Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), born Jeffrey Scott Buckley and raised as Scottie Jeffrey Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.

Known for his vocal range of 4 octaves [1], Buckley was considered by critics to be one of the most promising artists of his generation after the release of his 1994 debut album Grace. However, at the height of his popularity, Buckley drowned during an evening swim in 1997. His work and style continue to be highly regarded by critics and fellow musicians.

Jeff Buckley on the album cover of Grace

Biography

Early life

Born in Anaheim, California, Jeff Buckley was the only son of Mary Guibert and Tim Buckley. His mother was of Panamanian descent, while his father was the descendant of Irish emigrants from Cork.

His father was a songwriter who released a series of highly acclaimed folk and jazz albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s before his own untimely death in 1975. Buckley was raised by his mother and step-father Ron Moorhead (for just a few years) in Southern California, constantly moving in and around Orange County. Additionally he had a half-brother, Corey Moorhead. During his childhood he was known as Scott "Scottie" Moorhead, but at the age of 8 he chose to go by his birth name after meeting his father for the first (and only) time; to his family he remained Scottie.

At eighteen, Buckley moved to Los Angeles, where he graduated from the Musician's Institute's two-year course. Buckley often called his time at the Institute a "waste," although he made life-long friends there. Like his hero Jimmy Page, he wanted to play guitar. His diverse musical background was reflected in the bands in which he participated before going solo. At one point he was in a punk band, and lead guitar in the reggae band Shinehead, where he limited his singing to backing vocals.

Early career

Buckley moved to New York in 1990. His public debut as a singer was the 1991 tribute performance for his father, Tim Buckley, at St. Ann's Church in New York City. Jeff was not billed as a performer, choosing simply to pay his respects to his father, saying "This is not a springboard, this is something very personal." He performed "I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain" with experimental rock guitarist, Gary Lucas, accompanying him, and did an acoustic/a cappella performance of "Once I Was" that brought the venue to stunned silence. When questioned about that particular performance, Buckley said "It wasn't my work, it wasn't my life. But it bothered me that I hadn't been to his funeral, that I'd never been able to tell him anything. I used that show to pay my last respects." Lucas convinced Buckley to stay in New York, and to form a musical duo; the two prepared to sign with a major label. Lucas wrote the music for two of Buckley's most acclaimed songs, "Grace" and "Mojo Pin".

In the meantime, Buckley became a regular solo performer at the East Village cafe Sin-é, singing covers as well as his own songs, where he attracted admiring crowds — and the attention of executives from Columbia Records. An EP of four songs recorded there, Live at Sin-é, was released on Columbia in 1993.

Buckley performed with Gary Lucas' band Gods and Monsters, but soon split with Lucas in order to form his own band.

Grace

In 1994, Buckley's debut album Grace, recorded with a recruited band in Woodstock, New York, was released. He invited ex-bandmate Lucas to play guitar on the album versions of "Grace" and "Mojo Pin". While sales were slow, the album quickly received critical acclaim and appreciation from other musicians (among them Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Bob Dylan, Thom Yorke, Paul McCartney, Neil Peart, Rufus Wainwright, and Elton John), and has remained in high esteem. Grace features covers of "Lilac Wine" and an edition of the Middle English hymn "Corpus Christi Carol"; Buckley's version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" was a highlight, and is considered by many to be the definitive recording of that song; it has become Buckley's best-known song.

After the release of Grace, Buckley spent more than two years touring around the world. It seemed to be a tiring yet effective means for him to keep his independence from his record company, with which he had a strained relationship. From the album's release, he played in numerous countries, from Australia, to the Glastonbury Festival in the UK in '95. In 1995 Buckley played a concert at the Paris Olympia, a venue made famous by the French chanteuse Édith Piaf, that he considered the finest performance of his career. Sony has since released a live recording of that performance.

Buckley also went on a so-called "phantom solo tour" of small clubs in the U.S., starting in December of 1996, using several aliases including: Father Demo, Topless America, Smackcrobiotic, A puppet named Julio, The Halfspeeds, Crackrobats, and Martha & the Nicotines. By way of justification, Buckley posted a note on the Internet stating that he missed the anonymity of playing in cafes and local bars:

There was a time in my life not too long ago when I could show up in a cafe and simply do what I do, make music, learn from performing my music, explore what it means to me, i.e., have fun while I irritate and/or entertain an audience who don't know me or what I am about. In this situation I have that precious and irreplaceable luxury of failure, of risk, of surrender. I worked very hard to get this kind of thing together, this work forum. I loved it and then I missed it when it disappeared. All I am doing is reclaiming it.

Much of the material from the tours of 1995 and 1996 was recorded, and has been released posthumously on albums such as Mystery White Boy and Live a l'Olympia.

Buckley was an impassioned fan of Pakistani Sufi musician Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and during his cafe days Buckley had often covered his songs. He interviewed Khan for Interview magazine and wrote liner notes for Khan's The Supreme Collection compilation.

Death

After completing touring in 1996, Buckley started to write for a new album to be called My Sweetheart the Drunk. In 1997 he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he rented a shotgun house of which he was so fond he contacted the owner about the possibility of buying it.Browne, David. Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley. HarperEntertainment. January, 2001. pg 1 Buckley started recording demos on his own 4-track recorder. He went into the studio again, recruited a band, and plans for the new album looked hopeful.

