Jeff Buckley in Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza, midday acoustic show (5/5/95)

May of 1995 was the end of my sophomore year of high school down in San Jose, and while I studied on a Thursday afternoon for Mr. Pimentel’s science final or Señora Navarro’s Spanish class, somewhere not too far up 880 Jeff Buckley was tuning up his acoustic guitar for a solo midday set on the college campus of UC Berkeley.

Jeff had been touring in support of Grace for nearly a year, currently with Juliana Hatfield, and was preparing to leave for Scotland in a few weeks. He would play San Francisco’s beautiful old Great American Music Hall that night in a sold-out show.

According to David Browne’s excellent Dream Brother book, Jeff had just been named one of People Magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People In The World” this month, and was “mortified.” Yet here Jeff is in fine, chatty form – his lightly joking, sometimes sardonic banter (imitating Scott Weiland, among other things) counterbalanced by the gorgeous weight of his songs, inducing chills even in the warm afternoon sun. Just listen to that intro to “Mojo Pin”; it’s near mystical.

I never did see Jeff live, but I delight in finding these recordings of shows that were happening all around me. I can listen to them now, and sorta, you know — pretend.

Jeff Buckley in Sproul Plaza, Berkeley (5/5/95)

SETLIST
1 – Last Goodbye
2 – Lover You Should Have Come Over
3 – So Real
4 – Mojo Pin
5 – Grace

November 17th was his birthday — he would have been 43 tomorrow.

[Photo by Jan Richards]

New contest: Jeff Buckley goodness

Back in 2005, a film festival came to San Jose where I grew up and was living still. Five minutes down the road from the college where I was working, Amazing Grace screened in a theater I’d visited dozens of times. This Jeff Buckley documentary is lauded by fans who have seen it as a gorgeous, heartfelt work about Jeff Buckley and his life.

I remember that as a particularly distracted Spring, and I completely missed the screening — and have spent the next four years compulsively checking the website every couple of months to see when I can watch it on DVD.

The day is finally here.

In honor of the 15th anniversary of the release of Jeff’s masterpiece album Grace, earlier this week the Grace Around the World CD/DVD of previously unreleased live performances hit the shelves. The deluxe edition also includes the Amazing Grace documentary, available for the first time.

The Grace Around The World performances were culled together and produced by Mary Guibert, Jeff’s mom. They are gorgeous renditions of Jeff’s songs taken mostly from his TV performances all over Europe and Asia from 1994-1995. It also comes with a CD of the audio from these performances. There are a couple of renditions of all the songs on Grace, and also a live version of “Vancouver,” which didn’t make it on the album but surfaced on Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk.

Rolling Stone has been doing a series of podcasts on this release and the anniversary. This episode lets you hear some of the audio from Grace Around The World, and features commentary from Duncan Sheik, who had worked with Jeff, and wrote the tribute song “A Body Goes Down” for him.

Jeff Buckley Grace Around The World podcast

FUEL/FRIENDS CONTEST: One reader gets the limited-edition deluxe Grace Around The World prize pack which includes –

1) The Grace Around The World DVD featuring previously unreleased TV performances from U.S., UK, Germany, Japan and France
2) Grace Around The World CD featuring audio versions of all the tracks on the DVD, plus two additional previously unreleased tracks
3) A pretty sweet t-shirt.

If you’d like to win, leave me a comment, please, and let’s talk about something you love in Jeff Buckley’s music or live performance. Make me smile this week (or make me cry, or give me shivers, something good). Talk about a lyric, a melody, a song, a performance, a quote, a laugh. For me, it’s still absolutely the ebullient joy in this laugh that is my favorite moment ever of Jeff’s. What’s yours?

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LISTEN TO A FEW OF THE LIVE TRACKS FROM
GRACE AROUND THE WORLD:

[top photo credit Merri Cyr]

Jeff Buckley covers Joni Mitchell

In the early Nineties, some musician/taper was playing New York’s Sin-é club at the same time as a young rising star named Jeff Buckley. Unnamed fella was taping Buckley’s Monday night sets, and has recently put together a compilation of these live tracks, largely covers. Thanks to a tip from a reader in Brooklyn named Adam, I have been listening to these chill-inducing recordings all morning.

