(no subject)
Further here is Jeff's obituary from the Times (I have an unlimited Lexis account through my uni so am sharing the benefits with this community).
Copyright 1997 Times Newspapers Limited
The Times
June 7, 1997, Saturday
SECTION: Features
LENGTH: 700 words
HEADLINE: Jeff Buckley
BODY:
Jeff Buckley, guitarist and songwriter, drowned on May 29 aged 30. He was born on August 1, 1966.
ALTHOUGH he was the son of Tim Buckley, one of the most influential American folk-rock singer-songwriters of the 1960s, Jeff Buckley was thought by many to have eclipsed his father's career with his 1995 debut album, Grace. A collection of unusual cover-versions (Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah , Benjamin Britten's Corpus Christi Carol ) and his own compositions, Grace was a showcase for Jeff Buckley's astonishing vocal talents.
Once described as "a choirboy singing in a whorehouse", he could go from dirty-kneed, Kurt Cobain-style screaming to the purest top C in a breath; before embarking on a scat-jazz odyssey that would last ten minutes or more. Employing a mixture of folk, funk, grunge and jazz, Grace won Buckley the Rolling Stone Best New Artist Award in 1995.
On May 29, while working on the follow-up album in Memphis, Tennessee, Buckley and a friend went to a marina on the Mississippi to relax. Buckley, fully clothed, waded into the river singing, and was swept away by the wake of a passing boat. His body was found a week later.
Jeff Buckley never knew his father - Tim was a lothario with a drug-habit that kept him restless. Although Tim released eight critically-acclaimed albums, his sales were always disappointing. He left Jeff's mother when Jeff was six-months-old, leaving her to support Jeff and his younger brother through a variety of dead-end jobs. They had a nomadic existence, moving from state to state; and the pressure of his mother's work left Jeff to bring up his younger brother on his own.
Although he dedicated the song Dream Brother to Buckley senior, Jeff was frequently disparaging of his absent father - claiming he inherited his musical talent from his mother. At one of his London concerts in 1995, a member of the audience kept shouting out Tim Buckley's name - Jeff responded by miming the inhalation of heroin and falling to the ground in convulsions, before "dying" by the drum-riser. Tim died of an overdose in 1975. He was 28.
As a result of such an unconventional upbringing, Jeff Buckley turned to music at an early age. He was a regular on the New York folk scene, playing to crowded bars in rough-and-ready half-hour slots. One of his trademarks was to begin singing soft and low, gradually raising the volume and pitch until the audience became totally silent and entranced.
His first, limited-edition live album, Live at the Sin-e , was released on the independent label Big Cat in 1994. Such was its critical success that Sony Records signed him up for his first proper release, the Grace album, within months.
Buckley was disparaging of his status and burgeoning "legend" - and often bemused by record companies waiting on him hand and foot. One of his favourite jokes was "How many Jeff Buckleys does it take to change a lightbulb?" "Oh, it's okay, Jeff, we'll do it for you, we know a guy in Brooklyn who's wonderful at changing lightbulbs. He'll do it for a couple of points (royalties) on your album."
Although the Rolling Stone award raised his profile in the US, it was in Britain and Ireland that Buckley's career was based. His audience was diverse - from fortysomethings checking out Tim Buckley's son, to more avant-garde teenage girls, impressed by his cheekbones and haunted eyes. John McEnroe and Chrissie Hynde were regulars at his concerts - Hynde and McEnroe once spending an evening jamming with him after a particularly triumphant London appearance.
Songs such as Last Goodbye - a shivering blend of folk, blues and Buckley's scatting, ululating voice; and the dolorous, harmonium-led Lover, You Should Have Come Over - had marked Buckley out as a new Van Morrison, someone with limitless talent and range.
His last British appearance, at the 1995 Glastonbury Festival, was a chance to premiere new material, post- Grace. Songs such as the astonishing What Will You Say When You See My Face - built around Eastern chord-structures and endless, despairing blues arpeggios - confirmed that Buckley was on an artistic roll that might have resulted in dozens of treasured albums.