Jeff Buckley

I really only know Grace, I like his dad Tim better, and Jeff's version of Hallelujah deserves some kind of award for being a) one of the most ubiqutious covers out there (I much prefer Rufus Wainwright's version) and b) becoming so commonplace during a television show's moment where the characters contemplate their lives and the tragedy that has befallen them.

I'd definitely recommend Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk. It's the album he was working towards putting together when he died. It's not as immediately accessible as Grace, but the writing is strong ("Morning Theft" is a favorite).

You definitly need to check out Lover, You Should Have Come Over (the cover) by Jamie Cullum.

I'm also only familiar with Grace. It was difficult for me to appreciate Jeff Buckley since I came from more of a punk/industrail background. Later on in life when I started to listen to Gavin DeGraw and Jason Mraz I picked up Grace again and was blown away by Buckley's range. I think his voice probably would have been put to better use with different musicians backing him in my opinion.

There was a rumor a few years ago that there was going to be a film about Buckley and that Flyboy James Franco would play him. Anybody hear anything about that?

I got to see Jeff Buckley live a few years back (he opened for Juliana Hatfield) at the Tradewinds, here in NJ (it's gone now).

Great show - he was definitely on his game that night. Hell, there was feedback on his mike, and he mimicked the sound right back at it, which got the crowd and him laughing - he had the audience in the palm of his hand from that point on. he even crowd surfed, and lost his wallet. next day on MTV they did an interview with him, and he asked if anyone from last night had found his wallet.

i also second My sweetheart the drunk, it's a good two disc set, I'm more of a fan of the first CD over the second but then again it's what he was working on before he died, but a good CD pick it up

Wow, really? Hadn't heard that rumor. The only one I'd heard was that Brad Pitt was obsessive about getting the rights to tell Buckley's story, but Jeff's mother was (and as far as I know, continues to be) very resistant to the idea. I think there was a time Pitt wanted to play the role himself. Maybe Franco would be Pitt's choice if the project happens? I can see a physical resemblance, but that's about it.

Check this out. It's a song he did with Liz Fraser of Cocteau Twins.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XTNLIPCH

I agree - SfMStD is solid. Live at Sin-E is very good as well - pre-record contract Jeff Buckley.

If you can find it cheap enough, I recommend Grace (Legacy Edition). It's got a remastered version of the original Grace LP, plus a second disc of music videos, the great song "Forget Her" (which isn't anywhere else) plus a few odds and ends and covers that really showcase Buckley's range and influences. I have the original Grace LP and found the Legacy version worth it.

The Live at Sin-e disc is what got me interested in Buckley. It's hard to digest at first, but once you're into it, it's awesome.

Some of it's more than good. The first disc is, for all intents and purposes, a finished CD, albeit one with which Buckley was unhappy in terms of Tom Verlaine's production and, in a few cases, song inclusion. But there are songs on here, like "Morning Theft," "Vancouver," "Everybody Here Wants You," and "The Sky is a Landfill" that show Buckley expanding on his vision and absolutely making good on the promise of Grace. The second CD is largely composed of four-track recordings (along with a few differently-mixed versions of songs from the first disc) that Buckley was developing for a re-thought version of the album. Some are very sketchy, indeed, with Buckley tapping on the mic to simulate percussion, but it shows him going in even weirder directions (weird time signatures abound, and there's an early Genesis cover included to drive the prog point home; there's also one that sounds like it would have been an AC/DC style stomp had he recorded it with a band). But among some of this more disparate and challenging material, there's also the more straightforward "Jewel Box," which is probably one of my favorite Buckley songs.

The Grace Legacy Edition is cool, but you might get even more out of the Live at Sin-E Legacy Edition, which is just Buckley and an electric guitar. The original release was a four-song EP (2 songs that ended up in band versions on Grace, plus a Van Morrison cover and a French standard) that absolutely killed; the Legacy Edition is a two-disc monolyth that has him going through a number of songs from Grace in their early versions, plus tons and tons of interesting covers (Zeppelin's "Night Flight" is particularly neat, but there's more Van Morrison, some Dylan, Ray Charles).

