Jeff Buckley
.png){kind=small}
Jeffrey Scott Buckley (born November 17, 1966 in Anaheim , California , † May 29, 1997 in Memphis , Tennessee ) was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist .
Life
California
Jeff Buckley was born as the son of the 1960s successful former folk singer and singer-songwriter and later jazz and experimental musician Tim Buckley and the pianist Mary Guibert . He had only one contact with his father, who had left the family before he was born, at the age of eight. Soon after, Tim Buckley died of a heroin overdose in 1975.
Jeff Buckley grew up with his mother and stepfather Ron Moorhead with his half-brother Corey Moorhead in Orange County, California . In his youth he was known as Scotty Moorhead. He taught himself to play the guitar after finding a guitar in his grandmother's closet. Kiss and Led Zeppelin were among his early musical role models . He completed a year of study at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, which he later viewed as wasted time.
new York
He first received public attention when he performed three of Buckley's songs at a memorial concert for Tim Buckley at St. Ann's Church in New York City . This performance resulted in his short collaboration with Gary Lucas , who had played guitar in Don van Vliet's band aka Captain Beefheart , at Gods and Monsters . Together with him, the songs Mojo Pin and Grace were created . Through the agency of the New York artist Rebecca Moore , he came into contact with the Fluxus movement and soon began to appear in various bars and cafes in the East Village , including the small Irish pub Sin-é , where he performed regularly on Mondays and alongside some of his own compositions performed numerous cover versions, including songs by Bob Dylan , Van Morrison , Jimi Hendrix , The Smiths , Edith Piaf and also Yeh Yo Halka Halka Saroor Hai by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan as well as traditional Americana . Soon after, he received a recording deal from Columbia . The CD Live at Sin-E , which was initially only released as an EP , comes from this time . The Legacy Edition, consisting of two CDs and a DVD, was released in 2003.
Grace
The album Grace , his only studio album, was created under the leadership of producer Andy Wallace in Woodstock; the arrangements are by Karl Berger . Since their own material was not enough, three cover versions were included in the album: the song Lilac Wine , known from Nina Simone , Benjamin Britten's Corpus Christi Carol and the posthumously best-known piece of Buckley's, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah , which was voted best in 2007 by the British magazine Q Song of all time. Buckley had met it shortly before in the version by John Cale . For the album Grace he has now been awarded double gold in France and 7 × platinum in Australia . In 1995 Buckley received the Grand Prix du Disque, a French award that had been given to Édith Piaf , Jacques Brel , Yves Montand , Bruce Springsteen , Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan before him.
Tours
After the album was completed, Buckley toured extensively in 1995 and 1996 with accompanying musicians Michael Tighe (guitar), Mick Grøndahl (bass) and Matt Johnson (drums) through the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan, with the songs evolving during live performances and have been modified. His own composition Eternal Life often went into the MC5 cover Kick Out the Jams . Mojo Pin has occasionally been expanded to include the Chocolate intro . The Alex Chilton song Kanga-Roo gave the band the opportunity to improvise for minutes. The CD Mystery White Boy , released in 2000, is a compilation of concert recordings. Buckley himself considered his concert at the Olympia in Paris in July 1995, which was released in full on CD (Live à l'Olympia) in 2001 , to be his best. At his concerts, Buckley repeatedly interpreted songs that were written for female voices, from the repertoire of Nina Simone or Nico , for example , and on one occasion also the aria of Dido from the opera Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell .
My Sweetheart the Drunk
The official tours were followed in 1997 by a "Phantom" tour, during which Buckley incognito appeared under a different name each time in order to try out new material for the following album. He began to record the first songs with Tom Verlaine as producer, but was not satisfied with the result and intended to win Andy Wallace as producer again.
In May 1997 Buckley stayed in Memphis (Tennessee) to work on his second studio album My Sweetheart the Drunk . He rented a small house where he recorded a number of demos by himself. On the evening of May 29, just before his bandmates Tighe, Grondahl and newly signed drummer Parker Kindred arrived for scheduled recordings, he and a friend stopped on the banks of the Wolf River . Buckley, who had swam there on previous occasions, spontaneously went into the water fully clothed while the song Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin played on the radio and he sang along. He got to the middle of the river, where the bow wave of a ship pulled him underwater, causing the 30-year-old to drown. His body was not found until five days later. According to the autopsy report, there was no alcohol or other drugs in his body.
The preparatory work for the second studio album was finally released as a double album by his mother Mary Guibert, who manages his estate, under the name Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk . Tigue and Kindred from Buckley's band later played with Joan Wasser in the bands Those Bastard Souls and Joan as Police Woman, respectively .