On May 29, 1997, as the band's plane touched down on the runway to join him in his Memphis studio, Buckley went swimming in the Wolf River, a tributary of the Mississippi River. His friend Keith Foti remained ashore and, after moving a radio and guitar out of reach of the wake from a passing tugboat, looked up to see that Jeff was gone. Despite a rescue effort mounted that night, Buckley's body was only spotted a week later by a tourist on a riverboat and brought ashore.

It was widely speculated that Buckley may have committed suicide, partly because he went swimming in the river wearing his heavy boots. The biography Dream Brother, written about him and his father, reveals that the night before his death Buckley reportedly admitted to several loved ones that he suffered from bipolar disorder. It has been confirmed by autopsy that Buckley had taken no illegal drugs before his swim and that a drug overdose can be ruled out as the cause of his death.

A recent statement from the Buckley estate insists,

After Buckley's death, a collection of demo recordings and a full length album he had been reworking for his second album were released as Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk. Three other albums composed of live recordings have also been released, along with a live DVD of a performance in Chicago.

Director Brian Jun has announced plans to make a film biography of Buckley, in cooperation with his mother. A separate project involving the book Dream Brother has not been greenlighted.

Discography

* 1993 - Live at Sin-é
* 1994 - Grace
* 1995 - Live from the Bataclan
* 1998 - Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk
* 2000 - Mystery White Boy
* 2001 - Live a L'Olympia
* 2002 - Songs To No One 1991-1992
* 2002 - The Grace EPs
* 2003 - Live at Sin-é (Legacy Edition)
* 2004 - Grace (Legacy Edition)

Awards & nominations [2]

* MTV Video Music Award nomination for Best New Artist in a Video for "Last Goodbye", 1995
* Triple J Hottest 100 awarded No. 14 best song for that year in the worlds largest voting competition for "Last Goodbye", 1995
* Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for "Everybody Here Wants You", 1998

* "A Body Goes Down" - Duncan Sheik
* "As I Wander" - Ours
* "Bandstand in the Sky" - Pete Yorn
* "Bleed" - Ours
* "Blind River Boy" - Amy Correia
* "Boys on the Radio" - Hole (partially)
* "By Yourself" - Sister 7
* "From Grace" - Thomas Dybdahl
* "Gorgeous" - Kashmir
* "Grace" - Rachael Sage
* "Grey Ghost" - Mike Doughty
* "I Heard You Singing" - Ours
* "I Sang For You" - Edible Red
* "In a Flash" - Ron Sexsmith
* "JB" - Welcome To Roswell
* "Just Like Anyone" - Aimee Mann
* "Living In A Video" - Ours
* "Memphis" - PJ Harvey
* "Memphis Skyline" - Rufus Wainwright
* "New Blood" - Beth Wood
* "On the Road to Calvary" - Willie Nile
* "One Last Good Bye" - David Linx
* "Rilkean Heart" - Cocteau Twins
* "Saint Down The Hall" - Ours
* "Somebody Leave a Light On" - Dayna Kurtz
* "Song for a Dead Singer" - Zita Swoon
* "Swimming" - Chris Taylor
* "To the Sea" - Mark Eitzel
* "Trying Not to Think About It" - Juliana Hatfield
* "Valley of Sound" - Heather Nova
* "Wave Goodbye" - Chris Cornell
* "We Don't Know" - Health & Happiness Show
* "You Were Right" - Badly Drawn Boy (partially)
* "Neath The Beeches" - The Frames
* "Wolf River" - Little Arcade

Covers of Jeff Buckley songs

* "Cruel" - Default
* "Dream Brother" - Bitmap
* "Dream Brother" - Martin Grech (live)
* "Dream Brother" - Steve Hogarth (live)
* "Dream Brother" - The Brent Flood (live)
* "Eternal Life" - Sebastian Bach (live)
* "Eternal Life" - Our Lady Peace (live)
* "Eternal Life" - driven like the snow... (live)
* "Eternal Life" - Gunshot Glitter (live)
* "Everybody Here Wants You" - Big Sir
* "Everybody Here Wants You" - Matthew Herbert and Dani Siciliano
* "Everybody Here Wants You" - The Tea Party (live)
* "Everybody Here Wants You" - Lewis Taylor
* "Forget Her" - Sivert Höyem of Madrugada
* "Grace" - Nick Harper
* "Grace" - Fourplay (string quartet)
* "Grace" - King Creosote
* "Grace" - Three Against Four
* "Last Goodbye" - Natalie Merchant of 10,000 Maniacs
* "Last Goodbye" - Hyannis Sound
* "Last Goodbye" - The Tea Party (live)
* "Lover, You Should've Come Over" - Jamie Cullum
* "Lover, You Should've Come Over" - Howie Day (live)
* "Lover, You Should've Come Over" - Neil Leyton (live)
* "Lover, You Should've Come Over" - John Mayer (live)
* "Mojo Pin" - Adem
* "Morning Theft" - Ane Brun
* "Morning Theft" - Stephen Fretwell
* "New Year's Prayer" - Howie Day (live)
* "Nightmares By The Sea" - Katatonia
* "Undertow" - Hyper Maru
* "What Will You Say?" - Martin Grech (live)
* "Yard Of Blond Girls" - Déportivo
* "Yard Of Blond Girls" - Endochine (live)

See also: "Hallelujah"