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Tim Buckley

Some artists come with a large amount of history attached, a story so heavily romanticised that it becomes more famous than the music itself, making us form opinions and expectations before we’ve even heard a single note. Tim Buckley is one of those artists. We all know the story. Father and son, Tim and Jeff Buckley, both immensely talented singer songwriters, both dying in tragic circumstances at a very young age – Tim dying of an accidental heroin overdose, Jeff drowning after drinking alcohol – both being taken from us without fulfilling their potential. We know the story, but most people don’t know the music. Tim Buckley has always remained a cult figure, never quite managing to gain mainstream attention. Yet, to those of us who are familiar with him, he is considered one of the most talented singer-songwriters of his generation.

Tim Buckley was somewhat of a musical prodigy. He was only 19 when he made this album, yet he was already an accomplished guitarist and had been a member of several bands including country and western combo ‘Princess Ramona and the Cherokee Riders’. Upon the release of this album he was quickly pigeon-holed as a folk singer, a title Buckley hated and spent his entire career trying to shake off. Although, in later albums he did experiment quite a lot with different musical genres, it would be fair to say that in his debut he rarely steps out of the realm of folk/country rock. Yet, in saying that, he does bring his own individual style to the genre, and at no point in his song writing does he stick to a traditional folk formula. ‘Strange Street Affair Under Blue’ with its Russian-sounding melody, and ‘Aren’t You The One’ with its Irish jig-like quality, are amongst the tracks that add variety and diversity to the album. ‘It Happens Every Time’ and ‘Wings’ both make wonderful use of string arrangements to achieve a beautiful, luscious, romantic sound. ‘Wings’ is definitely the stand out track on the album and is one of the most beautiful love songs I have ever heard. His strong voice turns delicate and tender and is more than capable of delivering the emotion of the lyrics. Oh yes, his voice! Tim Buckley’s voice is an absolute wonder to behold! It is absolutely HUGE with an extensive range and unfaltering control. Photos depict him as slight, delicate and fragile, and then you put on the CD and this massive, powerful baritone booms out at you rendering you speechless! Tim Buckley’s voice is definitely the most important thing about this album. I could talk about the use of guitar, piano and harpsichord, but really it is his voice that is the most effective of instruments here, the others serving as a mere accompaniment.

For newcomers, this debut album is perhaps not the best place to start. For a man whose short career would involve quite a bit of experimentation, this album remains conventional, and lacking in originality. Songs such as ‘Song Slowly Song’ and ‘Valentine Melody’ are too long and fail to hold your attention for the duration of the track. But this album is not without its moments of intensity and beauty. It acts very well as a vehicle for Buckley’s amazing voice and gives us a taste of what’s to come.

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Readers Comments Mike Harrison fughedaboudit455@yahoo.com Ruth's comments are right on. I like the overall sound, but this album is really dated. I can't help but feel that Buckley had a LOT more potential for a more impressive debut, and I get the feeling that he was pushed into a "folk troubador" image that he might not have wanted (witness his later, more experimental albums). Still, this is an astonishing debut for a 19-year-old. "Wings" is an absolutely beautiful song, and throughout the album, Buckley sings with presence AND an almost haunting manner.

‘Goodbye and Hello’ was released just one year after Tim Buckley’s debut album, yet it is a much more mature and accomplished piece of work. In such a short space of time he managed to develop considerably as a musician and songwriter, leaving behind the narrow confines of the ‘folk singer’ tag that had previously been forced upon him and beginning to experiment with the styles and genres that would later characterise his work. The release of the album saw Buckley thrust into the media spotlight for the first time. Whereas his debut came and went almost unnoticed, ‘Goodbye and Hello’ entered the top 20 album charts and still remains his most commercially successful record. This is surprising in a way as albums such as ‘Happy Sad’ and ‘Starsailor’ can be seen as much more accomplished and innovative, but much of the success of ‘Goodbye and Hello’ comes down to the fact that it really tapped into the feeling of the time. It perfectly captured many aspects of 1960’s culture, combining the psychedelic pop of songs such as ‘Pleasant Street’ and ‘Hallucinations’ with anti establishment protest songs ‘No Man Can find the War’ and ‘Goodbye and Hello’, and even throwing in some poetic lyrics, drug references and a very 60’s style production.

