Grace
Today for some reason I am thinking of Jeff Buckley.
I believe the culprit of this is the fact that James Franco is in about three million movies and is Jeff Buckley's doppelganger. 
I am reacquainting myself with Jeff's album Grace, which I haven't listened to since about 2001. I bought it because of the near-obscene beauty of his cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." Jeff Buckley drowned when he was 30, I think the day before he was supposed to be starting on his second album. So suddenly, of course, he became the Next Big Thing Tragically Lost. Everyone was a fan. Now all the tribute sites talk about his vision, his passion, his unswerving dedication to staying true to his music, etc, ad nauseum. It's incredible, the rosy sheen that a early death can rub on a life. I'm not sure that Jeff Buckley was the Tortured Angel Genius that the tribute sites would have you believe. He was kind of a diva. He broke up bands. His music is sometimes wildly inconsistent. I am glad that I heard "Hallelujah" before I knew his story, so that when I would hear it and I would actually shush people so that they could hear it too I know that it was because it moved me and not because he was the Last Great Hope or something. Because isn't that what it's all about? Isn't it a little disgusting that art and music and writing become so much more precious when the artist is dead? Does the art not ever stand for itself? It's an odd phenomenon. What is the connection between art and death? Why does death create genius? I recently discussed with a friend how unsettling I find it, this tendency of people to align themselves with tragedy. When someone dies, friends and fans come out of the woodwork. There are hugs and there is sympathy to go around and people want in on it. So albums, movies, books sell out. And everyone claims to have been a fan before.
I don't think I'm going anywhere with this rambley post, really. I just had some stuff on my mind and if I can't put it on my blog, where can I put it? Maybe it's a carpe diem kind of a thing. Oh drink a bit of wine we both might go tomorrow (to probably misquote Jeff Buckley himself). If any of you people haven't heard Jeff Buckley, you should. But not because he's dead. Because his voice will break your heart.
posted by Amy @ 2:06 PM
5 Comments:
Now, now- a lot of people were really getting into JB right before he died- at least amongst my friends. He was living in Memphis and he actually had a weekly gig (I KNOW) when I was, I believe, a senior in high school. I saw it in the paper and was like "oh- ha! Someone with the same name as . . ." and never bothered to check it out. Imagine the self-flagellation that took place when the newspaper printed the story about him drowning in the Mississippi River. Sigh . . .
And I actually disagree that his music is inconsistent. I would say that he is quite versatile, and I would also say that he has an absolutely fantastic set of pipes. Hullo- counter-tenor territory for Benjamin Britten's Corpus Christi Carol? Not terribly common on a rock album. Of course, it's just my opinion, but I find his music consistently engaging, complex, and well-orchestrated. Varied? Absolutely.
As an aside, one of the main reasons I started listening to Jump, Little Children was because a) Jay Clifford, for my money, has a vocal quality that is very close to Jeff Buckley's in a way that makes me feel not as sad about losing the latter and b) the fairly musically academic background of the band produced, in my opnion, a similarly pleasing assortment of songs that are engaging beyond the simple "oh, that sounds nice." I think Jeff Buckley was edgier and possibly did not have as many 13 year olds at his concerts, but it makes me happy to hear them.
I would like to add the following additional comments upon re-reading my initial comment:
1) Jeff Buckley HAD a good voice. No longer- duh.
2) Jay Clifford has a problem with the English language that bears mentioning. And by that I mean that it is difficult to understand about every other word that comes out of his mouth because his vowels are all over the place a la Bjork and he generally kinda has mush mouth. Which is weird because he's from Winston-Salem and not Reykjavik. Still- the vocal quality. Buttah.
to clarify: there are not words for the effect this man's voice has on me. the breadth of his talent is not up for debate. my beef was the tendency after he died to believe that he could do no wrong. and this is a general beef which is tweaked every time an artist died.
if you liked jump little children, i think you should also ask yourself how creepily radiohead and ryan adams mimic the jeff buckley experience. seriously.
Well, Thom Yorke was a Jeff Buckley fan. I can't remember if they ever worked together. There's some story about how Radiohead was recording some really dark song and then they finished and found out Jeff Buckley died and it was this incredibly low point. I'm pretty sure Thom Yorke cried. If that story isn't true, it definitely should be.
Well, yes Thom Yorke was a Buckley fan. And the story is that when they were recording The Bends, one evening they went to see him in concert.
Just after it, they came back to the studio. Yorke was really overwhelmed by Buckley's voice and what he've just heard. He recorded Fake Plastic Trees trying to take the same voice tone than him.
When he was done singing it, he burst out in tears.
(that's the official story, but just listen to Fake Plastic Trees and you can hear the influence).
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