesy of lucky fan Jody Nichols, who got this at Gaslight Music appearance. 

Myself and a friend were lucky enough to win passes to a closed instore performance and album signing. We were originally at the front of the line to have our stuff signed, but for whatever reason the organizers  had a change of heart, and the front of the line became the back. Jeff saw this all going on and looked equally as confused. It took us about 2 hours to finally get to meet him...I was lucky last 😊. He was very relaxed, friendly and apologized for us ending up at the back of the line. At this point I couldn’t care less, because here I was now chatting to my fave artist!! He asked if I was going to his show to which I of course said a very big yes 😊. He noticed that I had a packet of cigarettes and asked if he could have one. (I'm barely holding it together at this point I might add lol). I slid the packet across, telling him they were menthol, and he coolly said with a grin “that’s ok”, and then proceeded to tell me that they were the biggest packet of cigarettes he’d ever seen 😂 (It was a packet of 50 😆). He thanked me, signed my cd and added a heart under his name, and handed it back to me. At this point I was being ushered to move on, and as I was leaving he said “you have very pretty eyes. Thank you for the smoke!” For this less than ordinary and awkward girl, it was one of the highlights of my life! What a truly beautiful man.

An Angel Has Fallen To Earth

Rumore, November, 1994
By Giorgio Valletta
Submitted by Ana
Translated by me

Like all "angels", our Jeff reveals a seemingly fragile but decisive, witty, sensitive personality...

  An angel has fallen on the Earth. He has the surname of another cult legend, but prefers not to even mention the name of Tim, his father, absent from his childhood before his death. His voice, now soothing and now lashing, capable of touching octaves and emotional chords from others just imagined, betrays in some way the genetic legacy, giving the compositions he has written, and the literally rewritten covers, a breath of immense size. Like all "angels", our Jeff reveals, even in a face-to-face meeting, an apparently fragile yet decisive, witty, sensitive personality...

Your recording debut, even before Grace, was accomplished with an EP recorded live at the Sin-e in New York. Can you tell us about that place and tell us if it was your idea to publish a live as your first outing?

The Sin-e is a small place like this (indicates the bar where we are guests), very small, is an Irish cafe. They have three acts per night, the music ends at midnight. If you're lucky, you play last for about two hours. You play for tips, you do not get paid, and there are no contracts. Many say that it is their idea, as far as the EP is concerned, while it is mine, no one else could have thought of it. At first I would have preferred to leave that experience behind, but then I preferred to emphasize that moment, because the Sin-e is a great place for me. I'd like to play again, or at least wash the dishes there. I like washing dishes, it frees my mind.

From the only acoustic shows to the album with a band on the following tour: how did you meet the musicians who are now accompanying you?

Rather randomly and at the last moment. I did concerts alone to make some money and because at the time I needed it, because I was on my own and I discovered what I really wanted to do, letting the music coagulate on its own. Through those shows I imagined that I would find my band, that I would attract people who thought they had something to give, and this happened. The record was supposed to be recorded within a certain amount of time, but I did not have one of my bands yet, and I did not want Sony to choose it for me, I wanted it to be a natural process. I lied to the recorders, telling them it was all right, under control. Finally Mick, my current bassist, approached me telling me that he had seen me at a concert and I was struck on the first listening by his melody and the natural voice of his bass, very strange, elegant. Matt, the drummer, was recommended to me, while I had known Michael for years, the guitarist: I decided to try it after hearing the so-called nine professional guitarists. He arrived at almost finished album, just before the tour. He was never first in a band, and I had to start a world tour: a perfect choice. He has more groove than average, more melodic sense. Guitarists are notoriously horrible people, the downfall of the human race. Not egocentric, phallocentric! With Michael we recorded So Real and the cover of Kangaroo by Alex Chilton, which will appear on a single. So we started a 4 month truck tour in the States, and now we're on a bus in Europe.

You are one of the very few musicians who in recent times have spoken openly about music as something very important, divine...

Maybe others think the same things but they are smart, they prefer to keep their secret. Maybe they do not want to share certain things with a journalist or with the public. I believe that there is a lot of conviction, a lot of soul in the world, at the same level of what I put in what I do: it can be a musician, a street cleaner, it can be a restaurateur, a whore, a drug dealer, a woman. The best thing about going around America was to see certain places better. Forget the West Coast, the best things are coming from the inside: in Memphis there's an incredible band, the Grifters. In New York, John Zorn is a band you've heard of, Soul Coughing. I love Shudder To Think, and then there are tons of other bands that no one has ever heard, and then sculptors, performance artists, painters, actors. Tim Burton is a great director. I really like Edward Scissorhands...My influences? The fact that I did Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen does not mean anything, Cohen is something that you discover when you discover life, you do not get there when you're very young. I grew up with the holy trinity: Hendrix, Beatles and Zeppelin, and then with albums by Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, the first of Crosby, Stills & Nash, Funny Girl, by Barbra Streisand, Wizard of Oz by Judy Garland, the column sound of Grand Prix, I do not even know who wrote it.

