Jeff Buckley Classic or Dud?

i'm always kinda embarrassed by it, but dude is basically classic. of course my best friend/girl i was in love with at age 16 is the one who get me into him, so you know

but really mystery white boy is kind of amazing in parts, like E3 said

So I was browsing The Wire's 50 best albums of 1994 list and came across Buckley's Grace on the list(?!???!!) and thought, hey, why not pull this out for what's probably my first spin in 5-6 years. And it's not half bad. I don't have any of the post-death releases which I've always imagined consist of Columbia raping Buckley's corpse over and over for a profit, but Grace is, well... it's pretty good.

but really mystery white boy is kind of amazing in parts, like E3 said

― mage pit laceration (gbx), Monday, January 25, 2010 11:04 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark

so if you're curious go there

I like some of the stuff on Sketches, too -- "Vancouver", "Morning Theft", and "The Sky Is a Landfill" stand up to any of his other work imo

Hunt down the Glastonbury bootleg if you can - it was recorded for radio by the BBC so the sound's perfect, and everything on it is spot on - way better than Mystery White Boy or Live á l'Olympia. Includes the best version of Dream Brother. Plus no Hallelujah in sight.

I've always been a big fan of the song "Jewel Box" off Sketches. Perhaps the sweetest melody he ever composed.

So I was browsing The Wire's 50 best albums of 1994 list and came across Buckley's Grace on the list(?!???!!) and thought, hey, why not pull this out for what's probably my first spin in 5-6 years. And it's not half bad. I don't have any of the post-death releases which I've always imagined consist of Columbia raping Buckley's corpse over and over for a profit, but Grace is, well... it's pretty good.

― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Tuesday, September 14, 2010 6:37 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

"Grace" also has a great sense of melancholy in the style of Poe, Swinburne, and Baudelaire. The album is so eerie to me. It's cool that The Wire put it on their list!

It's actually as much jazz-influenced as by pop and traditional singer/songwriters. Which is something that all of Buckley's legion of imitators have never gotten right, and is why they all bore the shit out of me.

i know every word, every pause of "grace". i don't listen to it much now but is still stuns me when i do.

The Bataclan live medley of "Je N'en Connais Pas la Fin" and "Hymne à l'amour" (from the GRACE EPs set but originally part of Live From The Bataclan) still has without question the single most surprising and exciting live audience reaction i've ever heard in my life. Since the late 90s i've been baffled and amazed by the extremes of emotion the crowd seem to go through; at times appearing to be almost *different* crowds edited together from different gigs, such is the rollercoastering of their reaction. Saying more spoils it for anyone who hasn't heard it but... it's completely jaw dropping. I'm not the world's biggest Buckley fan or anything but live.. man he clearly had something.

amazing version of dream brother on the bataclan ep, too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM_jBD716Vo

this made me go "huh..."

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/3112/screenshotgre.png

revive

Had he looked like, I dunno, say, Weird Al, would chicks have still dug him?

Listening to Grace for the first time in maybe a decade figured my tastes had changed drastically since I gave up on it, I thought I'd like it more. But no. Still overwrought, still can't make it through the whole thing.

Would have liked to hear his third/fourth album, though. I mean, I can't stand the first Tim Buckley album either.

Imagine him on American Idol, though!

many opinions make me not get ILX sometimes. the post above, is such an example

his version of "Hallelujah" is one of my least favorite pieces of music ever

ok now I fully think ILX = opposite day board

nah, I know full well I'm in the minority due to how many times his keening intrudes on my time in any given café (c'mon hipsters, find some other signifier for "cool").

you may be in the minority in public but not on this board!

John and corey, I have your back forever on this.

HOOOOOOOOOOS to thread plz

Dud

classic

Weird Al's not an unattractive dude 'cept for the wacky hair.

http://amysrobot.com/files/weirdal.JPG

relistened to all his stuff for the first time in a while. grace now sounds pretty bad, sketches sounded fantastic.