People’s Parties (Joni Mitchell) – Jeff Buckley

People’s Parties (original) – Joni Mitchell

Check the Love Live! Bootlegs From Bucklberry blog for this and other tracks, including:

Two versions of “Hallelujah” (Cohen), “Funk 49″ (James Gang), “The Way Young Lovers Do” and “Sweet Thing” (Van Morrison), “In A Different Place” (Ride), “May The Circle Be Unbroken” (traditional gospel), “Twelfth Of Never” (Johnny Mathis?), “Calling You” (Bob Telson), “Strange Fruit” (Billie Holiday), “Julia” (The Beatles), “Lost Highway” (Hank Williams), “Dink’s Song” (traditional), “I Shall Be Released”, “If You See Her, Say Hello” and “Mama You’ve Been On My Mind” (Dylan).

I haven’t even heard many of these covers. What a gift.

Jeff Buckley, Glen Hansard “Neath The Beeches”

Today, November 17th, is Jeff Buckley’s birthday, and a reader sent me this interview clip with Glen Hansard (Once, The Frames, The Commitments) discussing the months when his guitar tech/roadie was this young guy named Jeff.

Listen to Hansard tell the story of Jeff first playing “an Irish club in the East Village ” with him (of course, the famous Sin-é) and the reaction of the audience when this unknown kid started to sing. As he discusses their relationship in this wonderfully unguarded interview, he also recounts the story of playing the Tim Buckley song “Once I Was” in the hotel room for Jeff, and being stunned when Jeff casually mentioned, oh yeah, he was my father.

It closes with a gorgeous version of the song “Neath The Beeches,” which Hansard says fell fully formed from his mind, and that “I was thinking about (Jeff) when I was doing it, so it became his song in my head.”

Glen Hansard discusses Jeff Buckley / plays “Neath The Beeches”

Here is also the album version, from the 1999 Frames album Dance The Devil:

Neath The Beeches – The Frames

Monday Music Roundup

So I learned how to play the game of Cornhole this weekend.

Seriously, don’t ask.
(I don’t know if it was more fun playing the game or just making endless jokes about the name of it).

The End Of The World
Ash
Irish band Ash has opened for bands like U2 and Weezer, and collaborated with Coldplay’s Chris Martin, but chances are really good that you’ve not heard of them if you aren’t British. Well, listen up. This is my new favorite song today, a soaring tune that I want to sing along with and be listening to if it is, indeed, the end of the world. Tinglingly good, I love the epic feel of the key changes (I am a sucker for those); for some reason this line gets me: “Can’t hardly see the stars, there’s too much light pollution . . . That’s the catch, it’s such a beautiful confusion.” Their 5th studio album Twilight Of The Innocents is out in the UK this week, and they say it shall be their last proper album (then moving to what Mason Jennings considered, and releasing only singles). Ash plays at London’s KOKO for a run this entire week, and then they hit the festival circuit this summer, including Asia, then Reading and Leeds festivals.

Dream Brother (alternate take)
Jeff Buckley
Reading a recent review by a friend of mine, I realized that I never weighed in on the new So Real: Songs from Jeff Buckley collection, which was released in May to commemorate ten years of his absence. While it’s a bit disorienting to hear a rearranged Grace (no Mojo Pin starter? No Lilac Wine following Last Goodbye?), I like the overall effect here, and would recommend this addition for any Buckley fan who already loves his studio debut album front to back, as I do. The compilation adds some excellent songs of Jeff’s that surfaced after Grace (such as the sexy swooner Everybody Here Wants You, or The Sky Is A Landfill), as well as alternate takes on favorites. These new versions are interesting in the different vantage points they offer (Eternal Life slays like the best Zeppelin tune, there are some new lyrics here in Dream Brother), and while I wouldn’t say that I prefer any of the new versions more than the originals, this collection offers an apt and different take on the talent we lost.

The Night Starts Here
Stars
The new album from Montreal, Canada’s Stars isn’t even out until September, three long months away, but this newly released mp3 is already burning through the blogs (thanks Arts & Crafts!). In Our Bedroom After The War will be the newest album from this melodic, dreamlike, deftly-harmonizing band that I quite enjoy, and the first single continues where 2005’s Set Yourself On Fire left off – lots of turntaking in the verses between honey-voiced Amy Millan and incisive Torquil Campbell, over a backbeat of synths and layered orchestral pop.

Apeman (Kinks cover)
The Format
In honor of the one year anniversary of the release of Dog Problems, charismatic Arizona pop band The Format is offering that entire album free for download on their website, no catches, until July 16th. That’s a whole lot of goodness, gratis. The Format remains one of the most exciting live shows I’ve seen (very high on the list) and I recommend catching them on this current tour if you can. They love covers like I do, and have put their unique stamp on everything from Harry Nilsson to Bruce Springsteen. Here they take on the Kinks’ Apeman very faithfully — but it’s fun.