Can you tell us about some of Grace's songs, like Dream Brother? It seemed to me that it could be a song dedicated to yourself, like looking at you from the outside...

In a sense it is for myself, but the basis of the song is that I have a friend, whom I love, to whom I have great respect and which I have always felt as a brother. He has lived on the street since he was a boy and now has two children. I saw him recently while we were on tour, bruised and I'm worried that one day he could be killed. I would not want his children to grow up like me, feeling old at 5. That's why I sing: 'Do not be like the one who made me grow old'. It is easy to leave, to die. You have to start loving yourself in a certain way before you can love those close to you.

Eternal Life, instead?

Each of us sooner or later felt without power in front of a madman with a weapon in your house that takes away your stuff, or your children, or rapes your wife, or compared to a man in the White House or any other man of power who takes control where you do not and who cares nothing for you about the consequences, what kind of pollution will hit you, and so on. To achieve their dreams of power, this person inflicts on you his strength, pain, violence, bloodshed. Because I can not sit in a fucking cafe in the South with my friend Chris because he's black, and someone has to come and break my balls. There are billions of the most important things in the world to focus on as human beings, and instead you spend years working to become war masters, to make a war faster and 'cleaner' or in a Portland Nazi camp to teach how to hate the different. They have the balls to shoot with a gun, but they do not have the balls to raise a child in peace, they do not have to love a person for real, why should I give my life to them? And then I say Fuck You. F-U-C-K Y-O-U!!!"

You look like Ice-T!

Yes, I'm Ice-T, the white, shorter, and thinner version of Ice-T. He had to deal with a deeper level of life in the street, because his skin is light, and they called him yellow. I was always called a fag, because I was different from the others and had long hair. You are not given room for your spirit to grow in this world. You have to fight for your space, for understanding, for loyalty.  And you also have to learn how to put your arms in front of those who want theirs on you, beat them up good, and start again. The world is more willing to embrace tragedy and blood than it is to embrace joy, because that takes much more courage and strength. 

Is this vision that also inspires the tale of interracial love of Mojo Pin?

No, that's really a song inspired by a dream. It's about when I was in love with a wonderful girl, and there was always something between us, no matter how cute or smart you were. A poem of sad love.

Is there anything that annoys you in particular, in this story of sudden artistic success?

The confusion in doing the simplest things, due to stress. In America, food on the road sucks. It does not bother me to be on tour, I'm used to it. Pressures? If there were no music business, of course, people would do very different art. But the music itself is innocent, compared to any convention. The real world of music, music as a form of life and the force of nature, is much larger than the business or the musical practice itself. I do not deny myself access to certain musical forms. The good half of my attitude in what I do is to think that you are not there to listen to me, this is a way that satisfies me to stay in the business.

C'est Wha Autograph

From ksrecordcollection...he found it in a local record shop for $12! Apparently they don't mark up because they can't verify authenticity...

Glamour Writeup

February, 1995
Submitted by Ananula
Translated by me

Son of Tim Buckley, an avant-garde folk-singer discovered in 1966 by Jimmy Carl Black, the Indian drummer of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, Jeff Buckley feels a bit like he's looking for that father he practically did not know, first crossing his path at the age of 8, just a few months before his death by overdose in June, 1975. Raised by a pianist and classical cellist mother and a mechanic stepfather focused on Led Zeppelin, he lived as a traveling teen, abandoning his family at 17, just to settle once and for all in Los Angeles. Musically, he tried everything: blues, hard-rock and even reggae. Until, as a result of genetic inheritance, he decided to opt for an unclassifiable new-folk hope, opening his phonographic career with the curious Live At Sin-e featuring five solo recorded songs, in front of a handful of drunks, in a New York cafe. Since then, Jeff Buckley has released a first "real" album, Grace, in trio this time, on arranged by a former figure of free jazz, the Austrian vibraphonist Karl Berger. This is not surprising from a boy who swears by three names: Bob Dylan, Robert Johnson, and Thelonious Monk.

Curious detail, Jeff Buckley, although he counts among his American fans characters as notorious as Chrissie Hynde or John McEnroe, has really taken off commercially in Europe, especially in France, where it still exists, it is true , a genuine cult for his father. This father, who died at 27 (his age) and seems to exert on him, whatever he says, a strange fascination. Like him, he sometimes sings in French (I Do Not Know the End by Edith Piaf) and especially to maintain a strange relationship with the fatal heroin (Mojo Pin, one of the most beautiful songs of Grace). "My dad has influenced my life but not my music," says Jeff Buckley, "I've never listened to his records for fun, I just observed them. I'm tired of those old hippies hoping to find him in me, I know that I will disappoint them. " Perhaps. But we can not help but think that Jeff Buckley will definitely be fulfilled the day he can cover Fortunate Son. And this without the slightest irony.

(Jeff Buckley, with Bettie Serveert opening: Toulouse February 8, Montpellier the 9, Lyon the 10, Bataclan Paris the 11, Rennes the 13, Strasbourg the 14.)