Collaboration with other artists
Buckley appears as a guest musician and singer on the album of Patti Smiths Gone Again , with The Seedy Orchestra , The Jazz Passengers , with Rebecca Moore and with Brenda Kahn, as well as in the soundtrack of the film First Love, Last Rites with the band of Nathan Larson Shudder to Think . He took part in tribute albums for Edgar Allan Poe's Closed on Account of Rabies: Poems and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe and for Jack Kerouac (here with Inger Lorre ). The sessions with Elizabeth Fraser from the Cocteau Twins remained unpublished . Together with (among others) Danny Carey of the progressive rock band Tool , Buckley played in the country band The Wild Blue Yonder .
The CD Live à L'Olympia contains a duet Buckley's with Alim Qasimov , one of the most famous Azerbaijani mugham singers, which was created on the occasion of a world music festival in southern France. After interviewing him in 1996, he wrote the accompanying text for Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's album The Supreme Collection Volume 1 in 1997.
Influences
As for vocal technique, Buckley was inspired by Robert Plant , Morrissey of The Smiths, Alex Chilton, Freddie Mercury , Nina Simone, Judy Garland , Cocteau Twins , Siouxsie and the Banshees , and Pakistani qawali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan , of the he said during the live performance at Sin-é: "He's my Elvis". For Buckley as a songwriter, the songs of Joni Mitchell , Carole King and Bob Dylan were important. Buckley's stated goal was to create an album that would overshadow Led Zeppelin II .
Aftermath
Jeff Buckley's music thrived on his soft voice, which spanned several octaves , and on improvisation . Many musicians from the singer / songwriter industry name him as an important source of inspiration, including Coldplay , Thom Yorke from Radiohead , muse front man Matthew Bellamy, Ryan Adams , Rufus Wainwright . Jimmy Gnecco from Ours , Bright Eyes , Fyfe Dangerfield from the Guillemots and Martin Grech , Chris Cornell dedicated the song Wave Goodbye to him on his solo album Euphoria Morning , Rufus Wainwright the song Memphis Skyline , Juliana Hatfield wrote Trying Not to Think About It , die Band Ours the song Drowning . Elizabeth Fraser dedicated the song Rilkean Heart to him . Joan Wasser replied to Jeff Buckley's Everybody Here Wants You with Eternal Flame . Boys on the Radio by Courtney Love and her band Hole is an obituary for Kurt Cobain and Jeff Buckley. Glen Hansard wrote the song Neath the Beeches after Buckley's death . The Indelicates commemorate him with the song If Jeff Buckley Had Lived .
In 2008, Rolling Stone listed Buckley 39th of the 100 best singers of all time .
Discography
Studio albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
|||
| 1994 | Grace | - | - | - |
UK31  × 2
(22 weeks)UK |
US149 (7 weeks)US |
First published: August 15, 1994
Producers: Andy Wallace , Jeff Buckley |
| 1998 | Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk |
DE93 (1 week) DE |
- | - |
UK7th  (4 weeks)UK |
US64 (3 weeks) US |
First published: May 11, 1998
Producers: Tom Verlaine , Nicholas Hill |
Live albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
UK
|
US
|
|||
| 2000 | Mystery White Boy: Live '95 - '96 |
DE87 (1 week) DE |
- |
CH95 (1 week) CH |
UK8th  (3 weeks)UK |
US133 (1 week) US |
First release: May 9, 2000
Recording: Mystery White Boy World Tour, 1995 Producers: Mary Guibert, Michael Tighe |
| 2009 | Grace Around the World | - | - | - | - |
US125 (1 week) US |
First release: July 2nd, 2009
CD + DVD |
More live albums
- 1993: Live at Sin-é (EP; released November 23)
- 1995: Live from the Bataclan (release: October)
- 2000: Live in Chicago (DVD; May 16; UK:gold)
- 2001: Live à l'Olympia (release: July 3rd)
- 2003: Live at Sin-é (Legacy Edition) (2 CDs + DVD; release: September 2nd)
Compilations
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
UK
|
US
|
|||
| 2007 | So Real: Songs from Jeff Buckley | - | - | - |
UK16 (8 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: May 21, 2007
|
| 2016 | You And I |
DE85 (1 week) DE |
AT43 (1 week) AT |
CH38 (1 week) CH |
UK16 (1 week) UK |
US58 (1 week) US |
First published: March 6, 2016
|
More compilations
- 1994: Peyote Radio Theater (promo sampler, 3 tracks; release: July)
- 2002: Songs to No One 1991–1992 (release: October 15)
- 2002: The Grace EPs (out November 26th)
- 2003: Mystery White Boy / Live in Chicago (CD + Live-DVD)
- 2008: Grace / Live in Chicago (CD + Live-DVD)
- 2010: The Jeff Buckley Collection
- 2010: Original Album Classics (box with 3 CDs; release: September 10th)
- 2013: Playlist: The Very Best of Jeff Buckley (released March 21)
- 2013: Music & Photos (CD + Live-DVD)
Singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
UK
|
|||
| 1995 | Last goodbye grace |
- | - | - |
UK54 (4 weeks) UK |
First published: May 15, 1995
Author: Jeff Buckley |
| 1998 | Everybody Here Wants You Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk |
- | - | - |
UK43 (2 weeks) UK |
First published: May 25, 1998
Author: Jeff Buckley |
| 2007 |
Hallelujah Grace |
DE38 (8 weeks) DE |
AT38 (16 weeks) AT |
CH38 (46 weeks) CH |
UK2 (22 weeks)UK |
First published: May 21, 2007
Author and original: Leonard Cohen , 1984 |
More singles
- 1994: Grace
- 1995: So Real (release: June)
- 1995: Eternal Life (release: August)
- 1998: Vancouver
- 2002: She Is Free (with Gary Lucas )
- 2004: Forget Her (release: August 23)
- 2015: Everyday People
- 2016: The Boy with the Thorn in His Side (release: May 11th)
Awards for music sales
|
|
Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.