Come And Get It (demo)
Paul McCartney
Last week I got an email from my friend Tony wondering, hypothetically, if I might have enough frequent flyer miles to be his accomplice in the Paul McCartney private show at Amoeba Records in LA. On less than 24 hours notice, I could not swing it, but oh, how I need a private jet. This demo recording of the McCartney-penned Badfinger megahit (Paul laid this down one day at Abbey Road when he arrived early for a recording session) is something I’ve been listening to a lot recently. Posting it today is just an enjoyable excuse to link to Tony’s review of his ultimate fanboy experience. (Oh, and I think we can call Lefsetz a fanboy too).

Ten years gone: Jeff Buckley

“So I wait for you
And I burn
Will I ever see your
sweet return?

Oh, will I ever learn?”

Ten years ago tomorrow (May 29, 1997) Jeff Buckley decided to go for a swim in the Wolf River, laid on his back and began floating while he sang “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin. Quickly, stealthily, and tragically the currents sucked him in and pulled him under.

Ten years.

Ten years ago Wednesday I was sitting at the kitchen table in my parents’ house in California reading the morning newspaper and probably having coffee, getting ready for one of my last few weeks of my senior year before graduating high school. Stuck at the very bottom of a sidebar with mundane news briefs of the day was this short blurb saying that folk-rock singer Jeff Buckley had been reported missing following a swim.

Such a small news bit; such a huge crashing sound in my ears. I remember exclaiming out loud, and calling my mom over; I had been deeply in love with his music for a year or so at that point, and felt this crazy urge to get on a plane and help the search efforts, or at the very least I wanted more information, something more to go on that just “he’s missing.” Today I could probably clickety-click to a live streaming news feed from the muddy banks, but then all I had to go on was a half-inch of sterile newsprint.

My answers came a few days later when his beautiful body showed up bloated and bruised in the waters at the foot of historic Beale Street in Memphis.

The story was over. The one finished album, the masterpiece, would have to be enough.

I wonder what ground he would have travelled, and what he would have created had he lived. By all accounts, Jeff’s musical creativity was unbounded, and I’ve heard for myself the joy in his voice when he was doing what he was manically driven to do: create, perform, create.

In retrospect, Jeff is not the kind of artist I would have thought to fall in love with. At that time in my life, I was all about brooding, rocking, loud music. I guess Grace had enough of that to entice me in (through songs like “Eternal Life”) and then, like the nectar at the bottom of a venus flytrap, I was ensnared, but happily.

In searching through my old news clippings for this post, I found an old press release with a listing of tour dates from 1994. He came through San Francisco on November 20. I wonder what else I was doing that night, my sophomore year of high school. Maybe I just place him higher on a pedestal than I should because I’ve built up in my mind what it would have been like to see him live, breathless, glowing. But maybe not.

Jeff is quoted in that press release as saying, “I’m really into flying. I don’t care about being a gospel singer or a blues singer per se, but elements of that music are keys to my subconscious. When I sing something like that–if I do it right–it’s like a weird snake that will get in you and unlock something. If I wasn’t able to do this, I think I would really lay down and die.

“Music comes from a very primal, twisted place. When a person sings, their body, their mouth, their eyes, their words, their voice says all these unspeakable things that you really can’t explain but that mean something anyway. People are completely transformed when they sing; people look like that when they sing or when they make love. But it’s a weird thing–at the end of the night I feel strange, because I feel I’ve told everybody all my secrets.”

Those ’secrets’ of his still affect me more powerfully than almost any other artist with that soaring, gorgeous, fearless, devastating voice.

I miss you, Jeff.

Lover You Should Have Come Over (alternate version)
From the Eternal Life single

I Know It’s Over (Smiths cover) – Jeff Buckley
from the so-called “Garbage Can Tape,” circa 1993

I Shall Be Released – Jeff Buckley
collaborative Dylan cover, live over the phone with WFMU radio. Arresting, gorgeous – NOW ON CD: please see this post to buy it for a good cause!

Satisfied Mind – Jeff Buckley

TRIBUTES: There are a wide variety of tribute events taking place for Jeff. His website lists ones upcoming in Hollywood, London, Louisiana, Iceland, Georgia, Macedonia, Boston, Dublin, Melbourne, and Paris. The Uncommon Grounds Chicago event is scheduled for November. I went to one in San Francisco at Noe Valley Ministry several years back, and it was surprisingly transcendent.

