Tim Buckley

[Teasing the Korean]

There are a number of Tim Buckley threads - many of which I started on particular topics - but there apparently is not a general Tim Buckley thread in the artist section, so here it is.

Today I am re-organizing my record room, and I put on "Happy/Sad." This is probably my favorite album of his overall. I don't listen to Tim often, but when I do listen, he never fails to amaze me.

[Joe]

Do you have this?

Highly recommended. Amazing to see some of the STARSAILOR material in performance.

[colinmce]

Huge fan. Outside the regular albums, this CD is a personal favorite. "Sing A Song For You" is heard in a long version that's superior to the short one on Happy/Sad and the demo material for what would become the pretty unfortunate Sefronia is in much better shape:

Of the original albums, it's hard to choose between Goodbye/Hello, Happy/Sad, Lorca, and Starsailor. Back when I was listening to Tim Buckley the most, Starsailor was very much a collector's item. I just looked around hoping maybe that had changed, but apparently not save a vinyl reissue whose legality I question given the lack of a CD edition of any kind. Really unfortunate. I guess I'll have to stick with the old CD-R.

[Teasing the Korean]

Do you have this?

Highly recommended. Amazing to see some of the STARSAILOR material in performance.

Yes, this is one of the many Tim Buckley threads I started here! I bought it for my wife Xmas of 2006 or 2007. It is ASTOUNDING.

[mjzee]

Tim was one of my favorites back in the day. I first saw him opening for Zappa's Grand Wazoo at the Felt Forum, NYC, in 1972; I saw him twice in Central Park in 1973 and 1974; and I saw him at Max's Kansas City a few weeks before he died in 1975. His voice was just this enormous presence; it filled the room. I've always loved Blue Afternoon the best, followed by Happy Sad and Lorca. Would love to see a discography of those sessions.

BTW, Starsailor is available as a legitimate download from eMusic.

[mjzee]

Anyone see this movie?

[felser]

He lost me somewhere around the second side of 'Lorca', but 'Tim Buckley', 'Happy/Sad', 'Blue Afternoon' are all big favorites, and 'Goodbye and Hello' is one of my 10 favorite albums of all time. A lot of amazing live stuff and outtakes has also seen the light of day.

[mjzee]

4 Men With Beards is a legitimate reissue label. I have their release of Beefheart's Decals album. They've also put out Blue Afternoon on vinyl.

The original vinyl release of Starsailor had a very odd sound quality.

[Joe]

LORCA is a favorite... apparently the title track was Buckley's attempt to capture or somehow reinterpret what he heard happening on IN A SILENT WAY. "Anonymous Proposition," though: risky (I believe the melody line and lyric are completely improvised), weird, erotic. Kind of a "junkie record," (especially the live cuts pulled from the Troubadour gig that was eventually released in its entirety in the 90s), and BLUE AFTERNOON is much more lovely and crafted. But, IMO, LORCA is as out-there in its own way as STARSAILOR.

Anyone see this movie?

Not I. But I have read David Browne's DREAM BROTHER. Not bad.

Edited August 24, 2014 by Joe

[clifford_thornton]

Lorca is great. I think it is better than Starsailor though many "heads" might disagree. Can't say that I really care much for the pre-Happy/Sad material - it's fine, just not distinctive - and later Buckley doesn't do it for me either. Would be curious to see the film.

[mjzee]

Lorca is great. I think it is better than Starsailor though many "heads" might disagree. Can't say that I really care much for the pre-Happy/Sad material - it's fine, just not distinctive - and later Buckley doesn't do it for me either. Would be curious to see the film.

I agree with a lot of this. I bought Starsailor the week it came out, and found it cold, off-putting, and pretty disappointing. His first two albums are too pretty, folk-psychedelia, and sound like the work of a young man. His work deepened with Happy Sad, and not just lyrically; the music deepened too, and I love the vibes and Lee Underwood on guitar. I heard Greetings From L.A. as an authentic attempt to play to his strengths (his soulful voice) in a more-commercial R&B setting, and, as a songwriter, to encompass his obvious preoccupations of the time (mostly sado-masochistic sex, apparently). Sefronia and Look At The Fool tone down the sex but keep the mournful R&B. I guess he kept hoping to catch fire, but there wasn't a ready audience for it. With hindsight, he was the type of artist who needed a manager with a firmer hand, who could give realistic feedback and help control the experimentation without alienating his older audience.

[Teasing the Korean]

Can't say that I really care much for the pre-Happy/Sad material - it's fine, just not distinctive - and later Buckley doesn't do it for me either.