This album sees Buckley continue his song-writing partnership with lyricist Larry Beckett, yet it is the 5 tracks solely written by Buckley that are the finest, most highly crafted on the whole album. It is also an album that sees him begin to experiment with the limitations and delivery of his voice. In ‘Carnival Song’, he shows off the full range of his voice as it shifts from sonorous baritone to chilling falsetto, whilst in ‘Pleasant Street’ he really lets go, allowing his voice to soar and swoop, sending shivers down your spine. ‘Pleasant Street’ really is the high point of the album. It is an absolutely wonderful song which shows off Buckley’s talents as both a vocalist and guitarist. There really are hardly any weak points at all on this album, although it does come across as slightly dated in places; but the album as a whole acts as a good intermediary step in Buckley’s career, bridging the gap between his early traditional recordings and his later experimentalism, and is definitely a very solid, consistent piece of work.

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Readers Comments Mike Harrison fughedaboudit455@yahoo.com In less than one year, Buckley really loosened up. His lyrics are far more poetic, and his vocals are more emotional AND haunting at the same time. The production is obviously dated, but that's part of the charm, because THIS time it accentuates Buckley's lyrics and vocals to a better degree. It's also more interesting....."I Never Asked to be Your Mountain" sounds like nothing else released in 1967. "Pleasant Street" is probably the best early-period Buckley song.

This is the one; Tim Buckley’s finest hour, the most accomplished recording of his career. Leaving behind the conventional folk rock of previous albums and drawing on the influences of his heroes Miles Davis and Hank Williams, he creates a perfect blend of jazz, blues, folk and country totally unlike anything else that was being released at the time. Five of the six tracks on the album are over 5 minutes long with two of them lasting more than 10 minutes, allowing for long instrumental solos and an overall spontaneous and improvised feel. In places it’s almost like listening to a spur of the moment jam between random musicians after hours in a darkened jazz club. ‘Happy Sad’ was the first album where all the tracks were written solely by Buckley opting to leave behind his partnership with lyricist Larry Beckett in order to give more importance to the music. And it was a very wise move. The lyrics on this album are beautiful, delicate and very well crafted; and compliment the music much better than Beckett’s overly elaborate style of writing.

The title of this album is an absolutely perfect description of the themes and feelings conjured by the music. I read somewhere that 3 of the tracks were supposed to be happy and the other 3 sad. I spent weeks trying to figure out which were which only to fail miserably. I really think that sort of interpretation misses the point entirely. Surely we all know how the two emotions are inexorably linked, how, as nothing can exist without its opposite, the two feed off each other often making it impossible to tell which is which. Throughout the album, Buckley conveys this paradox perfectly, taking us on an emotional journey, making us laugh and cry at the same time. The album opens with ‘Strange Feelin’ which is not one of the strongest tracks on the album, but acts as a good introduction, drawing you in, providing a good build up to the wonderful ‘Buzzin Fly’ which is my favourite ever Tim Buckley track and would be included in my top 50 all time favourite songs if such a thing existed. This track sees Buckley give arguably the best vocal performance of his career accompanied by the amazing sound of Lee Underwood’s blues-influenced guitar, and Buckley’s own beautiful performance on a 12 string. ‘Gypsy Woman’ is another highlight. It is a twelve minute long free-styled piece of absolute genius. Buckley just lets go, his voice wails and howls and dances, and the musicians all sound as if they’re having the time of their lives. There are certain points when you think this track is never going to end, but you don’t want it to end, it sounds so amazing. The album concludes with the beautiful ‘Sing a Song For You’ which is delicate and dreamy and provides the perfect end to an almost perfect album, and all you want to do is put it back on and listen again and again and again. Buckley’s career really wouldn’t get any better than this.