Related posts (all links reupped where needed):
The story behind Jeff covering Dylan
Tribute songs penned about Jeff
Jeff Buckley and Aimee Mann
Rarities from NYC
Jeff channels his father
Video: Jeff singing Satisfied Mind
Some live covers from Jeff

Monday Music Roundup

Spring is finally on the verge of … springing here in Colorado. There are new layers of green outside my front door everytime I look, and I think my tulips (which I didn’t plant myself, but remain an annual treat from the previous green-thumbed owner) are poised to bloom any day. There’s also a gorgeous bush covered in breathtaking yellow flowers right outside my kitchen window, so I don’t even mind doing the dishes lately. Hooray for Spring, I’ve been color-starved and sunshine-starved, even though I try to make the best of it.

Side note: there is a fantastic/rotten new entry over at ThingsMyBoyfriendSays.com that I ain’t gonna post here but just made laugh for a solid minute or so…

But let’s just move it along, people. Here’s the music, with an appropriate first track for the revelling in the Spring sunshine.

Laissez Briller Le Soleil (”Let the sun shine”?)
Les Boots
Every once in a while on the music blogs that I regularly read, someone throws out a curveball that just catches you offgaurd in the most marvelous way. Aquarium Drunkard has a “French Freakbeat” series up now (parts one and two) of fuzzy, garage harmonies from Gallic groups of the Sixties. Info is scant, but apparently this is “a rare bootleg collection that explores mid 1960s mod-influenced psychedelia of French bands that were paying strict attention to their British brethren, most notably The Small Faces.” I love the way this sounds — it’s as if your little transistor radio suddenly picks up a station across the Atlantic with sounds that are vaguely familiar but altogether fresh. Grab the whole set. Soooo good, right up my alley.

No Pussy Blues
Grinderman
Following my post referencing the great Nick Cave tune (and the Pearl Jam cover of) “The Ship Song,” reader Joe recommended that I check out Cave’s new band with 3 of his Bad Seeds — Grinderman, saying it was “raw, dirty, superb!” Any song titled No Pussy Blues definitely tends towards the raw and fairly dirty; it’s also humorous as he details his efforts in vain to get the unnamed female to acquiesce in his growling, pointed storytelling. This is off their forthcoming 2007 self-titled release on Anti Records (US). Blistering.

Gospel
The National
Speaking of Nick Cave, the voice of Matt Berninger always reminds me a bit of Cave in its deep and dramatic resonation. The forthcoming 4th album from Brooklyn’s The National, Boxer (May 22, Beggars Banquet label) leaked its way onto the interwebby this weekend and I’ve been truly enjoying feeling my way through it. It’s a rich, melodic, gorgeous album with lyrics aching of romantic disillusionment and raw desire — I had a hard time picking just one track to share. This is an album that I really look forward to delving into and relishing on repeat; first impressions are very solid.

Never Learn Not To Love
Beach Boys/Charles Manson
So you all know that I enjoy enriching my brain with backstories and random little snippets of musical history that fall through the cracks. The Spinner blog has a fascinating little story on how the Golden State’s finest exports ended up recording the music of a psychotic murderer. Although the original writing credits of this song, which was first released as a b-side to cheery “Bluebirds Over The Mountain,” list only Dennis Wilson as the author, the truth would include a credit for the wild-eyed Chuck Manson as well for his earlier version — creepily entitled “Cease To Resist.” Who knew that underneath all that sunshine and chiming harmonies there was a secret more sinister.

Strawberry Street
Jeff Buckley
Oooh, and finally how about a b-side from my beloved Jeff Buckley? This is one that I’d never heard before, unearthed by the superb Sweet Oblivion blog and ripped directly from the vinyl single of the great song “Forget Her.” It was also a hidden track on the Australian edition of Grace. This song was written by Jeff before he moved to NYC in 1993, and it is Jeff at his most waily, electric, Led-Zeppelin-loving best.

And holy goodness (!!), I’ve been waiting for this news for a long time: The critically-acclaimed film festival favorite Jeff Buckley documentary Amazing Grace will finally be released by Columbia/Legacy on May 22 for purchase. I’ve heard nothing but revelatory raves about it but missed all screenings ever near me; add your name here to be updated on purchase information. I cannot wait to settle in to watch that one.

Jeff Buckley & Aimee Mann

One of my favorite and very first posts (anyone with me that long?) was the first time I wrote about Jeff Buckley, told the story of “our relationship” if you will, and posted up songs inspired by his life, his art, and his untimely death.

(pretty sure that chill-inducing photo above is Jeff in front of the Wolf River, taken by Merri Cyr).

Tim Buckley DVD on the way

From the NME, news of a forthcoming Tim Buckley DVD (and a related previous post here with Jeff Buckley audio).