| Country / Region |
silver |
gold |
platinum
|
Sales | swell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources) |
|||||
 Australia (ARIA)
|
- |
2 × gold2
|
17 × platinum17th
|
930,000 | aria.com.au |
 France (SNEP)
|
- |
4 × gold4th
|
- | 285,000 | infodisc.fr snepmusique.com |
|
United States (RIAA)
|
- | - |
3 × platinum3
|
3,000,000 | riaa.com |
|
United Kingdom (BPI)
|
silver1
|
3 × gold3
|
3 × platinum3
|
1,485,000 | bpi.co.uk |
| All in all |
silver1
|
9 × gold9
|
23 × platinum23
|
||
Documentaries
- Frankfurt, Südbahnhof (1995) Live recording of the concert on February 24, 1995 for German television.
- Fall in Light (1999), French television production.
- Everybody Here Wants You (2002), BBC
- Amazing Grace: Jeff Buckley (2004)
literature
- David Browne : Dream Brother: The Lives & Music of Jeff & Tim Buckley. HarperEntertainment, New York 2001, ISBN 0-06-107608-2 .
- Merri Cyr: A Wished-For Song: A Portrait of Jeff Buckley. Hal Leonard, New York 2002, ISBN 0-634-03595-9 . (Photographs and interviews by Merri Cyr)
- Stan Cuesta: Jeff Buckley. Le Castor Astral, Bordeaux 2005, ISBN 978-2-85920-597-3 .
- Jeff Apter: A Pure Drop: The Life of Jeff Buckley. Backbeat Books, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-87930-954-1 .
- Anthony Reynolds: Mystery White Boy Blues. Plexus, London 2009, ISBN 978-0-85965-406-7 .
- Alan Light: The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of 'Hallelujah'. Simon & Schuster 2012, ISBN 978-1-45165-784-5 .
Movies
- 2012: Greetings from Tim Buckley
swell
- ↑ Mack Rawden: Q Magazine Picks Greatest Songs Ever Written. In: cinemablend.com. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
- ↑ http://www.johnhumphrey.com/yonder.html
-
↑ Dave Lory, Jim Irvin: Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah to the Last Goodbye . Post Hill Press, 2018, ISBN 978-1682615744 : “
Jeff loved British music. [...] the wired consciousness of The Clash, the way Siouxsie and the Banshees went from gun-metal moodiness to skies of fireworks. He adored the Cocteau Twins, of course. He loved how the Smiths called to outsiders and nerds.
His Siouxsie and the Banshees influence is most obvious on songs like "Nightmares by the Sea" and "Witches Rave".
He adored Siouxsie Sioux; her metallic tone and punky energy are somewhere in Jeff. Then there was Elizabeth Fraser, her "unique, impossible voice", as he described it. " - ↑ Interview with Fyfe Dangerfield. In: vikkilittlemore.wordpress.com. Retrieved January 15, 2011.
- ↑ Interview with Martin Grech. In: musicomh.com. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
- ↑ 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 2, 2010, accessed August 9, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c d Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Jeff Buckley at Allmusic (English)
- Jeff Buckley at Discogs (English)
- Jeff Buckley in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Jeff Buckley at laut.de
- Rebecca Kane: Kingdom for a Kiss - The Jeff Buckley FAQ 1998, 1999 (English)
- On the death of Jeff Buckley: Submerged one day at night
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Buckley, Jeff |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Buckley, Jeffrey Scott (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American singer and guitarist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 17th November 1966 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Anaheim , California , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 29, 1997 |
| Place of death | Memphis , Tennessee , United States |