I can go on and on about Buckley (and, IMO, to complain about him overusing his range is missing the point in the same way it would be to claim that Hendrix needed to reign it in). I saw him twice, once before Grace was released, and both shows were and are among the best I've ever seen. The band I was in a number of years ago (Dimes, which still gets a shoutout on the forum headings here!) headlined a local Buckley tribute, and we ended up developing and modifying some of the Sketches songs ("Jewel Box," "We Could Be So Happy Baby," "The Sky is a Landfill," and "Vancouver") to give them a rockier edge than is given to a lot of Buckley covers - they're all too often performed by waify solo artists with acoustic guitars. Last year or so - many years after our demise - our singer posted videos from the show here, if anyone's interested - we were a pretty new band at the time, so you'll have to forgive any sloppiness, along with the bad audio (and, unfortunately, the version of "Jewel Box" isn't up, but you'll have to take my word for it that the arrangement was pretty fucking awesome, if not the performance). Anyway, if it hadn't been for Buckley and, specifically, playing that tribute show, I wouldn't have met my wife, who's twice the Buckley fan I am (she spent years assembling what I'm pretty sure is the definitive Buckley bootleg show and rarities MP3 collection - it's kind of staggering).

End of illness-inspired rant.

Oh, yeah - I'd also recommend checking out the Live in Chicago DVD. It's a pretty representative full band live set with mostly Grace stuff (I was at the Madison show the night before it was taped). It's not much more than basic show footage (though nicely captured), but it's amazing to watch the guy at work.

Yeah, but I think that stuff is one of the reasons he's so impressive - he wasn't holding back. When you pick up Live at Sin-E, check out his cover of Van Morrison's "The Way Young Lovers Do" (which was one of the four songs on the original Sin-E release). Among many impressive feats (like covering the horn part using guitar taps), he manages an extended scat solo, culminating in one of the highest notes I've ever heard a human being hit.

I was talking with a friend of mine about how people have their little boxes of bands they like and get bitter when people discover them - IMO this is a great example of that - Buckley's "Hallelujah" is absolutely sublime, but has threatened to veer into the realm of trite and cliched due to blatant overuse.

I think it's timeless - but much like "What a Wonderful World" the artistic achievement is rapidly becoming overwhelmed by the lack of need to ever hear the song again.

I think Live in Chicago must have been the Buckley concert that was on one of the HD channels on cable when I was channel-surfing awhile back. Mostly a straightforward live show - could it have been anything else?

Poking around YouTube one night, I searched "Hallelujah" on a whim. Discovered two things: (1) there are a lot more internet-savy Jeff Buckley fans out there than internet-savy Leonard Cohen fans, at least when it comes to inspiration for "performances" of this song; and (2) a lot of people need to have their guitars taken away. Or their internet access. Or both.

You don't really care for music, do ya?

You've never heard "Hallelujah" then?

I just know that I am constantly amazed by Lover, You Should Have Come Over.

If it was a whole show, it's almost certainly Live in Chicago. I'm not aware of any other commercially available live performances (and the video quality is almost unnervingly pristine, so it would make sense it would be on an HD channel).

Agreed on all counts. If you trace the lineage, though, Buckley was just as guilty as those people of covering a cover. His take was inspired by the John Cale version, not the original Cohen. I'm pretty sure that Cale was also the source for Rufus Wainwright's cover, which is also pretty darn good. Or it could have even been Buckley, since Wainwright's an avowed fan; Matt Johnson, the drummer on Grace, is even his usual touring drummer, and Buckley's girlfriend at the time of his death, Joan Wasser, also plays with him pretty regularly.

On a somewhat related tangent, if you're interested in something with a vaguely similar aesthetic as Buckley, but quite different execution, pick up Those Bastard Souls' Debt and Departure - one of the best sleeper albums of the last 10 years. It's a sort of low-key supergroup composed of two folks from the Dambuilders (including Wasser on violin), two guys from the Grifters on bass and vocals, and Michael Tighe from Buckley's band on guitar. I'm not sure how easy it is to find, but, if you like Buckley, you've really gotta hear it.

It was a joke. See, there's a line in the song "Hallelujah"...[sigh] nevermind...

That has to be it, it was a beautiful picture. Unfortunately I missed most of the show.

Sold, thanks. The Cale and Wainwright references remind me of how incomplete my collection is. Brings to mind a question for another thread: is there a point to pulling down one or two songs by some artists on ipod? Don't some albums by some artists almost demand a comprehensive listen?