If you squint he has a bit part as a stoner on Treme.

some dude wrote this on thread "The Wire" on HBO on board I Love Everything on Jan 15, 2011

if they ever do a Jeff Buckley biopic they should really cast Ransone, both because he looks close enough and because afaict JB was about as obnoxious as Ziggy irl

apparently they ARE doing a biopic now and i plan on griping when James Franco or whoever gets the part

we've never done a Grace poll, have we? that would be fun

Or that Twilight guy will get it the part, or Keira Knightly maybe.

lol

Saddest thing is that I felt he was actually, massively improving. 'Sketches' is way, way better than Grace. I loved the direction he was taking there.

"Josh Groban, as you've never seen him before...."

yeah i was listening to Sketches recently and there is some great stuff on there

Have fond memories of seeing him in 95 at a RRR FM rooftop gig in the rain...no-one thought he would play but they threw a tarp over the stage and he played and joked it was one of the best nights of my life. (Added bonus: we met Mick Grondahl afterwards going down the stairs, very sweet & friendly)

I can't defend him to anyone who hates him without morphing into stupid-fangirl mode, but I've always held his music pretty close...funny, but I can't fight to the death over his music the way I will happily do with other music I love. I think I just found the music v intense, and he was around for such a short time that it really left a mark. I don't ever put him up for discussion because I guess I can't handle talking about him still. Sounds dumb, I know.

his music's by no means infallible or beyond criticism but the reasons people dismiss or hate on him are generally total superficial bullshit

Rockist creedo #813 -- If a bunch of people are jamming out to Nirvana before i've even heard of them, they must suck to infinity. If even the most mediocre of bands is on my radar before anybody else, then I shall be their champion.

I had a bunch of Tim years before Jeff was around. And while I still believe that Tim has 100x the chops, I cannot deny my affinity for his son. For the last decade I've mostly appreciated the more striped-down acoustic pieces (the extended Sin-e is delightful, saving of course for the caustic "Kick Out The Jams"). I was glad he got his props, however, I really dislike all the fanboy neuroticisms extolled A.D. It was like when Cobain blew his brains out, I mean, no big surprise there and no great loss - as something new is always coming down the highway (or, better yet, something old that you've never heard before). Holding anything up as being so untouchably precious is the enemy of truly new ideas in music.

i am here now fyi

also drunk, which is appropriate

lol...i have a mid-evening hangover myself :/

what some dude said

And while I still believe that Tim has 100x the chops, I cannot deny my affinity for his son.

^ yup

just put on "forget her," straight fire imo

It was like when Cobain blew his brains out, I mean, no big surprise there and no great loss - as something new is always coming down the highway (or, better yet, something old that you've never heard before). Holding anything up as being so untouchably precious is the enemy of truly new ideas in music.

i don't think 'no big surprise' applies to buckley, i mean the guy drowned in a freak accident after spontaneously deciding to go for a swim.

my attitude towards him is pretty much, hey, if his popularity gets more ppl to listen to his dad, cool.

his music's by no means infallible or beyond criticism but the reasons people dismiss or hate on him are generally total superficial bullshit

― lilsoulbrotherlovesdubplatestyle (some dude), Sunday, 8 May 2011 03:32 (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

otm.

before his death (when he'd sold virtually zero records btw) people criticised him for being self-indulgent and ott. now he's dead and he's sold lots of records to uncool people, people criticise him for being anodyne and dull. figure that one out.

i think he's rad tbh, and punch myself in the balls every day for not going to see him play london in 93. i couldn't get anyone to go with me and i should have just gone on my own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHLgKxB14Lo

His earnestness and goofiness didn't mix at-all with the perceived cool of having an inherited 'prestige artist' status, flip-flopping between beautiful poetic wunderkind and goofy Rush-loving guitar nerd makes him such an easy target.

But all said and done I stil dig a lot of his music and especially like his effervescent atitude towards giving props to other artists, like the scatty way he arrives at the Nusrat cover on the expanded Sin-E CD for instance.

"Mojo Pin" is one of my favorite songs ever.

and how can anybody resist "Everybody Here Wants You"

flip-flopping between beautiful poetic wunderkind and goofy Rush-loving guitar nerd

I think you hit on what I like best about him! Like I think half my favorite songs of his are covers.