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Readers Comments hugues o.hugues@wanadoo.fr I agree! "Goodbye & Hello" is maybe his most impressive, but I always preferred "Happy Sad", it is, to me, what's Tim Buckley did the best, these long free jazz ballads where his voice could wander... we can almost hear the wind on this record, it's so real and lively! We have to keep this album beside Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks". John, County Kildare john.j.doyle@nuim.ie Excellent review by Ruth; although I haven't heard the album, I'm seriously considering checking it out now!!! Maybe it's time for a complete re-evaluation of Tim Buckley's work in a wider context.

Lorca was released during Tim Buckley’s most prolific period. It was the second of three albums to be released in the space of a year with each one representing a step further in his experimentation with the genre, style and content of his music. The more traditional, ‘Blue Afternoon’ was the first of the three, and was actually recorded after Lorca at the record company’s demand due to their concern at Buckley’s lack of sales and decreasing popularity. It is surprising then that Lorca was ever released at all as it is highly experimental and innovative, representing his desire to push back boundaries and step into unknown territory in an attempt to discover his own musical limitations and uncover new ground. Lorca was produced by Frank Zappa associates Herb Cohen and Dick Kunc. Cohen had signed Buckley to Elektra after discovering him in a nightclub when he was 19, and several of Zappa’s musicians played on his first album, but it is not until Lorca that the Cohen/Zappa influence really becomes evident, showing that rather than being the folk singer that he had been labelled very early in his career, his main musical influences lay within the realms of classical, jazz and avante garde experimentalism. Lorca carries on the improvised, free-style effect that characterised much of ‘Happy Sad’, with each of the five tracks on the album being around 8 minutes in duration and all having long instrumental solos. It also sees Buckley experiment with the limitations of his own voice. He had already proved himself as a vocalist, yet here he really begins to use his voice as an instrument, holding long notes, sometimes not even singing words, just making strange vocal noises, practically wailing at times.

The general feel of Lorca is dark and melancholic, it is very slow in pace and although it has moments of intensity and beauty there is very little for the listener to get hold of. Fans of early folk ballads such as ‘Wings’ and ‘Pleasant Street’ would be greatly disappointed. The title track doesn’t provide a great opening to the album. Written in a strange time signature, it seems awkward and very difficult to listen to, and at just under 10 minutes in duration in is definitely too long. ‘Anonymous Proposition’ is by far the best track and is utterly gorgeous in places, but it is a highly ambitious song that fails to deliver at times, and after about 4 minutes becomes tiring. ‘I Had A Talk With My Woman’, ‘Driftin’ and ‘Nobody Walkin’ are all potentially good tracks but are all overly long and aren’t particularly accessible to the average listener. Lorca is a difficult album to review and give a rating to. It is musically accomplished and well written, but it appears to have been recorded for Buckley’s own private pleasure offering very little to the listener. Yet it displays Buckley’s utter refusal to compromise his artistic integrity in exchange for commercial success and popularity, and surely that must count for something.

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Readers Comments Mike Harrison cathairball5000@yahoo.com I don't agree with the '6' rating at all. I don't think there were too many, if ANY, singer-songwriters who used their voice as an INSTRUMENT. Buckley's multi-octave voice suits the melancholy mood of the album just fine.....and that's a big reason why this album feels 500 times more personal than anything recorded by a "singer-songwriter." He might've been making music only for himself at this point, but that's why his music became more interesting with time.....it was HIS music. Stephen Smith pwjo80@cox.net Tim Buckley was lightyears ahead of early 70's music, and it shocked and angered many of his fans. I took to it right away, and I believe it holds up even better after 30+ Years. We can only wonder where he, and we, might be musically had he lived. He was a genius. Alas, heroin wins again.