Voice of an Angel: Review of Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley (1966 - 1997)

For this review, I am listening to "Playlist: The Very Best of Jeff Buckley", one of the many posthumous releases following the early and tragic demise of Jeff Buckley, who only saw one album released in his lifetime.  I bought this collection for my daughter in college as a way to introduce her to the music of this extremely talented and very missed artist.

I was introduced to the music of Jeff Buckley in late 1994 by my brother Tony.  I was living in Mesa, Arizona, and he brought me a copy of "Grace".  It was unlike anything I had ever heard.  Sure, there were roots there that were recognized and obvious - Led Zepplin, Queen, Leonard Cohen.  I could even hear the influence of his father, Tim Buckley, who also died at a young age, and whom I had been exposed to when This Mortal Coil covered several of his songs.  And yet this music had a mesmerizing power all of its own.  It was raw, written for its own sake, and Jeff's haunting, angelic voice was enough to steal your breath.  "Grace" became one of my all-time favorites.

A few years later, my wife and I were sitting in a pickup in the parking lot of the small theater of dusty St. Johns, Arizona, listening to the radio, waiting for our movie to start.  The news came on and announced that Jeff Buckley had drowned while swimming in the Mississippi River.  I was devastated, and yet the irony had not escaped me.  It was almost like God had lent such starkly beautiful angels like Tim and Jeff Buckley for a short time to leave their mark on the world, and then he took him away quickly.

The next year, Jeff's mother released "Sketches For My Sweetheart the Drunk".  When Buckley passed away, he was waiting for his band to show up to Memphis to start recording the new album.  He left behind only four-track demos of the songs from the new album.  After his death, the band went into the studio and recorded the music, setting them to the vocal tracks that remained of Jeff's original rough drafts.  I always wanted to love that album, but it never grabbed me.  But I read that even Jeff wasn't satisfied it.  To be fair, one must view it as an unfinished work.  I'm sure that he would have tweaked it and wrestled with it until it was perfect.  That's the kind of artist he was.

This collection is a pretty good starter set for Buckley's music.  There was some well-known selections from "Grace" like "Last Goodbye" and "Grace".  (What??  No "Mojo Pin" or "Lilac Wine"??)  There also a couple of songs from "My Sweetheart the Drunk" like "The Sky Is a Landfill" and "Everybody Here Wants You."

But the true strength of this album are the live tracks.  Most notably is his live version of Leonard Cohen's song - "Hallelujah".  I have loved Leonard Cohen since my teen years.  But I have to admit - Jeff Buckley's version is far superior.  Buckley captures the essence of the original yet injects a tremulous yearning that makes it the beloved classic that it is.  There other familiar tunes performed live like "Love, You Should Have Come Over" and "Dream Brother".

In the early days of his career, Jeff Buckley honed his live skills by performing in small clubs in front of small crowds.  He works best creating intricate landscapes of sound with just his guitar and cascades of his shimmering vibrato.  This is best reflected on the live performance of "The Way Young Lovers Do", which is by far my favorite song on the album.

This collection is a great way to introduce people to the music of Jeff Buckley.  I don't really know what my daughter thought.  But it makes me wish he were alive today.  I would love to see what he would have done with himself.