Tim Buckley performances DVD revealed
A DVD featuring a collection of performances of Tim Buckley is set to be released in May. Featuring rare live performances from various television shows and interview footage spanning his career from 1967 to 1974, ‘My Fleeting House‘ also includes 11 songs and interviews with Lee Underwood, who was Buckley’s guitarist, and Larry Beckett, who co-wrote many of his songs.

Over the course of his career, Buckley (father of the late Jeff Buckley) incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, and avant-garde rock into his sound. He died in 1975, aged 28, from a mixture of heroin and alcohol. ‘My Fleeting House’ will be released on May 15.

TRACKLISTING
‘No Man Can Find the War’ (from ‘Inside Pop’)
‘Happy Time’ (from ‘Late Night Line-Up’)
‘Morning Glory’ (from ‘Late Night Line-Up’)
‘Dolphins’ (from ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’)
‘Song to the Siren’ (from ‘The Monkees Show’)
‘Who Do You Love’ (from ‘Greenwich Village’)
‘Happy Time’ (from Dutch TV)
‘Sing a Song for You’ (from Dutch TV)
‘Sally Go Round the Roses’ (from ‘Music Video Live’)
‘Blue Melody’ (from ‘Boboquivari’)
‘Venice Beach (Music Boats by the Bay)’ (from ‘Boboquivari’)
‘I Woke Up’ (from ‘The Show’)
‘Come Here Woman’ (from ‘The Show’)
‘Pleasant Street’ (from ‘the Christian Licorice Store’)
____________________________________________________

Last March I uploaded this Tim Buckley video to YouTube after reading about the moment in Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff & Tim Buckley and subsequently scouting out the video clip online. It has blown me away how many people are still interested in viewing this performance — over 50,000 so far! And some pretty passionate comments, too . . . A magnetic performance.

Jeff Buckley covers Bob Dylan for a musician’s village in New Orleans

A few weeks ago I posted a fantastic recording of Jeff Buckley singing Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released” over the phone for WMFU radio, with the help of some friends. One of those friends of Jeff’s was Michelle Kinney, who sang and played the accordion in the studio that day. Through a series of events, we’ve been corresponding by email – and she’s let me know of a great new project she’s working to develop, using a cleaned-up version of that arresting and blissful recording.

Michelle writes, “Being in Jeff’s company whether he was singing or not was transcendent (most of the time). You could feel him coming from blocks away.” Her husband was also a friend of Jeff’s, and played guitar on that recording of “I Shall Be Released” (as well as backing Jeff at the St. Ann’s tribute for Tim Buckley in 1991). Michelle has developed an artist’s record label called Sugarfoot Music which has received permission from Jeff’s estate to officially release that incredible recording on a compilation CD benefitting a musicians’ village in New Orleans.

Jeff’s song will join 30 other artists on this album to help raise funds to build homes for musicians displaced by the hurricanes in 2005. The idea of a Musicians’ Village was conceived by Harry Connick Jr. & Branford Marsalis, and will house musicians and families whose lives were devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. With the support of others, including a $1.5 million challenge grant by musician Dave Matthews, Habitat for Humanity has already begun rebuilding a neighborhood of music players and music lovers.

Among the contributors: Dan Wilson (of Semisonic), Natalie Merchant, Indigo Girls, Marshall Crenshaw, Gary Louris & The Jayhawks, and more. Sugarfoot Music’s benefit CD includes a 36-page booklet featuring a photo and a thought on New Orleans from each artist; I love liner notes that possess thought and depth — it’s like getting a great book along with the CD and adds so much to the experience.

In thinking back to the day that the song with Jeff was recorded, Michelle remembers; “We were all goofing around in a very low-key kind of way, and Jeff was so far from being a star. Aside from the pure joy of playing with Jeff over the phone, no one knew that this would become a special thing. On the CD, we edited out most of the other remarks — the preference of the show’s producer, Nick Hill. It’s mostly just the song, with Jeff’s comments at the end.” When Jeff lets out an ebullient laugh and thanks everyone as the song ends, what sticks with me (and always makes me break into a huge smile) is the refreshed elation in his voice, the untarnished joy of being involved in such a beautiful singalong.

It will be great to have this version in my collection, and to support a worthy cause. You can order the CD on the Sugarfoot Music website. In the short time I’ve had that amazing song in my collection, it’s become my absolute favorite cover that Jeff ever recorded, and is a fitting and affirming addition to the theme of this album.

And as Michelle says, “I know that Jeff would have been down there hammering nails himself.”

I Shall Be Released (over the phone, WFMU) – Jeff Buckley and Friends
(the singing starts at 4:15)

Buy the cleaned-up/non radio-rip version for a good cause here.