Have you heard the double live Dream Letter album? He does a number of tunes from Hello and Goodbye, but he does them in a style more like Happy Sad and Blue Afternoon. Well worth owning if you like the latter two albums.

[StarThrower]

Dream Letter is great! Very well recorded too.

[colinmce]

I also like the live one released by Thompkins Square a few years back. From 1967 or so, but very stripped down.

[sgcim]

At a time when I was interested in the folk/jazz connection in the 1960s, I read the bio on TB, which I enjoyed a lot.

TB was fiercely anti-commercial, and used jazz-oriented guitarists, Underwood and Art Johnson, rather than the hokey players the other folkies used. I exchanged emails with Art Johnson about his involvement with Buckley, and Judee Sill, and discovered a jazz underground in LA that consisted of players like Tommy Peltier, Lynn Blessing, Marc McClure, Denis Del Guidice and Bill Plummer, who fused folk/rock and jazz in a subtler way than the more well-known examples of that fusion.

While I appreciated the fact that he incorporated improvisation into his later music (and later, funk!), I still prefer the Happy/Sad, Hello/Goodbye tunes

[mjzee]

I'm always intrigued by something I read in Rolling Stone, not long before he died, that there was a planned collaboration between Buckley, Jackson Browne and Gregg Allman.

Was that the same Marc McClure who did this?:

[sgcim]

I'm always intrigued by something I read in Rolling Stone, not long before he died, that there was a planned collaboration between Buckley, Jackson Browne and Gregg Allman.

Was that the same Marc McClure who did this?:

Yeah, tht's him.

He was in the country/rock band Joyous Noise (two LPs), as well as Spanky & Our Gang, and played on Ron Elliot's (Beau Brummels) "Candlestickmaker" album.

He recorded a solo album, "Songs For Old Ladies and Babies" for Capitol in 1972.

His sister, Vicky McClure (now Vicky Doney) recently recorded an album with Phil Woods.

All those people were involved with Judee Sill, one of my faves.

[romualdo]

Dream Letter is great! Very well recorded too.

I bought that as a double LP when it was first released in 1990

highly recommended!!

[.:.impossible]

Interesting. My brother just introduced me to Judy Sill's music last week after I played him some Karen Dalton. I had never heard of her before. What a story.

[sgcim]

Interesting. My brother just introduced me to Judy Sill's music last week after I played him some Karen Dalton. I had never heard of her before. What a story.

Yeah, I heard her music before I heard her story, and I knew there was something there.

She was the first artist David Geffen signed for his record label, Asylum Records, and things looked good for her, but she didn't like the way Geffen was sending her out as a solo,opening act for some of the big rock groups back then, and they had a big blow out over it.

She outed him at a concert interview (she called him a fat, little fag), and this was the early 70s- way before he was ready to come out of the closet.

He pulled all publicity from her second LP, and it sunk like a rock.

It's rumored Geffen got her blackballed from any of the big record companies after he dropped her from Asylum, and that was it for her career.

[Joe]

Has anyone here read Lee Underwood's BLUE MELODY?

Interesting to note that Underwood is credited with co-writing Paul Horn's biography as well (INSIDE), which I have read.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, this is the same Larry Beckett who collaborated with Buckley on his lyrics (HAPPY/SAD through STARSAILOR, at least).

[sgcim]

Yeah, that's the bio I mentioned in my post.

It offered a good understanding of what Buckley was all about from someone who worked with him for many years.

The thing I remembered most about it was the time that he and TB were playing a concert that featured Jimi Hendrix as the opening act.

As most jazz guitarists did back then (me included), he wrote him off as just another loud, out of tune, pentatonic wanker.

Later on, he said that he realized Jimi's true genius.

[Joe]

Yeah, that's the bio I mentioned in my post.

It offered a good understanding of what Buckley was all about from someone who worked with him for many years.

The thing I remembered most about it was the time that he and TB were playing a concert that featured Jimi Hendrix as the opening act.

As most jazz guitarists did back then (me included), he wrote him off as just another loud, out of tune, pentatonic wanker.

Later on, he said that he realized Jimi's true genius.

Thanks; adding this to my "to-read" list.

Purchased a Kindle version of the Beckett; it was 99 cents, for heaven's sake. Not that reading poetry on the Kindle is a pleasant experience, but... will report back once I've had more time to glance into its "pages."

[mjzee]

I was leafing through YouTube recently, and found some interesting Tim Buckley concerts. Check out this one, when he opened for Zappa at the Felt Forum, NYC:

[felser]

The Starsailor anthology contains almost all of the cuts from the original Starsailor album, along with 2 hours of material from his other albums, and goes for less than 1/3 of the insane "Starsailor" prices.